We all know what's going to happen, and sooner rather than later. I'm expecting energy prices are going to increase across the board by around 50% on gas and electricity. My thoughts then turned to the espresso machine…probably uses more power when it's cold, perhaps as much as 100W per hour..I know some people have cited massive increases in their bills when they have an espresso machine on all day…so I'm preparing, I would imagine the machine will lose only half the energy this way? The underneath towel is to add the extra insulation under the group and keep the top towel wrap in place. I'm already turning green! [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/sPQzAA6.png]

@"DavecUK"#p4730 Classic Dave’s solution to the problem! 😂😂 I continue to switch the machine off after making coffee. I don’t want the machine to run from 6 am to 9 pm. 😊 Am making a separate thread for green!

me personally, pureplanet went bump on me giving me a massive increase at home, was tied till april 2022 at work my gas and elec have no cap, since march 2021 when i cam out of contract ive seen my monthly elec bill go from £200 to £430 per month, these are out of contract rates atm, its getting crazy

Well, after about 20 minutes of non-use my Sage turns itself off. Plus as it takes only about 6 minutes to get up to temp it shouldn't use too much. After a really good two year fixed deal came to an end in December, we've just gone on to Octopus Go tariff where between 12:30 and 4:30 am the charge is 5p kWh. No good for the coffee machine admittadly unless I'm having a spot of insomnia, but we put our washing machine on for then as that eats electric and I charge my EV then too.

Our tariff is fixed until Aug 23. So, Am good. But, our costs did go up by £50 a month to about £162 pm. Thank God, I went fixed as some one advised flexible. 😊

We changed to Octopus when we were down south, we have always been on a fixed tariff and our bills were around £120 month. We moved up North to Yorkshire and bought a new build our bills are £80 month at most. We renewed to a fixed tariff again in September after a lot of deliberation thinking prices had been stable for some time, so glad we did. Hopefully when it all settles down we can get another fixed rate not sure it will be the same though. All our family are with Octopus they have been really good.

@"LMSC"#p4731 you can because it only takes 15m to warm up, so it's actually worth switching it off if your not going to use it…in fact, even a low power mode would be worthwhile on the Evo, might see if something can be programmed into the motherboards, to actually drop the group temp after a configurable number of minutes of non use. e.g. drop by n C, after n minutes, with brew boiler switching off after n minutes. This is because brew boiler only takes 3 minutes to warm up. In this way a machine could drop into economy (if you enable it) after say 15 minutes and be warmed up again by touching the panel. As soon as the group hits the preset temp, you will be ready to go, probably about 3 or 4 minutes….depending on how low you turn the group down. The energy saving would actually be quite large!

@"DavecUK"#p4762 I am sure you will come up with a solution as an enhancement in the future release. If it can be programmed like a PC - Hibernate, Sleep, Restart and Shut Down! 😬 We mostly make 5 -6 cups in total 2 in the morning, 1 at noon, 1 in the afternoon and 2 in the evening ! Perhaps, decaf in the night.

@"Cuprajake"#p4732 I was with simplicity energy, fortunately they went bust a few months before the energy crisis and I went onto the supplier of last resort British Gas, something called Simplicity Promis until April 2022 which felt like being rodgered up the rear end, but as it turned out was a blessing in disguise. 3p per unit for gas and 17.9 for leccy

I am with octopus on their flexible rate since my fixed rate with them ended at the beginning of December. I am not sure how much I am paying monthly ( was previously £59) as I have just had smart meters fitted and the readings haven’t settled into any pattern but watching the monitor thingy add up the electric units is a bit of a sharp intake of breath whenever the electric shower is used. To make matters worse, my boomerang child has just boomeranged back home to live again and takes two showers a day and wears clothes once before throwing them in the wash. I have been dithering over fixing the rate before April but just cannot commit myself to a tariff that doubles the price of my gas for the next three months even though I know things are going to get very much worse. I switch my machine and grinder off at the wall as soon as I am done.

