Gas/Electricity Price Increases

[BOOT]

Microwave is by far the cheapest method of cooking using electric.

[localzuk]

One thing to note, even small amounts of electricity being used, 24/7/365 add up. Something using 5W all the time, is just about 44KWh of energy in a year. Doesn't sound much, but with the new pricing coming in looking like it is about 55p per KWh, that's about £24 a year. So, things like your microwave and oven sat there showing a clock are costing you a bit (I've seen numbers from 0.5W to 4.5W for microwave clock energy consumption).

[mavhc]

Get a dehumidifier for drying clothes they use very little electric and works a treat overnight in a room with the doors shut.

Using a slow cooker to cook meals is far cheaper than the hob/oven and probably the microwave. https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/top-100-best-slow-cooker-recipes

 

Get some pegs and a washing line, even cheaper

[JATSO]

Get some pegs and a washing line, even cheaper

 

Yes very cheap when the wind blows and the sun is out and you have the outdoor space but have you seen todays forecast.

[mavhc]

Air drying clothes works perfectly well indoors too. Or don't do washing when it rains I guess, plan ahead.

 

In terms of switching things off, assuming you've switched to LED lights by now. Highest thing is probably your desktop PC, hibernate that. My AV Amp uses 30W doing nothing.

 

Next step is just to feel every charger to see if it's hot, if it is, turn it off or replace it with one that's not terrible.

 

After that get a Watt meter and measure everything.

 

And if you have a condensing boiler, turn down the temp so it can actually do the condensing part, doesn't work if the return flow temp is too high, that saves 10% of heating costs.

 

Buy a FLIR and offset the cost by charging your neighbours to tell then where their heat is being lost.

[LeMarchand]

Or don't do washing when it rains I guess, plan ahead.

 

So in this country don't wash your clothes most of the year?

[mavhc]

Depends how many people in your house, but I only wash my clothes 1/7th of the year, once a week

[jmak]

Dehumidifier is often a good idea if you're air drying clothes indoors. If you live in a modern house that's completely draught proof you'll end up either living in a stream room or opening the window and letting all the heat out along with the water. If you live in an old house the moisture released from the clothes will condense on the cold walls and give you damp and mould problems.

[Andrew_C]

PIV is your friend here. We do all of our winter drying in a rack suspended in the stairwell. Thought about an extract above it until I found this. Possibly through a suggestion here. Draws air from the loft (which is warmer than outdoors, no matter how good your insulation) and forces the damp stuff out through any gaps.

[CHiLL]

Dehumidifier is often a good idea if you're air drying clothes indoors. If you live in a modern house that's completely draught proof you'll end up either living in a stream room or opening the window and letting all the heat out along with the water. If you live in an old house the moisture released from the clothes will condense on the cold walls and give you damp and mould problems.

I started using a dehumidifier when drying my washing inside a couple of years ago and it makes such a difference, and drastically reduces the amount of time it takes them to dry. Especially if you shut your washing and dehumidifier in a small room, with less air for it to process.

[Ditto]

Dehumidifier is often a good idea if you're air drying clothes indoors. If you live in a modern house that's completely draught proof you'll end up either living in a stream room or opening the window and letting all the heat out along with the water. If you live in an old house the moisture released from the clothes will condense on the cold walls and give you damp and mould problems.

 

Re washing - I think we can tell which of us doesn't have smelly teenagers that play football/rugby etc.

[JATSO]

If you live in an old house the moisture released from the clothes will condense on the cold walls and give you damp and mould problems.

 

Granted adding wet clothes into the environment will add more moisture, but if the correct spec of dehumidifier is obtained then actually a dehumidifier pulls out the moisture from the over damp environment where mould growth is an issue, but the cure to mould problems is ventilation the walls need to breath and dry out and when they are coated in moisture repelling building materials it can sometimes exasperate the problem.

I lived an 300 year old house made of stone with no cavity walls and we used a dehumidifier regularly for drying clothes on those wet days, it kept the moisture levels inside the house down so that we never had any damp or mould problems.

 

We still use a dehumidifier in our conservatory for when those wet days prevent drying outside and the glass which is cold to touch but not wet\damp is clear of condensation (that would normally come from the damp clothes) because the dehumidifier is doing its job.

