Energy Prices - are they taking the piss???

Been looking into a multifuel fire as well, the previous owners got rid of the chimney breast in the front room, but it looks like it's just plasterboarded over and the original chimney is still on there so "should" just be a case of a chimney liner and a new hearth.

Not 100% sure if would save that much on the gas use though, but would make a nice feature in the front room
 


Hot Since 82 said:
Guessing it was simply too costly. The goldilocks zone was circa 2010/11 when fits was 60p it was then reduced massively around 2012/13 I think to around 25p and steadily down thereafter to effectively nil after March 2019.
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Ours was 2011. They’re quite small (2.5kw) though because I guess that was the standard back then! We’ve talked about replacing them with more powerful ones and a battery but when we’re getting 60p pkwh it’s really not worth it.
becs said:
Always thought our electric use was high, despite being sensible and doing all the usual stuff. Got my bill today which included 15 days when nobody was in the house, so I've been doing some sums.

By my calculations, I'm using 4 kwh per day on things that need to be kept on. The things that were left on while I was away were: American fridge freezer, digital clock on oven, cordless phone base with answerphone, router and 2 digital alarm clocks. I turned off the sockets for things like the tele, my PC and office stuff, chargers etc.

Does that usage seem high for the regular stuff that you need to keep turned on?
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Have to say just by my experience that sounds a bit high.

We have 2.5kw solar panels, which I think means they can only power a total of 2.5kw at any one time. We have a smart meter and I can see right now we are currently using 0kw, meaning our whole five bed house with everything on standby is using less than 2.5kw (and that’s at 8am when it’s not bright!) If I stick the kettle on it goes up to 2.92kw.

During the day when both of us are working, on video calls it can still be 0kw and I’ve even had one of the air con units on in the loft and it’s not gone over what the solar panels produce. So it sounds like 4kw is high for you.

Have you got/can you get a smart meter?
 
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chunksafc said:
Been looking into a multifuel fire as well, the previous owners got rid of the chimney breast in the front room, but it looks like it's just plasterboarded over and the original chimney is still on there so "should" just be a case of a chimney liner and a new hearth.

Not 100% sure if would save that much on the gas use though, but would make a nice feature in the front room
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It can be a pricey feature but we absolutely love ours, we can swing open the French doors and that's two massive reception rooms heated (old house). We paid £1,800 for the stove and about the same again for building work and installation (and that was without a liner) but that was 8 years ago. The stove price has only increased by about £130 in that time but all the other costs are up a fair bit.
 
Hot Since 82 said:
It can be a pricey feature but we absolutely love ours, we can swing open the French doors and that's two massive reception rooms heated (old house). We paid £1,800 for the stove and about the same again for building work and installation (and that was without a liner) but that was 8 years ago. The stove price has only increased by about £130 in that time but all the other costs are up a fair bit.
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Our house is pretty open downstairs, so I'm thinking the heat should travel around ok to keep it warm.

We had a good one in one of our old houses and it didn't half chuck the heat out.

Would mean then that potentially the gas would only be used when the combi is heating up hot water for washing and not for heating.
 
becs said:
Always thought our electric use was high, despite being sensible and doing all the usual stuff. Got my bill today which included 15 days when nobody was in the house, so I've been doing some sums.

By my calculations, I'm using 4 kwh per day on things that need to be kept on. The things that were left on while I was away were: American fridge freezer, digital clock on oven, cordless phone base with answerphone, router and 2 digital alarm clocks. I turned off the sockets for things like the tele, my PC and office stuff, chargers etc.

Does that usage seem high for the regular stuff that you need to keep turned on?
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Does sound high. 4kwh on just standby stuff etc, that's just under 1,500 kwh per year. We have just used 2,800 kwh electric for the past year and includes two of us wfh using laptops, mobiles, printers, lights together with tv's, two fridge freezers, kettle on the go all the time, other typical stuff like hair dryers and irons having a big hifi separates rig running etc.
chunksafc said:
Our house is pretty open downstairs, so I'm thinking the heat should travel around ok to keep it warm.

We had a good one in one of our old houses and it didn't half chuck the heat out.

Would mean then that potentially the gas would only be used when the combi is heating up hot water for washing and not for heating.
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Yeah we used our stove a lot more from Oct last year (when our price fix with Ovo ended) throughout the autumn, winter and spring (which was a cool/ chilly spring). We used 9,000 kwh less gas than in the same period the previous year which at todays price is over £700, however we still had to buy kindling, wood and or smokeless fuel which will probably have cost 2/3rds of the gas saving.
 
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HellsBells said:
Ours was 2011. They’re quite small (2.5kw) though because I guess that was the standard back then! We’ve talked about replacing them with more powerful ones and a battery but when we’re getting 60p pkwh it’s really not worth it.

