[Misc] Suggestions to save energy this winter…

[Machiavelli]

Do you have any idea of numbers from a smart meter or a fag pocket estimate?

We’ve been turning various things on and off to try and determine what our (old but functional) fridge freezer is doing as I think it could be one of our worst culprits.

We've just got a new fridge-freezer this week. This follows on from extending our kitchen which involved putting the American-style one we inherited 18 months ago into a shed in the garden for 6 months whilst the work was done. It didn't survive it, so we've got another one. Two things stood out:
1, they've changed the rating system such that there's no such thing as AAA. There are now no A ratings (which I think now is niche/aspirational in terms of energy use/consumption) ...
2, ... the one we got in the end is C-rated. We were struck by the difference in the (£/energy) 'savings' you could get depending on which appliance you go for. The claim is that we'll save over £2k* over its lifetime. For savings differences, see:

https://ao.com/l/fridge_freezers-bosch--or--liebherr-free_standing-priced_500_to_750/1-6-9-23/26-28/

* I think this amount isn't (currently) visible, because we got one that is (currently) out of stock

 

[Doonhamer7]

I read an article at weekend on how to save o er half the energy but can’t find it but it was something like

Drop thermostat by 1 degree saves 6%
Drop it another degree saves 6%
Switch central heating off an hour earlier
Wear a jumper at home
Switch off radiators in rooms you don’t use
Shower not bath
Switch off everything - ‘vampire electricity’
Make sure freezer is full as air is really expensive to keep cold (loafs of bread are good space fillers)
Oven is expensive - microwave /combi-microwave/airfryer cheaper
Don’t fill kettle

 

[LamieRobertson]

Well some cheap fibre glass quilting from the loft then

Bit itchy….next?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Apologies. It probably was a bit political. I genuinely meant it as a bit of humour. But yeah, fair enough.

*point of fact, I don’t support labour but that’s neither here nor there.

Thank goodness so now we can use the whole of The House of Commons equals greater savings

 

[The Clamp]

Thank goodness so now we can use the whole of The House of Commons equals greater savings

I’ll use Boris’s hair to insulate my loft and Starmer’s cold indifference to chill my Chablis.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Apologies. It probably was a bit political. I genuinely meant it as a bit of humour. But yeah, fair enough.

*point of fact, I don’t support labour but that’s neither here nor there.

Sorry, just getting fed up with every other thread on here being highjacked by a political statement which should be saved for political threads, yours was just another one to add to them.

 

[The Clamp]

Sorry, just getting fed up with every other thread on here being highjacked by a political statement which should be saved for political threads, yours was just another one to add to them.

Yep, absolutely fair. I really did mean it as a joke rather than politics. But I get what you mean.

 

[Papak]

Good idea - not hugely cheap https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Monitors/b?ie=UTF8&node=1938287031

Interesting, prices seem to be rising - I bought this exact item from this seller in March for £9.32:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203851702521?var=504306442768

 

[Recidivist]

Have a cold shower each morning!

I do it as I understand it boosts the immune system (have some medical issues) and it certainly helps you resist the cold better.

Once you get used to it it’s actually quite refreshing too…….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rowdey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T022zY9I__0&ab_channel=TheHeatingHub

How to adjust your boiler heating flow temperature. As recommended today on Radio 4 PM programme.

Some very good info in this video (with couple of caveats) - As mentioned, only works for combi's, not heat only or (most) system boiler's with a hot water cylinder.

I've been turning down all my combi's for past couple of years to a a flow temp of 67/65 - by the time the heating water return to boiler it's under 55 which is in condensing mode. (55 as per Rich who i know in video can be a little low imo)

Another 'trick' (or proper set up by your installer..) is to match boiler to load - No good putting say 18kw of heating down pipework to rads that only have <10kw load as it will cycle (on/off)

Seen some Q's farther up - if anyone wants to PM or drop message on here with some boiler deets will try to offer advice if i can. (Gas Safe engineer, Vaillant, Viessmann, and WB trained, Heat Geek qualified)

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Have a cold shower each morning!

I do it as I understand it boosts the immune system (have some medical issues) and it certainly helps you resist the cold better.

Once you get used to it it’s actually quite refreshing too…….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True dat.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Why do some people think electricity is cheaper overnight?

That's only true if you're on Economy 7, surely?

And generally only those with storage heaters are better off on Economy 7.

Is this back to the 1970s? I haven’t heard the words Economy 7 for years.

But lots of providers offer cheaper rates overnight. It’s something we’re looking at at the moment.

 

[Since1982]

I have a couple of unused smart sockets - thinking of using these to power off TV / Sky Q box combinations overnight and for most of the day to keep them powered off until the times we are most likely to want them i.e. evening.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I read an article at weekend on how to save o er half the energy but can’t find it but it was something like

Drop thermostat by 1 degree saves 6%
Drop it another degree saves 6%
Switch central heating off an hour earlier
Wear a jumper at home
Switch off radiators in rooms you don’t use
Shower not bath
Switch off everything - ‘vampire electricity’
Make sure freezer is full as air is really expensive to keep cold (loafs of bread are good space fillers)
Oven is expensive - microwave /combi-microwave/airfryer cheaper
Don’t fill kettle

The moneysupermarket.com people did something like this last week. It opened our eyes a bit. We immediately reduced the timings on our gas hot water considerably.

