Energy bill increases

[Jameshow]

Why stop the club ride as well as the cake?

Why else do you ride?!🍰🍰🍰

 

[PaulSB]

You may or may not remember when club runs mid day stop was usually at a CTC appointment Sandwich’s we’re always carried A large tea pot of tea was purchased and perhaps a slice of apple pie.Tea time again a CTC place ,A variety of menus some thing on toast perhaps a salad Followed by tinned fruit and cake. Back then club runs all year we’re an all day affair Happy days

It's something I'm aware of but none of the clubs I have belonged to ever did this. The club run did used to last all day, usually 9.00 - 5.00, with a coffee, lunch and sometimes tea stop. I understand why this was, no objection to it, but as a young man with a wife and three children it was too much and I left the club.

This would happen at my current club, people don't have the time to be out all day.

 

[PaulSB]

Chances are the computer system disagrees with what the engineers knew all along. The parts weren't available, but taking the word of a person over what the computer says isn't done lightly or very often.

Yep, this is exactly what happened to me this week. Engineers turned up to fix my dumb smart meters, they don't communicate with the supplier or the display unit.

The meters need to be replaced but as the meters are working, that is measuring usage, engineers aren't permitted to make the swap. There is a shortage of microchips for meters meaning there is a shortage of meters. My job had been booked as an "installation" when it should have been booked as an "exchange."

I can't say I'm especially concerned but would have liked it fixed. Overall though British Gas is such a poorly run business it deserves to crash and burn in the current crisis. Recently my bills since November 1st were reversed putting me £1095.18 in credit. I've emailed BG to inform them of the problem and that after nine months of trying to resolve numerous issues they will not hear from me again.

I'll read the meters monthly, calculate my bill and set the money to one side for the day someone asks for it.

It's a crying shame the smaller companies who understood customer service have been allowed to fail and the major players are now given £150bn in support. Clearly those smaller businesses had the wrong model.

With luck the utility companies will be nationalised and a stop will be put to other countries energy suppliers exploiting the UK market.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Does a charger that is not charging use any electricity, just gone upstairs & actually remembered what I went there for which was good, anyway whilst in the bedroom/office I saw that the Alexa in there was still plugged in, as I'm not working in there currently I unplugged it. But the other plug in the socket was one I use to charge USB lights, so I unplugged it as well which prompted the question, if it's not actually charing is it drawing any current?

 

[cyberknight]

Take a flask and have it outside? Our club rides always allow for people having a picnic, two regulars have picnics, one because of allergies the other to save money.
I can have morning coffee to start, lunch (cake whatever) soon mounts up.

Unfortunately the club is a weight weenie kind of a club and flasks outside are ok in the summer,mid winter you need to defrost

 

[Low Gear Guy]

Does a charger that is not charging use any electricity, just gone upstairs & actually remembered what I went there for which was good, anyway whilst in the bedroom/office I saw that the Alexa in there was still plugged in, as I'm not working in there currently I unplugged it. But the other plug in the socket was one I use to charge USB lights, so I unplugged it as well which prompted the question, if it's not actually charing is it drawing any current?

In general chargers will consume a small but non zero amount of electricity in standby mode. It is good practice to turn them off when not in use. Turning off Alexa would also be a good idea.

 

[PK99]

This ^^, I always think baking potatoes in an oven (if not being done with something that takes as ridiculously long) is a very high electricity usage pursuit!
(I can't think of anything I would cook in an oven that takes as long as baking decent sized spuds from scratch)

Baked spuds need to be done in the oven to get the right crispy skin and dry inner texture. Microwaved spuds are microwaved spuds NOT baked potatoes.

A useful trick is to start them in the microwave to get the inner temperature up then finish in the oven = crispy skin plus dry inner texture. nit quite the same as proper baked potatoes, but pretty close.

 

[ColinJ]

Baked spuds need to be done in the oven to get the right crispy skin and dry inner texture. Microwaved spuds are microwaved spuds NOT baked potatoes.

A useful trick is to start them in the microwave to get the inner temperature up then finish in the oven = crispy skin plus dry inner texture. nit quite the same as proper baked potatoes, but pretty close.

My fancy microwave oven can get very close to 'true' baking in about 17 minutes for one potato, 19 minutes for two, and low 20s for three or four. It's a high power microwave oven with a fan oven and grill also included. It uses a combination of all 3 modes during the cycle. It gets close enough that I never bother to bake spuds the slow way.

 

[FishFright]

In general chargers will consume a small but non zero amount of electricity in standby mode. It is good practice to turn them off when not in use. Turning off Alexa would also be a good idea.

Turning of Alexa is always a good idea , imagine if a government asked people to give them 24hr access to your home .

The mad thing is that people will pay for the privilege if it saves them even a miniscule amount of effort.

 

[PK99]

My fancy microwave oven can get very close to 'true' baking in about 17 minutes for one potato, 19 minutes for two, and low 20s for three or four. It's a high power microwave oven with a fan oven and grill also included. It uses a combination of all 3 modes during the cycle. It gets close enough that I never bother to bake spuds the slow way.

??Combination oven??

Yes, but the cost of replacing a serviceable microwave with a combi over would take a long time to recoup.

 

[PapaZita]

if finishing off microwaved baked potatoes in a conventional oven, bear in mind that much of the cost of using a well-insulated modern oven is in getting it up to temperature, rather than maintaining it at temperature.

 

[vickster]

Which is partly why I only finish in oven if there’s something else in there

 

[cougie uk]

In general chargers will consume a small but non zero amount of electricity in standby mode. It is good practice to turn them off when not in use. Turning off Alexa would also be a good idea.

Alexas without screens use about 2w of power or about 50p per month depending on the tariff.

The joy of having an Alexa is you can ask her questions or command her to turn things off or on etc - kind of spoilt if you have to switch them on first.

I'd focus on the big things first.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Turning of Alexa is always a good idea , imagine if a government asked people to give them 24hr access to your home .
The mad thing is that people will pay for the privilege if it saves them even a miniscule amount of effort.

You have to set that against the ease of use, it's used for music & controlling some socket, of which some are inaccessible without removing furniture & in one instance floorboards. Yes I can use an App to control them, this way anyone can switch them on & more importantly off.

Alexas without screens use about 2w of power or about 50p per month depending on the tariff.

The joy of having an Alexa is you can ask her questions or command her to turn things off or on etc - kind of spoilt if you have to switch them on first.

I'd focus on the big things first.

We have 2, 1 in the corner of the dining room usage as described above, the other in a room which hasn't been used since April/May & if the weather holds not for another month until I have to go back inside to work, at which point I'll use it for music, so it 'should' have been switched off months ago.

 

[ColinJ]

??Combination oven??

Yes, but the cost of replacing a serviceable microwave with a combi over would take a long time to recoup.

It was quite expensive, but I saved money at the time by not replacing a knackered old gas cooker and used the cooker's space for extra storage.

I think that I paid around £500 for it, but I found some just now for around half that.