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

Inspector

Meldrew yes been about few weeks for that waiting list but I have seen quite a few people managed to get it straight away on the phone. Worth a shot.

Cuprajake

Inspector yeah that’s what it said when I tried it ..

Inspector

Cuprajake must be a new thing.

MattH

Did not realise the tracker now had a list - been using it for the last 18 months I think… worked out a good choice. Interesting how the wholesale rate does dip randomly….

Inspector

MattH 18 months? i thought it was quite a new thing. Shame, i didnt know about it earlier.

Oh well.

Nightrider_1uk

[unknown] Same as mine but with different suppliers for each fuel Eon, keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April. Decisions Decisions

MediumRoastSteam

Nightrider_1uk keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April

So the meter has reached the end. It needs to be replaced therefore. Are you saying that, if you decline the offer to receive £50, they will fit a dumb meter instead? The cynical in me thinks that, if smart meters were great, they wouldn’t be offering you money. 🍭

Nightrider_1uk

Inspector Same as mine but with different suppliers for each fuel Eon, keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April. Decisions Decisions

Nightrider_1uk

MediumRoastSteam No, they are no longer fitting Dumb meters. If you need a new meter it has to be Smart, same as in new builds. It’s smart fitting by default. Any meter over 10 years old can probably be deemed too have reached the end of its life, but there are many of these happily chugging along. However by sending you a letter saying the meter is now obsolete they are pressuring people to change to smart who might otherwise might not have. Of course it also covers the’re backside should a fault occurs in you old meter. (Hate to think what the insurance company might make of such an occurrence).

Of course, should i choose to take up the offer, I fully expect them to give a date before the end of April for fitting then push the date out at the last minute and get out of paying

Cuprajake

Can you have a dumb meter fitted yourself

I hate the push for these smart meters, they can remote in and turn of, change to prepay at the flick or press of a button.

That’s actually on the ofgem website

Nightrider_1uk

Cuprajake I doubt that you would get a supplier to change to a dumb meter, they own the meter and the government push to have smart meters fitted and fine the suppliers if they do not meet targets

If you could persuade them to change then it could cost you a lot to do so

Cuprajake

No as in get a gas man to fit one for you

Nightrider_1uk

Cuprajake No, the Meter belongs to the Supplier and its serial number is registered against your address on the database. I had this issue relating to two gas meters in a house that i’d converted into two flats. Supply company had them the wrong way round and I was getting very frustrated in trying to get them changed round on the database. inadvertently, one of their reps said my gas safe engineer could swop the meters over, se we duly did. Fast forward a few days when trying to ensure readings were correctly attributed to the properties, different rep got real shirty saying I had broken the law. He soon shut up when I copied him the screen shots from the previous conversations. But went out of his way to tell me (my gas safe eng) not to touch them again as they were their property.

Cuprajake

Legal cartel

Would love to live off grid

DavecUK

Cuprajake Would love to live off grid

Spend the thick end of 23K on panels and batteries to allow you to be mostly off grid. Not completely of course, but you would probably be in the region of a 20 year payback on investment. of course the rug would be pulled out from under your feet because any government would find a way to tax it.

Once their buddies squeal, then you will find yourself no better off…possibly worse off. Look at electric cars, twice as much to buy, twice as much to run, full rate of road tax, no real investment in charging points (but who wants to pay 80p per kW)….that dream died fast..

Cuprajake

Costs a couple grand to be taken off mains power supply I believe

DavecUK

Cuprajake Wow really…my god!

Amberale

@“DavecUK”
I have the $ in my superannuation to pay for the panels and batteries plus a back up diesel generator (rural setting).
Every time I check, the money makes me more in my super than my power costs me from the grid.

LMSC

I was cleaning the dust collector, which I normally do after every run. The area behind the dust try was wet - Condensation. I have no idea what’s behind the wire mesh - ex: electrical cables I know it’s an area under the drum.

Question is - is it safe to run?

I am sure experts here can advise.

Thx

Edit :

I ran it for 2 hours. It seems ok. I haven’t seen so much of moisture / condensation there. I have wiped, given them a good clean, dried them and left it open for ventilation until next time.

In any case, please advise what you guys think.

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