Gas/Electricity Price Increases

[nicholab]

Has anyone moved over to heat as a service HAAS? So get a heat pump and pay the supplier on a monthly basis?

 

Also get a PIV it great for reducing humidity and dryer air is easier to heat.

Edited January 6, 2023 by nicholab

[elsiegee40]

Just had notification of another energy saving session tomorrow (Thursday) 9-10am.

[mikeprice]

Just had notification of another energy saving session tomorrow (Thursday) 9-10am.

 

Yup

 

great timing - we have the baby tomorrow morning so the heating will have to be on

hence - no chance of any savings!!!

 

 

Of course if the solar panel battery system was working then I could force charge then from 7-9 then use the power from 9-10

 

but that still ain;t working - must pester them yet again tomorrow!!!

[elsiegee40]

Yup

 

great timing - we have the baby tomorrow morning so the heating will have to be on

hence - no chance of any savings!!!

 

 

Of course if the solar panel battery system was working then I could force charge then from 7-9 then use the power from 9-10

 

but that still ain;t working - must pester them yet again tomorrow!!!

 

It’s only the electricity not the gas @mikeprice

[mikeprice]

It’s only the electricity not the gas @mikeprice

 

Oh - is it?

I hadn't noticed that

 

anyway - same applies - boiler uses electrons to push the water round after the gas has increased the rms velocity of the water

 

anyway - chances of doing 'something clever' like going out for a bike ride and leaving everything switched off are out

not that the weather is exactly ideal for a bike ride with slick tyres anyway but whatever!!!

 

anyway - thanks for pointing that out - maybe I can use it next time

[PotNoodleTech]

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.

[mavhc]

How many kWh of gas did you burn?

[PotNoodleTech]

About 1200 :-/

[Andrew_C]

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

[mikeprice]

Has anyone been able to use the energy saving hours to save money for the school

 

for example - how long would the servers run on UPS backup??? - maybe a chance to test it out (while watching carefully!!)

 

switching off the air con for an hour in the server room - after boosting it for an hour before??

 

anything else

 

and how much would it save in terms of pounds and KWh??

[PotNoodleTech]

Barely anything probably. It's not worth the technical risk of things not coming back on or booting back up properly.

[mavhc]

Also it's unlikely your school is on a tariff that qualifies, are businesses allowed to participate?

 

1200 kwh/month is 1.6kW average.

 

Average uk temp in dec was 2.9C, so 16C below your thermostat.

 

So you're losing 100W/degree temp difference.

 

I'm using 1220 kwh in december, 3 bedroom detached house.

 

In conclusion, insulate. Rented? What's your EPC level?

 

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/minimum-energy-efficiency-standards-private-rented-sector/

[PotNoodleTech]

No not rented. It is a weird shape house though - only 1 bedroom but all rooms are large and it's detached so all 4 outside walls are "in my rooms", and a large roof area/large attic, garages underneath which are not heated so no heat transfer from downstairs to upstairs.

 

I do have some of the attic unsualtion squished down to make room for storage which appears to be costing me now.

 

It was built 8 years ago but it was built by charles church so probably wasn't built/insulated properly.

[CHiLL]

Has anyone been able to use the energy saving hours to save money for the school

 

for example - how long would the servers run on UPS backup??? - maybe a chance to test it out (while watching carefully!!)

 

switching off the air con for an hour in the server room - after boosting it for an hour before??

 

anything else

 

and how much would it save in terms of pounds and KWh??

I guess the problem with constant equipment is that you're not likely to see any gains. If you run the servers off the UPS and it consumes charged battery, it's just going to pull more power when it's reconnected to charge up what it lost. If you turn off the aircon, the room will heat up a little more and the aircon will work harder to cool it back to your target temperature when it's back on. I suspect the only real gains you're going to have from an IT perspective is ensuring you schedule a machine power down in the evening (if you already have one, maybe bring it to 7pm if it's set at 9pm currently - though be aware of parent's evening requirements, etc). Possibly increasing the target temperature of your server room into the 20s instead of 18/19/20, etc. Turn on powersaving/eco modes in Windows on your laptops, set time-outs on your projectors and turn the brightness down on monitors to reduce power draw.

 

All that being said, I doubt any of that would touch the sides when it comes to whole school power consumption. What's the point when the school props the external doors open during break/lunch or classroom transitions for example, letting all the heat out and a nice winter draught in?

[Ditto]

No not rented. It is a weird shape house though - only 1 bedroom but all rooms are large and it's detached so all 4 outside walls are "in my rooms", and a large roof area/large attic, garages underneath which are not heated so no heat transfer from downstairs to upstairs.

 

I do have some of the attic unsualtion squished down to make room for storage which appears to be costing me now.

