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

MattH

Inspector hmmm i extended mine but they put me on the latest version of the tracker which has the higher daily rate and the cap on the electric and gas was much much higher than my old tariff….

just checked and it looks the same as the above.. i must have got lucky last year when i extended previously

Inspector

MattH 🤔

Daily rate is already scandalous, how high they can go. Smh.

Our daily rate charges were both higher than what we actually spent for the actual gas& electric in June.

MattH

Inspector Do you not use much electric then (gas I can see - at the moment its just the hot water usage and cooking)

Inspector

MattH we weren’t home for two weeks, it was just fridge freezer during that time. But in summer actual usage and daily charge is about head to head.

When we are home we use about 3.5-4kw a day. No TV, full led lights, no AC/fan, no electric shower and having gas hob makes a difference 😁

Pompeyexile

This is my Octopus account details….

At the moment I am paying £230 per month for both and having just looked seems I am over £1,102 in the black!
I’ll give it until the end of December when the bad weather hits and if I am still anywhere near that figure I will be asking for a Christmas re-fund and readjusting my direct debit.

John_Yossarian

Pompeyexile Your standing charge seems quite high at 54p per day , otherwise same rates here.

Inspector

Why no one spins the wheel of fortune 🤣

delta76

DavecUK sorry for asking, but - is it a VBM Domobar Super? How do you like it? It seems to have pressure profiling as well, right?

DavecUK

delta76 sorry for asking, but - is it a VBM Domobar Super? How does you like it? It seems to have pressure profiling as well, right?

yes, it’s the Vibiemme Domobar Super Digital (digital has is a lever group, electronic is a solenoid group). It does do pressure profiling. It’s fine, nice build quality. I should sell it really as I’ve too many machines and it gets no use. Only used for testing. https://www.vbmespresso.com/en/home-barista/domobar-super/

delta76

DavecUK thanks for answering. It seems you do like it but not as strong as some other machines. Off my list then 🤣

DavecUK

delta76 It seems you do like it but not as strong as some other machines.

That’s quite correct…but it is well made, better than many.

delta76

DavecUK yeah I am aware, you only review or otherwise involve with machines that you think good enough. Which is why I was asking, to see if I missed something good. Given that your praise is not as high as with some other machines, and the machine does not look that good to me (i am not super critical on look, as long as it is not too ugly, but yes looking good is a plus), I will pass on this one. Nice to know it would be a good option performance wise though. Thanks

Rob666

I had an old Vibiemme single boiler. Liked it a lot but not having to mess about waiting for steam and then having to cool it down again for the next espresso. I’ve often been tempted to have a look at the current dual boiler machines.

Cuprajake

So 7% saving which is a kick in the dick tbh

Standing charge also up.

DavecUK

Cuprajake Your have been and will be paying less than I do from British Gas

Cuprajake

DavecUK thought you were on a low deal still

dfk41

For me, coming off a decent fixed rate, I fail to understand why the standing charge is allowed in my case to more than double. What are the energy companies now doing differently to justify this new rate?

Cuprajake

Standing charge going up was to cover those who went bump apparently.

DavecUK

Cuprajake That ended more than 2 years ago. I went on a fixed deal which ended up costing me more than the price cap before it was introduced, so I made no savings, just cost me more, now I’m on the std variable rate.

LMSC

2 Years fixed tariff ending mid Sep 23

Electricity 18.82 now; standing charge 21.68
Gas 3.8; standing charge 23.73

Likely Octopus Flexible from mid Sep 23

Electricity 30.3p, standing charge 47.95p
Gas 7.67p, 27.47p

Not a good story 😳

MediumRoastSteam

LMSC you’ve done better than most.

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