Home Electricity & Costs - what are you doing?

[WelshGas]

15????? WTF? I don’t think there are 15 radiators in our village! How big is your house?

We have 17 radiators.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Thats fine, sounds like you're aware.
Works ok if the house is plumbed right. Ours has the biggest most used room is at the far end of the pipe run, even with all other radiators turned off we struggle to get that room hot enough. Really need to re plumb with bigger pipework.

Something else worth checking is if thermostatic radiator valves are working, I checked ours in the summer & found about 15 stuck ones.

Ah you beat me Andy, only 14 radiators in our house unless I count the 2 electric ones on the top floor then I trump you with 16. Unless of course you have another lot of undeclared rads with valves that weren’t stuck
Mind you now that the kids have gone most are turned right down or off. In fact so far this winter, we’ve only had the CH on if we have grandchildren staying over.
So here’s a question: with energy companies overcharging us all each month and most of us economising as much as we can, how much credit is in your account. Ours is £1407.42 and E.ON Next won’t allow me to reduce my monthly DD !

 

[Ozzy Pete]

15????? WTF? I don’t think there are 15 radiators in our village! How big is your house?

That’s just the 15 that we’re stuck, what about the other 15 that were working?

 

[Perfectos]

Request the money back ?

 

[Van Diesel VW]

I’ve noticed that any Hue lights that are fitted in table lamps will come on and stay on following a power outage. Not great if you’re away on holiday.

Depends on which hue lamps you have, you can specify in the settings power on options in the later firmware versions, to prevent this type of issue.

 

[Ozzy Pete]

Ah you beat me Andy, only 14 radiators in our house unless I count the 2 electric ones on the top floor then I trump you with 16. Unless of course you have another lot of undeclared rads with valves that weren’t stuck
Mind you now that the kids have gone most are turned right down or off. In fact so far this winter, we’ve only had the CH on if we have grandchildren staying over.
So here’s a question: with energy companies overcharging us all each month and most of us economising as much as we can, how much credit is in your account. Ours is £1407.42 and E.ON Next won’t allow me to reduce my monthly DD !

View attachment 102434

Just wait till your fixed rate comes to an end that amount will go in less than 3 months.

 

[Van Diesel VW]

Ah you beat me Andy, only 14 radiators in our house unless I count the 2 electric ones on the top floor then I trump you with 16. Unless of course you have another lot of undeclared rads with valves that weren’t stuck
Mind you now that the kids have gone most are turned right down or off. In fact so far this winter, we’ve only had the CH on if we have grandchildren staying over.
So here’s a question: with energy companies overcharging us all each month and most of us economising as much as we can, how much credit is in your account. Ours is £1407.42 and E.ON Next won’t allow me to reduce my monthly DD !

View attachment 102434

I switched to a variable direct debit, rather the money was in my account than my energy supplier, that way just pay for what I use each month. Stops the energy company setting high DD monthly payments and just helping themselves to my money

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Depends on which hue lamps you have, you can specify in the settings power on options in the later firmware versions, to prevent this type of issue.

Hi @TR7_Driver I’ve learned that my Hue hub (round one) is no longer supported. That’s the issue. Won’t be upgrading though as I rarely use much of the functionality anyway.

 

[Amarillo]

We have 17 radiators.

13 radiators. The front room bay window has three small rads; the front bedroom bay above has two.

 

[GrannyJen]

13 radiators. The front room bay window has three small rads; the front bedroom bay above has two.

22 in mine, all with thermostat valves, 5 are in an extension with it's own dedicated boiler and the heating mostly switched off.

I don't have any electronic devices and Alexa is banned so it means I have to go room to room turning rads off. Quite a good exercise though as I often find vampire devices still left plugged in, other devices on standby, stuff charging at night when it could be charged the next time the sun comes out. I'm getting quite OCD about watching my smart meter display and storming around the house to see watts taking watt .....

 

[willwander]

Apparently we can’t have a smart meter in house display because our smart meters are gen1?

Does this sound right? Anyway round it?

 

[Velma's Dad]

That said I"m glad I no longer have my 3CRT Sony G90. That was a 1kW beast, with enough heat output to keep all the apartments in the block cozy.

Think of it the other way round. It's a nice 1kW heater that you can also watch Germany get thrashed on.

 

[Stu@rt]

Apparently we can’t have a smart meter in house display because our smart meters are gen1?

Does this sound right? Anyway round it?

Yep - Our In house display packed up years ago - Gen 1 meter.
The meter part still functions and sends EDF meter reads - but no display.
EDF sent me a new one that I spent hours trying to get to talk to the meter unit - no go and eventually they admitted it wont work with the older Gen 1 units.