 

The electric used running a dehumidifier was far less that putting the heating on.

[mavhc]

PIV is your friend here. We do all of our winter drying in a rack suspended in the stairwell. Thought about an extract above it until I found this. Possibly through a suggestion here. Draws air from the loft (which is warmer than outdoors, no matter how good your insulation) and forces the damp stuff out through any gaps.

 

Then you just add a heat pump to heat/cool the air, and a heat exchanger to extract the heat/cold and apply it to the new air, and you have yourself an HVAC

[Andrew_C]

Yeah, and mine cost about £250 all in when I did it, not £several thousand,

[jmak]

For those of us not on fixed rates or smart meters.....

Remember to take a reading today or tomorrow. Rates go up on Friday.

[elsiegee40]

For those of us not on fixed rates or smart meters.....

Remember to take a reading today or tomorrow. Rates go up on Friday.

 

Even if you are on smart meter, take a reading. Preferably photograph the meter reading so it can’t be disputed

[Protec]

I saw an article on BBC today about turning things off like a phone charger to save energy. I know every little helps but a normal Apple charger is only about 5W and with nothing charging, even less.

 

We have dehumidifiers and each one uses about 180w each which makes a difference to the energy bill when they have been on all day!

 

If energy prices got really bad, we would probably start with reducing their running hours, using less lights, turning off outdoor lighting, etc.

[mavhc]

Turning off a phone charger is the household version of the UK not building 100 nuclear power stations, we're not taking the climate emergency seriously. Our electricity is less than 20% of our total energy usage and we need to make it all 0 carbon yesterday. Renewables in 2019 was 37%, but that's 37% of 20%, so that's only 7.5% of total, we either need 13x more renewables, plus masses of storage, or nuclear. Also need about a million people trained to install heat pumps, again, not taking it seriously.

[3s-gtech]

Nuclear - zero carbon, apart from the concrete needed to build the damn thing, and to store the fuel/waste/anything that gets near it.

[mavhc]

Not a massive problem, compared to lifetime savings, just some random anti nuclear factoid promoted by the Russian gas company

 

https://www.transparency.org/en/press/germany-state-government-conceals-gazprom-connection-controversial-environmental-foundation-beneficial-ownership

 

We make 30 billion tonnes of concrete per year, maybe 200,000 for a nuclear power station. So 150,000 nuclear power stations. Gas power stations produce about 0.5kg of co2 per kwh. 142 TWh of gas in uk = 70 billion kg, or 70 million tonnes of co2 per year from gas power stations. 75kg of co2 per tonne of concrete, so 15 million kg of co2 per nuclear power station, or 15,000 tonnes, So you can build 466 nuclear power stations for the same co2 as running the uk's gas power stations for 1 year. Say they last 20 years, that's 9320x better.

 

Also we make 34 billion tonnes of co2, and that's a gas, gases weigh hardly anything.

[mikeprice]

I have just got a quote for solar panels - local(ish) firm whose first item on their website is repairs to green systems of all kinds

 

they seem pretty good - but I'll check a few more quotes - if anyone responds to my requests as so far I have not got much back!

[Protec]

Turning off a phone charger is the household version of the UK not building 100 nuclear power stations, we're not taking the climate emergency seriously. Our electricity is less than 20% of our total energy usage and we need to make it all 0 carbon yesterday. Renewables in 2019 was 37%, but that's 37% of 20%, so that's only 7.5% of total, we either need 13x more renewables, plus masses of storage, or nuclear. Also need about a million people trained to install heat pumps, again, not taking it seriously.

Out of curiosity, do you have a heat pump?

[Andrew_C]

Govt announce more propping up of energy companies profits.

 

Under the scheme, revealed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industry, wholesale prices are expected to be fixed for all non-domestic energy customers at £211 per MWh for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas for six months.

 

BBC link

[mavhc]

What else can they do, except some kind of massive program to insulate, say, britain, and start that 10 years ago. Also need to install heat pumps and solar at 100x the current pace

[Andrew_C]

I read (somewhere) that the cost of the domestic bung to the energy sector would have built enough wind turbines to power the entire country. Don't know how accurate that is...