Gas/Electricity Price Increases

[mikeprice]

What happened to your solar PV battery system? Has it been fixed yet as that might have helped with your evening usage!

 

Ongoing

aka - no

[mikeprice]

ANother energy saving thingy tomorrow

longe rthis time

 

4:30 to 6:00

[elsiegee40]

Tomorrow’s energy saving is 9-10am. We have earned just over £18 from participating so far … and that doesn’t include the money made by not using the electricity

[southhamster]

Tomorrow’s energy saving is 9-10am. We have earned just over £18 from participating so far … and that doesn’t include the money made by not using the electricity

Interesting article on people taking part and enjoying the experience.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/the-kids-loved-it-readers-on-taking-part-in-national-grid-energy-saving-trial?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[southhamster]

Interesting article on people taking part and enjoying the experience.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/the-kids-loved-it-readers-on-taking-part-in-national-grid-energy-saving-trial?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Edit.

And without the stupid android app extension..

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/the-kids-loved-it-readers-on-taking-part-in-national-grid-energy-saving-trial

[elsiegee40]

Mr gee40 and I just back from meeting friends in town. It’s astonishing how many people don’t close their curtains. You’d have thought, with energy prices the way they are, that this simple way to insulate windows a little better would be common practice. Apparently not!

[XiJ]

Mr gee40 and I just back from meeting friends in town. It’s astonishing how many people don’t close their curtains. You’d have thought, with energy prices the way they are, that this simple way to insulate windows a little better would be common practice. Apparently not!

 

I open the curtains when it’s a sunny day as it really makes a difference. If it’s cloudy / cold / night they remain closed.

[Koldov]

Unfortunately until we get the correct ventilation in the house (trickle vents etc.), we leave our curtains open day and night to combat terrible condensation.

 

Sounds strange but saw it on a Youtube video about damp and tried it, the difference was amazing due to air flow.

 

Curtains closed overnight and the windows were full of condensation (top to bottom and pooling on the windows sill) in the morning, leave them open and just an inch at the bottom, sometimes nothing...

[LeMarchand]

I'm thinking a lot of it is from watching too many American shows/movies as they never draw the curtains. cf "Shutting down" your laptop by closing the lid.

[Koldov]

Well worked out that in the last month i've spend £140 on gas for my 1 bed flat with the thermostat set to 19. Not good at all. I think I'll have to set it to 18 and wear more jumpers.

 

How many kWh of gas did you burn?

 

About 1200 :-/

 

Gods - that's what I use in an under occupied 4 bed house!

 

3 bed house here, gas combi-boiler central heating to radiators:

 

January - Thermostat at 18c 24/7 - 1268kWh.

 

February - Thermostat at 18c morning (2 hrs) and evening (5 hrs), 17c during the day and overnight , 1164kWh.

 

@PotNoodleTech How old is your boiler? Was it you that was saying about lots of outside walls and are you top flat? Is it a block of flats or converted house?

[elsiegee40]

I open the curtains when it’s a sunny day as it really makes a difference. If it’s cloudy / cold / night they remain closed.

 

Same here!

[Koldov]

I'm thinking a lot of it is from watching too many American shows/movies as they never draw the curtains.

 

Walking the dogs through the 'neighborhood' through the dark winter evenings is always interesting, seeing what everyone is watching on telly...

 

Not from just from an energy saving perspective, but for privacy I'm not sure everyone understands that most net curtains are see through when it's light inside and dark outside...

[PotNoodleTech]

3 bed house here, gas combi-boiler central heating to radiators:

 

January - Thermostat at 18c 24/7 - 1268kWh.

 

February - Thermostat at 18c morning (2 hrs) and evening (5 hrs), 17c during the day and overnight , 1164kWh.

 

@PotNoodleTech How old is your boiler? Was it you that was saying about lots of outside walls and are you top flat? Is it a block of flats or converted house?

 

That's very interesting! Is that from last year?

 

Boiler 8 years old same as the house. House is a detatched coachhouse garages on ground floor and house on 1st floor and attic above. I get the same issue as someone with a 3/4 bed detached house, except probably a bit worse as my house is smaller but the rooms are bigger and each room has 2 outside walls and the attic above so plenty of heat loss compared to someone in a proper flat with someone below them someone by the side of them and someone above them?

 

I've got improvemeents to make in attic insualtion for sure.

[JRA]

Got my 4-monthly bill in this morning (Oct-Jan.) Didn't know what to expect but it was £490 which is twice what it was last year. 2 bed mid-sized semi, just me and fish.

 

Paid it, that's me eating noodles and dust until March.

[Koldov]

That's very interesting! Is that from last year?

 

No, they are the figures from this year so far...

 

Typically they have been much lower, since we had a new condensing boiler a couple of years ago. However, I also had a much stricter thermostat regime with the new boiler until this year (the old one was just timer, a couple of hours in the morning and a few in the evening).

 

Long story, but I basically had the heating off during the day and night. Morning and evenings I had the thermostat in the living room (and near the radiator) so it was turning off pretty quick once the room we were in was warm enough.

 

However, we were doing some renovation (new glass in windows and radiators moved to under the windows from internal walls) and found damp/condensation on the floorboards near the outside walls, wallpaper peeling and a little bit of mould growing behind wardrobes/drawers etc. So although I had been saving money on one hand, the bedrooms were slowly getting cold and damp (condensation on the windows was terrible too).