> @"4W5"#p4814 I am with octopus on their flexible rate since my fixed rate with them ended at the beginning of December. I am not sure how much I am paying monthly ( was previously £59) as I have just had smart meters fitted and the readings haven’t settled into any pattern you must absolutely know the rate per kW hour and standing charge so you can make apples for apples comparisons. They rely on obfuscating these numbers.

Energy Prices

Systemic

Meanwhile over at the Lib Dems, Sir Ed Davey has said he remains proud that he was the person who “basically stopped” fracking in the UK, despite the current energy crisis. He said fracking was not needed because of the “success of our renewable policy, particularly in offshore wind, means we’re not going to need anywhere near the amount of gas we did before".

Systemic

Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell, one of Europe’s largest energy companies, warned that the energy crisis will last for several winters and it was a “fantasy” to think shortages could be resolved quickly.

Systemic

It’s so reassuring to know that our esteemed political leaders have a firm grasp on the energy crisis whilst those who have a proper job like Musk and Van Beurden tell it like it is.

Systemic

Meanwhile in Scotland where rubbish remains uncollected due to industrial action by council employed workers, the first minister’s official residence is having its rubbish collected as normal. Why? Because it has a £43 million contract with a private firm which also covers 70 authority buildings. How very reminiscent of the communist soviet era.

dfk41

CoyoteOldMan Funny (?) thing about the interest rate rises is that they are not needed. The current inflation spike (let’s hope it’s a spike!) is not driven by domestic demand pushing prices up.

Which is exactly why they are not doing a United States on us. Those of us who can remember the last time interest rates peaked at around 16.63% lived through it, as we will this. Yes, times will be hard but things are being whipped up into a cappuccino like frenzy by a rabid media, keen on bringing the government down by peddling nothing but doom and gloom.

CoyoteOldMan

dfk41 Which is exactly why they are not doing a United States on us.

Well… my mortgage bill would have gone up by more than 30% had I not fixed it last year.

Systemic

The decade 1970-1979 saw inflation hit 24%

dfk41

Systemic And what was the average interest rate during that time?
Interest Rate in the United Kingdom averaged 7.15 percent from 1971 until 2022, reaching an all time high of 17 percent in November of 1979 and a record low of 0.10 percent in March of 2020.4 Aug 2022

Systemic

dfk41 And what was the average interest rate during that time?

For the decade, 1970 - 79, the averaged rate of inflation was 14%

dfk41

CoyoteOldMan Yes, I understand but it is still no where near the levels we faced in the 1980’s, no matter what the press tell you!

Systemic

dfk41 Yes, I understand but it is still no where near the levels we faced in the 1980’s, no matter what the press tell you!

If interest rates get remotely near the above historic figures, there will be carnage in the housing market. I recall well the problem of negative equity in the ’90s.

CoyoteOldMan

dfk41 That is true, but equally the average cost of housing vs. average earnings is not what it was in the 1980s (BTW, I was there in the 1980s too…)

dfk41

Systemic I recall well the problem of negative equity in the ’90s.

So do I, but point being, we did not implode……we came through it and it was not long before much better times came back…..to be followed by worse times…….(to be continued)
I remember the 90’s…….every client I visited wanted to remortgage every two years so they could take equity out of their property to waste on cars and holidays…….and the interest rates were around 7% which seemed incredibly cheap……..

Cuprajake

I’ve just installed a curtain over the front door. We get alot of wind here and it can blow through so I fitted fresh seals and the curtain.

I fixed before the last rise in march 22 through to march 23. So hopefully winter will be mild, we always get snow.

I hope to keep costs down, through winter then see what happens in spring

DavecUK

Cuprajake What did you fix at?

Cuprajake

Gas 10.14 and 26p standing

Elec 37p and 24p standing

DavecUK

Cuprajake Gas 10.14 and 26p standing

Elec 37p and 24p standing

not too bad, mine is about 1p lower for each and fixed until April 2024.

