Energy bill increases

[Ming the Merciless]

Because my precious projections were over £3,000 a year for elec alone!!! so a month at £96 suggests our energy efficiency measures are working.

£3,000 a year, wow your Christmas lights display must be amazing.

 

[lazybloke]

£3,000 a year, wow your Christmas lights display must be amazing.

Have been investigating things around the house in recent weeks to see what trickles away the units overnight; various chargers and games consoles that really do need to be unplugged when not in use. We're a bit too fond of using the electric ovens; considering an air-fryer.

But what I really need to do is sell the teenaged children.

 

[jowwy]

Have been investigating things around the house in recent weeks to see what trickles away the units overnight; various chargers and games consoles that really do need to be unplugged when not in use. We're a bit too fond of using the electric ovens; considering an air-fryer.

But what I really need to do is sell the teenaged children.

3k is a lot of electric……what unit price did you base it on???

 

[Alex321]

Octopus weren’t taking new customers a while back when I looked for my parents.

They have general advice against switching, and will not even provide an online quote.

But they are perfectly willing to take you on if you explain your situation and why it is worth you switching.

 

[ColinJ]

A 50 year old tank is going to be horribly inefficient. A new tank will have at least 60mm of foam insulation. Make sure that the plumber pays you for the old tank, there will be a decent amount of copper you can scrap in a 50 year old tank.

And potentially rotten!

My sister recently had an old water tank taken out of her attic when a combi-boiler was fitted to the house. The water supply to the tank had been turned off and most of the water drained, and then the heating engineer noticed a dribble of water coming from the base of the tank. He got a bucket under it just in time to catch what water was left in the tank. The base of the tank had corroded right through...

 

[cougie uk]

Have been investigating things around the house in recent weeks to see what trickles away the units overnight; various chargers and games consoles that really do need to be unplugged when not in use. We're a bit too fond of using the electric ovens; considering an air-fryer.

But what I really need to do is sell the teenaged children.

It's not stuff trickling away electric if the bill is 3000. But games consoles when on and with a TV on will be a big thing.
We bought our air fryer a few months back and it's about 1/5 the cost of running the oven.
Only thing is that our model has now increased by £70 and has gone out of stock so you might need to shop around.

 

[lazybloke]

It's not stuff trickling away electric if the bill is 3000. But games consoles when on and with a TV on will be a big thing.
We bought our air fryer a few months back and it's about 1/5 the cost of running the oven.
Only thing is that our model has now increased by £70 and has gone out of stock so you might need to shop around.

If you look at your overnight energy usage you might be surprised how much of your bill is from the small stuff trickling away.
Surprised, or shocked - hence in the last 11 months I've got a new A-rated fridge and freezer, and I've identified several items that need to be unplugged at night.

I still need to do more investigation - at this very moment, there's about 0.9 amps flowing that I can't account for.

 

[cougie uk]

If you look at your overnight energy usage you might be surprised how much of your bill is from the small stuff trickling away.
Surprised, or shocked - hence in the last 11 months I've got a new A-rated fridge and freezer, and I've identified several items that need to be unplugged at night.

I still need to do more investigation - at this very moment, there's about 0.9 amps flowing that I can't account for.

Isn't that about 10% of the usage though ? What's the 90% ?

 

[Scaleyback]

It's all the " small stuff trickling away " added together that together constitute a big/bigger lump (stating the bl***ing obvious) Like the phone on charge and the electric toothbrush on charge to the fridge and freezer to the odd light left on etc etc. We are all so dependent on electricity to 'fuel' our everyday lives its use is insidious.

 

[cougie uk]

It's all the " small stuff trickling away " added together that together constitute a big/bigger lump (stating the bl***ing obvious) Like the phone on charge and the electric toothbrush on charge to the fridge and freezer to the odd light left on etc etc. We are all so dependent on electricity to 'fuel' our everyday lives its use is insidious.

It's really not your phone left on charge. That's going to be under a quid each year. Now fridge freezer could be a huge drain - especially if it's one of those old American style units that's awfully inefficient.

It's not going to be your toothbrush charger either. Just measured mine at less than 1w. Even if it was charging 24/7 365 days a year that's less than £3. And I bet once it's full it stops taking any measurable current.

By comparison you might have an old lightbulb that's pulling 60 or 100 times more the electric.

 

[Scaleyback]

It's really not your phone left on charge. That's going to be under a quid each year. Now fridge freezer could be a huge drain - especially if it's one of those old American style units that's awfully inefficient.

It's not going to be your toothbrush charger either. Just measured mine at less than 1w. Even if it was charging 24/7 365 days a year that's less than £3. And I bet once it's full it stops taking any measurable current.

By comparison you might have an old lightbulb that's pulling 60 or 100 times more the electric.

Ok, 🙄, I was using random items trying to make the point that individually some items will not register as energy 'drains' but collectively the little things count.
.

 

[presta]

Shell say that they'll deduct the £66 from your Direct Debit, but they haven't, they've just added it to the credit on my account and the DD hasn't changed:
View attachment 664435

View attachment 664437
They're also claiming my consumption has gone up ~80% when it hasn't.

I don't know why the first month should be any different to the rest.

 

[youngoldbloke]

View attachment 664625
I don't know why the first month should be any different to the rest.

I think I'm fairly literate, but that email doesn't make very much sense to me.

 

[cougie uk]

I think I'm fairly literate, but that email doesn't make very much sense to me.

It's two payments of £66 and four payments after that of £67 to make up the total of £400.

 

[presta]

As a slight aside, damp in a house is not a product of temperature directly.

It is humidity combined with temperature variation between two zones.

That is why roofs are described as hot or cold.

Poor ventilation is an example of a cause of mould followed by roofing issues/water ingress.

Not heating a house in itself does not cause mould.

Ventilation is expensive unless you use a heat exchanger.

My shower curtains get black with mould. I can prevent most of it if I throw the windows wide open, but that puts the heating bill through the roof. I used to have an extractor fan, but it ran from 7am to midnight every day and never made any difference, so I didn't bother replacing it when it kicked the bucket.

Dehumidifiers are often mentioned...do they actually draw the moisture from clothing ? Or is air movement better ?

They remove moisture from the air, and the water will evaporate from the clothes faster when the air's drier.

I still need to do more investigation - at this very moment, there's about 0.9 amps flowing that I can't account for.

Put like that it doesn't seem a lot, but assuming it's all real power that's 1892kWh PA, which is 87% of my total electricity consumption.