Have to say just by my experience that sounds a bit high.

We have 2.5kw solar panels, which I think means they can only power a total of 2.5kw at any one time. We have a smart meter and I can see right now we are currently using 0kw, meaning our whole five bed house with everything on standby is using less than 2.5kw (and that’s at 8am when it’s not bright!) If I stick the kettle on it goes up to 2.92kw.

During the day when both of us are working, on video calls it can still be 0kw and I’ve even had one of the air con units on in the loft and it’s not gone over what the solar panels produce. So it sounds like 4kw is high for you.

Have you got/can you get a smart meter?
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I've got an unfunctioning smart meter!

It was installed early March 2020. He put the actual meters in but couldn't get them to connect to the network. He said someone would have to do something remotely then he'd come back and connect them up and give me the home panel thing. Then covid kicked off and lockdown happened so everything got cancelled. I've been trying to get someone back since lockdowns finished, but I've not been able to get an appointment as people who haven't got smart meters already are being prioritised.

I wanted a smart meter as I was going to turn everything off on the fusebox, then turn it back on one circuit at a time to see if I can find out what is using all the electric.
 
becs said:
I've got an unfunctioning smart meter!

It was installed early March 2020. He put the actual meters in but couldn't get them to connect to the network. He said someone would have to do something remotely then he'd come back and connect them up and give me the home panel thing. Then covid kicked off and lockdown happened so everything got cancelled. I've been trying to get someone back since lockdowns finished, but I've not been able to get an appointment as people who haven't got smart meters already are being prioritised.

I wanted a smart meter as I was going to turn everything off on the fusebox, then turn it back on one circuit at a time to see if I can find out what is using all the electric.
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I think it’s worth kicking off and getting a review. It feels like you’re using a lot. The fridge is the biggest consumer out of what you listed - do you know what it’s rated? Looking mine up it’s 497kwh per year.
 
becs said:
I've got an unfunctioning smart meter!

It was installed early March 2020. He put the actual meters in but couldn't get them to connect to the network. He said someone would have to do something remotely then he'd come back and connect them up and give me the home panel thing. Then covid kicked off and lockdown happened so everything got cancelled. I've been trying to get someone back since lockdowns finished, but I've not been able to get an appointment as people who haven't got smart meters already are being prioritised.

I wanted a smart meter as I was going to turn everything off on the fusebox, then turn it back on one circuit at a time to see if I can find out what is using all the electric.
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Join my club, had a smart electric meter installed in February and it's never worked.

At stage 2 of a complaint to EDF about it, but they really don't seem interested or bothered
 
HellsBells said:
I think it’s worth kicking off and getting a review. It feels like you’re using a lot. The fridge is the biggest consumer out of what you listed - do you know what it’s rated? Looking mine up it’s 497kwh per year.
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I've had a look online and I can't find anything. It's an old one like. I must have bought it in 2007 as I remember the first one arrived with a faulty compressor and they wanted me to wait 2-3 weeks for an engineer to replace it but I insisted they send a brand new replacement one as I was pregnant and didn't want to be without a fridge for 2-3 weeks!

LG GRB207TUJA (without the ice/water dispenser) if anyone can find anything.
 
becs said:
I've had a look online and I can't find anything. It's an old one like. I must have bought it in 2007 as I remember the first one arrived with a faulty compressor and they wanted me to wait 2-3 weeks for an engineer to replace it but I insisted they send a brand new replacement one as I was pregnant and didn't want to be without a fridge for 2-3 weeks!

LG GRB207TUJA (without the ice/water dispenser) if anyone can find anything.
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The information is usually on a printed plate inside the fridge.
 
Fcomp said:
Rated input 170W is the figure.
That is quite high, mines 87W but yours is a much bigger fridge.

That means if the fridge was running all day (which it shouldn't) then it'll consume 170W x 24h = 4kWh per day.
Typically, it should run less than half the time so maybe it is using 2 units a day.
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Thanks for explaining it. Much appreciated 😎
 
becs said:
Always thought our electric use was high, despite being sensible and doing all the usual stuff. Got my bill today which included 15 days when nobody was in the house, so I've been doing some sums.

By my calculations, I'm using 4 kwh per day on things that need to be kept on. The things that were left on while I was away were: American fridge freezer, digital clock on oven, cordless phone base with answerphone, router and 2 digital alarm clocks. I turned off the sockets for things like the tele, my PC and office stuff, chargers etc.

Does that usage seem high for the regular stuff that you need to keep turned on?
Click to expand...

We were away last week. Only thing on was the fibre plug in bit and the fridge. Used about 1.4kwhish per day. Our fridge is just a bog standard one
 
Mine says Annual energy consumption 302 kWh

that's less than one per day, but I'm guessing that's when it's never opened. Mine is constantly being opened.
 

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