Alexvs an EV specific tariff is the best option or stick to the new cap. After seeing the new cap, I switched last week to Octopus Go for electricity which gives 4 hours of 7.5p/kwh and 39.35p/kwh at peak so still cheaper than the predicted new prices. The standing charge is 44.48p.

If you think Octupus will continue go for a while…Investigate getting a battery+inverter try and get the largest capacity inverter for the total max draw you think your home will do minus the charging of the car.

e.g. If you are using 7kw per day plus the car…then get a 8-10 kWh usable battery.

have the car charger taking from the mains and charge the inverter as well during peak hours. If you can draw even 7kW for the inverter, you will fully charge the battery easily during the cheap rate.

Then all your electric will be at 7.5 p per kWh.

If you later have to get a heat pump…get another battery and add it, then you can run your heat pump for the same cheap price. At less than 3p per kwh (at worst) for the heat generated by the heat pump…it’s going to work out cheaper than gas. Even if you use an Aetherma high temp heat pump.

At 7.5p per kW vs almost 40p….for household leccy if you used 10kW per day, you will save about £1180 per year

https://batteryfactory.co.uk/collections/lithium-batteries/products/all-in-one-storage-solution-1ph-5kw-with-10-4kwh-battery

No VAT on the products I think, didn’t the chancellor remove vat from that stuff?

Alexvs

I’ve just scanned the thread as not been on the forum for a while and didn’t see anyone mention this but I’ve had an EV on order approaching 11 months now (so since before all this craziness) and I was on the Octopus variable rates. Someone on a FB group for the car I’ve ordered has been posting regularly about the price cap changes and whether an EV specific tariff is the best option or stick to the new cap. After seeing the new cap, I switched last week to Octopus Go for electricity which gives 4 hours of 7.5p/kwh and 39.35p/kwh at peak so still cheaper than the predicted new prices. The standing charge is 44.48p.

We’re still waiting on the car but in the meantime we’re switching our washing cycle over to the cheap hours (00:30 - 04:30) which saves us some pennies as we do a lot of washing (5yr old and 5 month old in the house). Annoyingly the dishwasher we inherited from the previous owners (built-in) doesn’t have a timed function so is on for 3 hours (Eco apparently) from about 22:00 - 01:00. I’m considering purchasing a new one as will probably save me more than running it at peak times.

Such a shame we find ourselves in such a messed up time but if there are any other EV drivers or with one on order, I think the Go rates are still the same and haven’t been increased yet post announcement. The Go electric estimation is still much less than the loyal fixed option they gave me too.

CoyoteOldMan

Alexvs Have you looked at whether a smart plug may help with the dishwasher? If it retains “pre-switching-off” status, you can simply use the timer function on the smart plug, which at £10 is a good sight cheaper than a dishwasher…

Alexvs

CoyoteOldMan I had this on my list of things to test and it completely slipped my mind over the weekend. Just tested with a spare plug I have and it does in fact remember the status, or at least did when I just did it. Will test after a few hours. Thanks for the reminder!

Gagaryn

My experience with dishwashers has been that smart plugs don’t work - every one that I have had that didn’t have a built in timer needed intervention to start a cycle when power was restored.

Replacing a working dishwasher with one that adds a timer to use off-peak is likely to be a false economy. A single cycle us likely to use around 1kWh so payback time would be in the decades = or centuries!

Alexvs

Gagaryn I’ll test whether the cycle starts off the smart plug later but you’re probably right. I didn’t realise how much integrated dishwashers are, haven’t shopped for one in years! Double checked my standard cycle usage and you weren’t far off, 1.04kw for the 190 mins cycle. Seems to be A+ rated, however think they’ve changed the rating scale since this one was built.

Thanks for the advice.

Alexvs

Gagaryn Just as a quick update, I worked out that I can start it off the smart plug, as long as I start the cycle (close door and wait for initial beep) before turning off power. Problem was that I forgot to enable the schedule, set it up and left it switched off 🤣. I ended up turning it on at 3:30 as woke up thinking I heard my 5 month old. Good to know it works so will be doing that going forward as every little helps.

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