Energy Prices
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!
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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…)
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……..
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
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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Gas 10.14 and 26p standing
Elec 37p and 24p standing
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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.
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…
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!
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 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.
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
No VAT on the products I think, didn’t the chancellor remove vat from that stuff?
Only VAT exempt if supplied as part of a solar installation. So 6 year payback on the item linked above - cash savings in the seventh year based on calculations above. Assuming it still works!
Gagaryn Only VAT exempt if supplied as part of a solar installation. So 6 year payback on the item linked above - cash savings in the seventh year based on calculations above. Assuming it still works!
Batteries should retain plenty of capacity for 20 years, inverter around 10 year life I reckon.
I can’t have solar, so if they ever ban the gas boiler, or rack up the price of gas to force us all to have heat pumps. If cheap rate is still about, I may go battery, inverter and multisplit air to air units (even though air to air multisplit gives no guvmnt grant). Then I just have to figure out how to do the HW, perhaps a tank with heat pump. Sadly cos there is no grant for the more efficient multisplit air to air units….then manufacturers have not developed them to have their own HW preheat circuit.
DavecUK heat pump
Do you think this is worth it? Air Heat pump is probably cheaper than ground-source heat pump. I thought this still fall short by some margin relying on the gas. Furthermore, one needs to either instal a solar panel or draw electricity from the provider. In our case, the electricity consumes a half of our utility bills.
So, overall, we are unlikely to recover the sunk cost.
Still all electric though so will be mega bucks.
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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My other half was talking to my neighbour about the rise in electrickery and he was going on about this thing called Phantom/Vampire electricity that can cost households hundreds of pounds a year. He said he has unplugged everything in his house except the combi boiler and fridge freezer. He claimed that even a toaster left plugged in even though the wall switch is off can still draw electricity. You have to completely unplug it to stop it drawing electric.
I was very dubious and thought unless the unit has a standby option like TV’s if the power is switched off then how the chuff can it draw electricity?
My other half showed me an article from the USA which said exactly that. However, when I looked at it for the UK websites here they seemed to indicate the term ‘Phantom’ was another word for stuff on standby.
So you clever lot out there… can something like a toaster still draw electricity if not being used or do we really have to not just switch it off at the wall but completely unplug it to save energy… or is the American article wrong or has my neighbour misunderstood it?
My logic says if it isn’t on standby or have that facility or a luminated digital readout like the microwave clock etc then when it’s off it aint drawing anything.
Over to you….