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

JahLaza

Live off the grid - small plot of land in the hills - your own fruit and veg, animals, solar panels (just enough for my breville Elizabeth and grinder, well, and fridge, et and the tv, oops the phone charger too), away from fluctuating prices and wars, there we go!!😎

DavecUK

I was seriously wondering about paraffin heaters and candles….perhaps that’s the way to go

hornbyben

DavecUK you’ve obviously not looked at the price of paraffin recently 🤣

Elcarajillo

Would that be Esso blue dealer or Aladdin pink? Whose was the green stuff ? Anyone remember ?

That nostalgic smell of paraffin 😂.

DavecUK

Elcarajillo Bom bom bom bom…Esso Blue!

I remember it was meant to burn without smell….which was complete bollox. I remember there was some stuff you could add to paraffin to make it less smelly, or smell “nice”, 1 drop per gallon…blimey that really stank.

As a kid I used to think my dads hobby was trimming the wicks of the paraffin heaters..

P.S. I remember blue and pink, but not green?

Elcarajillo

DavecUK Remember the esso bleu duler jingle ? I think the green may have been Fina. ??

The last P- heater I remember had a domed gauze with a reflector behind and a tank at the back. It burned with a steady glow UNTIL the vacuum built up in the tank and suddenly released a dollop of fuel which flared up and out of the burner. Made by Sankey ??

Back then many. corner shops sold. paraffin . The other problem burning paraffin was the moisture vapour given off, much like the gas cylinder heaters do now = condensation🤪

DavecUK

hornbyben Not for a few months….

dfk41

Many years ago, the Government used to charge Car Tax on every sale of a new car. I think it was 7%. When they decided to stop charging this tax, do you think prices went down, or remained exactly the same?

Rob666

dfk41 I saw a chart of car prices adjusted for inflation from the 70’s. Sadly I don’t remember where. Anyhow, the point being car prices have increased way more than inflation. The car manufacturers take the mickey where we are concerned. A good example is the Renault electric. The equivalent model in India is £7000. Here it’s over £30k list! Sure there are spec differences but not £23k’s worth… And I don’t believe Renault sell cars at a loss in India…

hornbyben

Rob666 don’t forget for cars the amount of technology and R&D that has been required to meet the emissions requirements. This is one of the main reasons for increasing car prices.

Cuprajake

Watched a vid ages ago about ford, famously saying you can have any colour aslong as its black

At that point ford were market leaders

Then dupont joined gm and they made different colours ,and each yr released the same car but in a limited colour. They turned into market leaders, and americans went from changing cars from every 7yrs to every 3. They said when they get to yrl changes they will have dome their job

Like wise the light bulb manufacturers met to make bulbs last shorter, as they were loosing money

DavecUK

Cuprajake the good old planned obsolescence. Sadly it’s happening to most products.

Rob666

hornbyben I agree that emission control components have contributed to the rise in car prices but not to the extent that they have risen. Three times the price in some cases, inflation adjusted,

Cuprajake

Yeah, but they just lie about those too.

Then you look at the new vehicles that are hybrid, they do 30 miles on a charge with a normal 2.0 tdi engine. All bs this ‘green’ thing is just another con/cover up

hornbyben

Cuprajake it’s not bs, it depends on the use case. Are they perfect know, but a hybrid isn’t really about going 30 miles on battery and the rest on the engine. They’re about maximising efficiency. A hybrid enables some of the energy usually dissipated as heat when breaking to be captured, it can also mean no engine is used on the parts of the drive cycle that are least efficient, such as start stop in a traffic jam. They also usually have a slightly smaller engine than their non-hybrid version.

Most people don’t want to pay what a full electric costs and those batteries are expensive. Hybrids are part of the journey, that’s all.

Amberale

I was discussing solar with a mate last week.

This is in Oz so the sun does shine.

He was complaining that his input tariff was about to drop to 15c/KW.

(How much they pay him for the power from his panels)

Some power companies down here are starting to signal that soon they will CHARGE people to take the excess power from their panels.

His solution is not a Tesla battery but to replace their second car with an electric vehicle.

He claims that you get three times the storage of a fixed battery plus…a car.

Charge it all day for free, use it all night for the house.

dutchy101

Amberale Some power companies down here are starting to signal that soon they will CHARGE people to take the excess power from their panels.

Ffs. Kill me now

LMSC

Amberale Some power companies down here are starting to signal that soon they will CHARGE people to take the excess power from their panels.

Great idea. Rip us off until the last drop of blood therefore they continue to line their pockets. Free and get paid to have a three-course lunch.

Amberale

I want to go off grid for the farm but…..

The approximately $40k for (solar/wind/batteries/diesel generator back up) makes almost double annually in my superannuation fund than my current electricity bills.

JahLaza

Amberale is that the set up cost?

Cuprajake

@hornbyben @hornbyben

sometimes yes, in the case of say a honda crz but these two, both brand new were a:

toyota rav 4 plug in hybrid, 2.0 diesel with 40miles to a charge £47k

merc e300 plug in hybrid 2.0 diesel with 30 miles to a charge - company car saves 20% per yr company tax,

the lying i was on about the vw emmisions scandal where they were reflashing ecu lol

hornbyben

Cuprajake yeah there’s definitely no excuse for having an ecu that is programmed to run differently when on a chassis dyno.

DavecUK

Elcarajillo The last P- heater I remember had a domed gauze with a reflector behind and a tank at the back. It burned with a steady glow UNTIL the vacuum built up in the tank and suddenly released a dollop of fuel which flared up and out of the burner. Made by Sankey ??

I had a similar one….was a very blue flame and put out a shedload of heat…..the wick sat in a pool of paraffin in a ring….I remember the domed gauze would glow a fairly bright orange at full power. You’re right though, they did used to flare up, so you had to keep an eye on them. I used one as a student in 1981 to heat my room in an old “short life” solid wall properly in London….my Dad always said don’t leave it unattended. I didn’t realise it was due to a vacuum forming in the tank. Mine was an Aladdin Senator..I think it was rated at 2.5 or 3 kW

Amberale

JahLaza

For our beef farm with large sheds, multiple freezers/cool room/welders etc yes.

That is what we would need.

The generator alone is over $10k.

Cuprajake

i heard it costs over £1000 to have your house disconnected from the mains

MediumRoastSteam

Cuprajake - can you simply choose not to use it? Like, say I drink filtered rain water, use rain water to flush toilets and wash up… and use candle light and a wood burner and a small petrol powered generator for the odd electricity consumed activity. Is that against the law?

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