 

It was built 8 years ago but it was built by charles church so probably wasn't built/insulated properly.

Ages of that era would normally be extremely well insulated - are you sure your gas meter is reading correctly? Something does feel odd here.

BTW, squished insulation won't do it's job anywhere near as well as non-squashed.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Ditto

[southhamster]

Ages of that era would normally be extremely well insulated - are you sure your gas meter is reading correctly? Something does feel odd here.

BTW, squished insulation won't do it's job anywhere near as well as non-squashed.

Is it worth seeing if you can beg/borrow a thermal i/r camera, or even get a survey done? Could be missing wall insulation or some other builder's bodge.

[mikeprice]

I guess the problem with constant equipment is that you're not likely to see any gains. If you run the servers off the UPS and it consumes charged battery, it's just going to pull more power when it's reconnected to charge up what it lost. If you turn off the aircon, the room will heat up a little more and the aircon will work harder to cool it back to your target temperature when it's back on. I suspect the only real gains you're going to have from an IT perspective is ensuring you schedule a machine power down in the evening (if you already have one, maybe bring it to 7pm if it's set at 9pm currently - though be aware of parent's evening requirements, etc). Possibly increasing the target temperature of your server room into the 20s instead of 18/19/20, etc. Turn on powersaving/eco modes in Windows on your laptops, set time-outs on your projectors and turn the brightness down on monitors to reduce power draw.

 

All that being said, I doubt any of that would touch the sides when it comes to whole school power consumption. What's the point when the school props the external doors open during break/lunch or classroom transitions for example, letting all the heat out and a nice winter draught in?

 

Yes - overall you will not gain anything - probably use extra power due to inefficiencies in charging

 

my point was that, assuming you are eligible for the refund - then you would (or might be!) able to divert power usage from the allocated time to the time before and after the hour

 

i.e charge the UPS fully (if it was not already) before the hour - use it during the hour thus not registering any power usage - then recharge the ups after the hour

 

you then get the refund/payback as you have reduced your power usage during the allocated hour

 

 

As has been said - and as I suspected - the savings might not be worth the effort to get them

 

and, of course, there is the risk factor

 

I was just wondering if anyone had worked out the numbers

[PotNoodleTech]

 

I was just wondering if anyone had worked out the numbers

 

Not the numbers on that particular scenario but I did run the numbers on how much it would actually save if I spent 6 hours a day going round unplugging things and plugging them in every day and it was a miniscule amount compared to the school’s overall usage (and that wasn't including my wage either)

 

The site team asked about IT trying to use less power so I reminded them that each classroom that they have not yet upgraded the lights to LEDs in, actually uses more power than an IT suite being left on all day, and the electric heating in the portacabins uses more power than all the lights in the school and IT suites put together and once they get all that sorted then we will come back to IT and see if we can squeeze a bit more savings. (they have not come back yet....) [emoji6]

Edited January 20, 2023 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

LED's is a no brainer - in fact it would be great if DfE funded an England wide LED update. Would be interested to know the ROI time for that. Realistically, I wonder who many schools really understand their consumption profiles - get those and heaven forbid schools could make some data driven decision making.

[mavhc]

I asked the finance person, they didn't even know how much power we used, local gov deals with it.

 

The point of turning off the aircon/using batteries is to reduce the peak load, not the overall load, because peak load is very very expensive, easily 10x more, can be 100x more. That's why they're willing to pay you so much to reduce.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yeh check an actual school bill first. I was interested to learn that our off peak is not that much cheaper than our on peak, so much so that i wouldnt even entertain piddling around trying to time-shift usage.

[mikeprice]

Apparently there is another energy saving cashback thingy this evening

 

5 -6

 

found out just after I promised Mrs mikeprice roast chicken tonight - which will need to be in the oven by about 5:30!!!!

 

anyway - whatevr

[southhamster]

Apparently there is another energy saving cashback thingy this evening

 

5 -6

 

found out just after I promised Mrs mikeprice roast chicken tonight - which will need to be in the oven by about 5:30!!!!

 

anyway - whatevr

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

[6Foot2]

NOTE: The report has a political slant, but this is not a political post: It's about how its claimed energy costs are affecting businesses.

 

Link: BrewDog boss claims pints should cost £27.50 - Business Insider

 

The chief executive of BrewDog has claimed that soaring energy costs mean that a pint of its Punk IPA would actually cost £27.50 if the company raised prices in line its bills.

 

Taking the brewery's bar in York as an example, James Watt also complained that a burger and fries should cost £48.75, if prices were to match inflation....

[mavhc]

But that would imply their profits should also rise in line with their bills, they should always be, say, 20%