 

[Audax]

Thanks. We're with Octopus and I'm seriously now considering getting a Smart Meter for the potential savings opportunities. I think I did look at that 'Octopus Go' tariff before though and it didn't benefit us at all in terms of our usage.

I've read some bad things about smart meters before, in terms of reliability and especially about them making switching to different providers much more difficult (I used to switch all the time for cheaper fixes before the shit hit the fan for all the small companies).

I also heard one comedian refer to his smart meter as his 'anxiety portal'. Quite accurate I thought and something that could be a danger for me if I'm not careful.

How reliable has your smart meter with Octopus been? I'm finding Octopus quite customer friendly and so if I was going to go for a smart meter then this seems like the right company and time to do it.

It depends on the smart meters you have. I'll try to keep my experience with them brief...

1) I originally had v1 smart meters installed by Bulb. They didn't work properly as smart meters (refused to connect up to the network to auto-send data to Bulb).

2) After 1 too many price rises by Bulb, and a long running CS ticket re: the smart meters, I switched to the cheaper Shell Energy (and oh boy the issues this caused with Bulb - the overcharged us massively on leaving because they forgot the smart meters weren't auto reporting and wouldn't let us put in a manual read). Shell happily removed the v1 smart meters and replaced them with v2 smart meters. These work great, except the electricity one won't connect to the in-home display (which I don't care about because I have an alternative, and better, means of tracking elec use).

3) Shell stuffed us around last year (for broadband), so I ditched them and moved to Octopus early this year.

4) The switch to Octopus went absolutely smoothly, no issues at all, and we were up and running with Octopus Go pretty quickly. No problems with switching caused by the smart meters. If anything, they made it slightly easier. Meters have been bang on for reliability other than that connectivity issue with the IHD.

Anyway:

- If you have v1 smart meters, those are the ones that are problematic for switching.
- v2 smart meters are far better, and have no issues with switching (as long as the new provider is ready for using them, which by now they all should be).
- The in-home displays are pretty useless IMO, and apparently a lot of smart meters aren't being supplied with them any more. I'll be unplugging mine soon, as soon as I sort out that Loop alternative that Bozza posted about.

Re: Octopus Go - it's designed for people with EV's and a home charger, so it's most useful for that. In the 4 hour window I can put around 50% charge into my Zoe for a couple quid. However ... it's also useful if you have electrics that can be run on a delay timer. For example, we can delay when our dishwasher starts up. If it's not ready to run during the day when we have solar generation, the alternative is to delay the start until after 00:30 and use the cheap electric. We'll likely do the same with our laundry over winter, and trying to figure out if/how we can do it with our tumble dryer (it'll be tricky as the machine itself doesn't have a delay timer ... looking like it'll be a fiddle by turning it on, then turning it off at the socket, then turning the socket back on again with a timer gadget that delays restoring power to the machine - we've tested and the machine auto-resumes after losing power once power comes back). Here's what the power use from our dishwasher looks like from last night:



Those two spikes are both from the dishwasher. Our solar set up would only generate enough to cover that usage during a full sun day through the middle 6-7 months of the year (and never in winter). So over the winter we'll accumulate some decent savings.

 

[BrickTamland]

Your phone will have a battery of ca. 10-15Wh, so even at Oct 22 rates will cost roughly 0.8p to charge fully.

A laptop, typically about 30-50Wh, so perhaps as much as 2.5p per charge...



Presumably this is not free.

My work cover it, so yes, yes it is.

Did not like tone of that post at all. Should someone working full time not be able to also have a gym membership to try and stay fit and healthy?

 

[Bozza]

We've just got a new fridge-freezer this week. This follows on from extending our kitchen which involved putting the American-style one we inherited 18 months ago into a shed in the garden for 6 months whilst the work was done. It didn't survive it, so we've got another one. Two things stood out:
1, they've changed the rating system such that there's no such thing as AAA. There are now no A ratings (which I think now is niche/aspirational in terms of energy use/consumption) ...
2, ... the one we got in the end is C-rated. We were struck by the difference in the (£/energy) 'savings' you could get depending on which appliance you go for. The claim is that we'll save over £2k* over its lifetime. For savings differences, see:

https://ao.com/l/fridge_freezers-bosch--or--liebherr-free_standing-priced_500_to_750/1-6-9-23/26-28/

* I think this amount isn't (currently) visible, because we got one that is (currently) out of stock

Thanks - I did some similar research yesterday and found the same - most decent-sized appliances are now rated E or F with a few in C and D.

The £ energy saving figure stated is quite interesting as the comparison is with the "least efficient appliance on the market", which means literally all but one device will be advertised as offering an energy saving!

 

[Bozza]

I'll be unplugging mine soon, as soon as I sort out that Loop alternative that Bozza posted about.

Just to add that I also installed Hugo Energy as [MENTION=314]Arthur[/MENTION] recommended.

Both apps are broadly similar but with enough slight differences that I think I'll be keeping both.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Thermals, Long Johns and a case of whisky.

This. M&S thermals are brilliant. Gift some to the elderly person of your choice and before you know it they'll be moaning that they're too hot!

 

[Audax]

Not sure if the relief is still available but remember to claim the WFH HMRC allowance for employees for anyone WFH

Not available for the current tax year unless you meet the (stringent) qualification criteria. basically means that if your employer gives you the *option* of WFH or Office, you can't claim it. If your employer is still saying "WFH only" you can claim it.

For those who self-assess, you can still claim it for last tax year. Just not for the current tax year.