 

Anyway, we had a surveyor round and he basically said 2 things.... ventilation needs to be improved (after I'd just spent ages re-doing the seals for the windows and putting a new loft hatch in to stop draughts) and 18c minimum in all rooms all the time (just my luck when heating is costing double). I've read a lot about radiators being/not being on outside walls/under windows and having a good external to internal airflow and I know it loses money heating up outside walls and losses through vents. But the outside walls do need to be warm to prevent cold/damp and dry air from outside needs to replace moist air from inside.

 

Boiler 8 years old same as the house. House is a detatched coachhouse garages on ground floor and house on 1st floor and attic above. I get the same issue as someone with a 3/4 bed detached house, except probably a bit worse as my house is smaller but the rooms are bigger and each room has 2 outside walls and the attic above so plenty of heat loss compared to someone in a proper flat with someone below them someone by the side of them and someone above them?

 

I've got improvemeents to make in attic insualtion for sure.

 

...and floors and walls... Yes, sounds like you've got a lot of work cut out for you. Is it a rented flat or can you do whatever improvements you need?

[Andrew_C]

and dry air from outside needs to replace moist air from inside.

I may have mentioned in this thread - certainly have somewhere - PIV is worth a look. Pulls the 'relatively' warm/dry air out of the loft, displacing the damp air in your house. But it doesn't pull in really cold air.

[Koldov]

Yeah, jury is still out for me on PIV...

 

Bit like reading an Amazon review where 10 people love it and it's the best thing ever and does exactly what it's supposed to, then 10 people hate it, it's useless and doesn't work very well.

 

There are other factors as well (installation costs, running costs, needs house not to be airtight, PIV needs a heater or not run in winter)... We've got it mostly under control now with radiator moves and although it also isn't recommended by some, due again heating up a lot of cold (although drier) air, is purge ventilation (upstairs windows for 3 minutes in the morning). With everything done so far we've gone from above 70% relative humidity to just above 50% most days.

 

Then there's dMEV - "dMEV systems comply with existing regulations and are recommended as a solution in the forthcoming Future Homes consultation document (PIV isn't)"*

 

https://www.zehnder.co.uk/blogarticles/why-dmev-preferable-piv

 

* Not sure if that's true as it was written by a dMEV manufacturer...

 

We changed the bathroom fan to an Envirovent trickle fan with boost switch for when we shower (it is supposed to kick in automatically, but I thought it took too long so fitted a switch).

Edited February 3, 2023 by Koldov

[PotNoodleTech]

No, they are the figures from this year so far...

 

...and floors and walls... Yes, sounds like you've got a lot of work cut out for you. Is it a rented flat or can you do whatever improvements you need?

 

 

Confused.com - how can you have februarys figures when it's only february 3rd?

 

But yes it's mine so I can make improvements and I will! Starting with the attic.

[Koldov]

Oooops yeah, sorry! December 2022 & January 2023...

 

Of course I'm going on school year...

 

[LeMarchand]

Just had a letter from Scottish Power to let me know that my energy prices are decreasing! OK, £5 quid a month isn't much - but hey, better than nothing. Except that's not the monthly decrease, it's the annual one.

[PotNoodleTech]

Well - quaterly gas bill in - double the price of last year and I was being frugal this year and not not so frugal last year (though I think it was colder this year overall)

 

Nasty.

[steve]

If like me you can't get a smart meter installed (need a full apartment building rewire due to space in meter rooms), you can get other electric usage monitoring equipment. I've had one of these installed for a few months: https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-em-120a/

 

Really helped to focus in on where the usage is coming from - hot water. My energy (electricity) usage so far this year (10kWh per day average) - no gas in our apartments.

 

[Davit2005]

Due to be £30 less than last year. Through winter I would normally have radiators on 3-4 times a day for 15mins but this winter I jus stuck to twice a day for 15mins. I'm in a 20-30 year old 2nd floor flat.

 

I've also got a whole load of smart plugs that switch things like chargers (Laptop, Cordless phones, etc.) on and off on a schedule. Nothing is really left on Idle either.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Davit2005

[6Foot2]

Link: Grayson Perry challenges electricity bill rise from £300 to £39,000 a month | Grayson Perry | The Guardian

 

One is a Turner prize-winning artist, the other is a well-known journalist and broadcaster but both have been brought together by a seemingly evergreen gripe – inordinate energy bills.

 

Grayson Perry, known for his ceramic vases and tapestries, revealed on X on Monday he had been stung with a £39,000 a month electricity bill – an astronomical leap from the previous charge of £300 a month.

 

“Hi @edfenergy I’ve been trying to speak to someone to explain how my electricity bill went from £300 a month to £39,000,” he wrote. “Your call centre has been no help but you tried to direct debit this amount today from my account.”

 

But it seems he is not alone. Jon Sopel, who reported for the BBC for nearly 40 years before launching The News Agents podcast with fellow former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis, replied to Perry on the social media site to reveal he too had been landed with a jaw-dropping bill.

 

“Same has just happened to us,” Sopel wrote. “Ridiculous. We’ve now sorted. They wanted to raise ours from £152 to £18k. Wonder how many others have had this. @edfenergy - can you shed light please on what is happening.”

 

The supplier in both cases, EDF, insisted the two incidents were “not related in any way” and there was no “wider issue”.

 

A statement said: “Customers do not need to worry – these are not related to a wider issue with our billing system and we’ve not made any changes to how we process direct debit changes for customers. Unusual changes to direct debit amounts can sometimes occur when there is an erroneous meter reading recorded on the system.

 

“We have robust interventions in place to ensure that any large increases in customers’ direct debits are verified through a human check and in almost all such cases, system errors are rectified and prevented, without customers being impacted.”