So will have to wait until they get around to swapping the old Gen 1 units out - which will take years.
More tech that will end up in landfill. The carbon footprint on all this tech isn't without its own concerns right?

 

[Velma's Dad]

Yep - Our In house display packed up years ago - Gen 1 meter.
The meter part still functions and sends EDF meter reads - but no display.
EDF sent me a new one that I spent hours trying to get to talk to the meter unit - no go and eventually they admitted it wont work with the older Gen 1 units.

So will have to wait until they get around to swapping the old Gen 1 units out - which will take years.
More tech that will end up in landfill. The carbon footprint on all this tech isn't without its own concerns right?

We can't have a smart meter because our leccie comes in at the second floor and gas in the cellar and apparently they can't communicate with each other (despite having wifi everywhere). Doesn't stop the energy companies keeping asking us about every six months if we want a smart meter.

 

[kurienp]

Apparently we can’t have a smart meter in house display because our smart meters are gen1?

Does this sound right? Anyway round it?

The same story with us. I thought our meter was smart ... but it seems not smart enough! Have not found a way around it though as yet. Have been considering this as an addon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086BNQ1X4/?tag=vwcalifornia-21 to get some data ... but an expensive add on.

 

[sidepod]

A lot of pro radiator/anti German sentiment in this thread

 

[Ozzy Pete]

Oh so lucky to have houses with sooo many rooms and Radiators.
22 radiators for 10 people?

 

[Ozzy Pete]

Apparently we can’t have a smart meter in house display because our smart meters are gen1?

Does this sound right? Anyway round it?

Gen 1 smart meters will only work with the original supplier. Took ours out with Eon years ago and never worked with other suppliers, now back with Eon and it works perfectly.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

A lot of pro radiator/anti German sentiment in this thread

Just healthy football rivalry. Doubt many on a VW forum are anti german

 

[Stu@rt]

Gen 1 smart meters will only work with the original supplier. Took ours out with Eon years ago and never worked with other suppliers, now back with Eon and it works perfectly.

Our Gen 1 unit was supplied by BG and it stopped working when we moved to EDF. About 8 months after moving to EDF I got an email to say they were now collecting smart meter readings. So they managed to get the meter side of things talking back to them ok. But the IHD had packed up. They supplied a new IHD but that is not Gen 1 compatible, so we are limited to meter readings only.
So I think they must have found a workaround for the meter side of things transferring from one supplier to the other.

 

[kurienp]

All of us are doing our little bit to save some money and the environment, but in the long term, where currently things are headed, I think it will need to be a battery bank - being filled up with either solar or cheap energy and being used during the day/evenings when consumption is high.

... however, currently the costs seem to be prohibitive ... but then, I suspect they will continue to increase.

I think @GrannyJen and @pjm-84 are ahead on this.

Now getting into some calculations to see how much backup power I will need and see if I can make the finances work.

 

[2into1]

#save-real-ovens

Our ovens seem to be one of the main culprits in this crisis. I do wonder if we have fully understood the true cost of running them....
Where does the heat go that I've just invested in heating my lasagne? Some will have escaped through the external wall behind it, but a good bit of it remains in the lovely warm kitchen and is now spreading around the house (I know that because I can smell the roast garlic from the tray bake).

So does cooking with an oven deserve quite the bad rap it gets? It clearly isn't as simple as the calcs suggest (which assumes all the energy used is lost).

My oven is elec and heating is gas so I do have a four (?) fold penalty in cost per kwhr, but many are already using electricity for their heating.

I suspect old tech light bulbs were similarly punished in the calcs but I can't see them making a comeback!

Obviously my pondering only applies to winter when the heating is needed.

Thoughts?

No one taking me up on the true cost of having the oven on?

 

[pjm-84]

Here you go - Oct 14 to Yesterday. Note the BMW PHEV takes a fair percentage of the overall consumption

 

[sidepod]

No one taking me up on the true cost of having the oven on?

I agree. It is free heat but surely quite expensive heat and probably in the wrong place. Move the oven to the bedroom?
We just live in the kitchen which is open plan to the living room so no need for and heating.
The large range cooker plus aga/boiler plus wood stove could create enough heat for a small country.
I warm air duct system would easily heat the whole house.

 

[larrylamb]

No one taking me up on the true cost of having the oven on?

I wouldn't worry about it personally. Air fryers don't do it for me. It's not a fryer it's a tiny fan oven. Ninja a/f has a 2400w rating, my Falcon fan ovens are 2.5kw each. I know the air fryer is quicker to heat up etc but my oven is huge can take 4 chickens if need be and heats up pretty quickly. How do you do a big tray bake in an air fryer? The difference to me is "small fry" (excuse the pun) and all a bit emperors new clothes. I wouldn't want to look at another lump of black plastic on the worktop. Just my opinion, yet to be convinced.