I always work on the basis of 1W is 9 units pa, on the grounds that the accurate power isn't often known and it's a nice round figure. About 10 years ago I set up an audio stack that had a digital clock. The power with clock was 11W and standby without clock was 0.5W. Assuming your £16 pa difference, that's around 128 AA cells from the pound shop - that's one powerful clock!
Yes, these "energy-saving 'bulbs'" lead to a 15W CFL being left on all night rather than having a 60W GLS on for a couple of hours. Where do these remarkable 'bulbs' store all the enegy that they've saved? They could be the answer to the main problem with intermittent generation.
It's the real world Harry where a small regional council wants it done by a Cessna 172 for peanuts.
I've done a number of things over the years.
The most effective is linking the heating system into home automation, which I did over 10 years ago. This means the heating is on only when I'm in, otherwise it's setback to house protection levels. I can also switch it on (or off) remotely, e.g. if I'm working away from home, Actually, I've done this in two houses now.
A couple of years ago (prompted by one of the gas price rises), I disabled the automatic heating of the hot water cylinder in the early hours of the morning. I've always had a 30 minute boost button, but that is now all I use (and I must cut it down to 20 minutes, as that gives enough for a shower from stone cold start). Again, I can trigger this remotely if I've been away and want some hot water as soon as I get home.
I work with computers, and up to 6 years ago, I had 3 always-on computers, and a few lesser used ones for specific development work. They were all rather old too, so not power efficient. I went through a server consolidation exercise so I now have just one which is always-on, and I steel power from it for the external switch, WiFi access point, etc, so these aren't all running off their (mostly rather inefficient) wall-warts.
Home automation looks after almost all the house lighting, and some of it is entirely occupancy driven, so it can't get left on when there's no one there.
Over the last year, I have fed back into the home automation when the gas boiler burner is fired up, which gives me extremely detailed logs of gas usage for the last 3 qtrs, which very nearly agrees with my gas bill, the difference is probably down to the gas hob which isn't monitored;-).
Interestingly, I use so little gas during the two summer quarters now that it all falls under the initial higher rate level. It does seem a little ironic that my showers cost over twice as much because I've reduced gas consumption.
I've worked on the round number that 1W is ~£1 pa. If prices keep rising I'll have to revise that!
Wise move. When the mechanical time clock on the HW in my flat bust and I was the only person living there I didn't bother replacing it. The cylinder would reheat from cold in 20 mins and was well lagged so stayed hot enough for hand/face washing and washing up for >48hrs. There was a very noticeable drop in the gas bill, another reason for not replacing it...
Bit more than that nowadays.
umm 88p here (after minimum use tariff) so £1 is close
As always it depends, my higher rate came into effect a month ago,
11.45p/kWh (after the first 900kWh at standing charge replacement rates). 1/1000 * 365.25 * 24 * 0.1145 = £1.004so £1 per full-time watt is close enough for government work ...
78.5p for 9 units on one of my tarrifs (standing charge collected by the stealth method). The others are: 114.75 (only pay for what you use, no standing charge at all), 164.5 (day) & 48.0 (night, again only pay for what you use). Prices inc 5% VAT.
Sorry I used the ex-VAT prices, so call it a guinea/wattyear
Ghostrecon, who do you buy your electrons from?
eon - saveonline 9 plan duel gas/electricity - not available now afaik - managed to switch 2 days before to saveonline 10 which is more expensive
electricity - first 900 kWH 21.49p then 10.09p/kWh gas - first 2860 kWH 7.713p then 3.095p/kWh
Keep up at the back.
We have passed this way before. The old electromechanical wattmeters, with the spinning disc, are inherently capable of turning either way, in response to the direction of power flow. More recent versions include a ratchet so that they only record import. (The disc may be able to turn back for a few degrees, but is then stopped)
Electronic meters can measure and log both import and export, though the actual display may not necessarily be programmed to show this.
It can be even worse than that, as has been discussed in a very long thread on:
To summarise, some Siemens meters (and possibly others) are capable of being programmed so that any reverse power is added to power consumed, and displayed as the only reading visible. This option was clearly chosen by somebody as an anti-fraud measure, but then forgotten about.
It seems that the power companies themselves do not fully understand this, even when explained to them clearly and repeatedly. Of course, they know best ;-).
As a result, it is quite possible, as explained at length on the forum above, for solar panels to increase your bills significantly. Don't get caught out!
Chris
you say "more recent", but I'm sure that when as a student I worked in a meter test room with SESEB (1958) we checked that they wouldn't go backwards.
Well I can't dispute what you have experienced. However, as I have solar PV, at the moment when generation exceeds consumption and I am actually exporting, the meter disc rotates backwards for a few degrees until the ratchet stops it, I can even hear this if I am nearby, because it then makes a characteristic buzzing sound.
So, it won't run backward sufficient to reduce the reading, which is all the suppler is really interested in, and, I am guessing, all your test was interested in.
There is also plenty of evidence from folk with new PV installations that there are still meters in use which will run backwards. After all, if this was not a legitimate concern, why would the standard FIT application form ask you if your meter ran backwards?
Chris
They rattle through the tarrifs quickly! I signed up for 'SaveOnline7' in August (variable pegged 6% below their standard tarrif until next July and 2% dual fuel) as it was cheaper than the old 'EnergyOnline'.
After the mid-September rise mine (inc-VAT) are electricity first 900 kWh 22.848p then 12.023p gas first 2680 kWh 7.75p then 3.372p
Having just been through last quarter's bill, it had six different rates for electricity and six for gas (thank $DEITY I've not got Economy7) the figures quited above are not the discounted prices. The charged amounts do all add-up, but I can't get the discounted figure to the same they do, regardless of whether I take off 6% then 2% or just take off 8%. They've actually given 8.6% discount.
They do like confusion marketing don't they? Anyway, overall I'm paying
96p/wattyear
Yes, the human energy in having to get up plug in and switch on. For some this could be high risk if they have back problems or are old. Also sometimes things have to be left on standby for recording purposes. My biggest saving recently was to get rid of my old tower computer that I use to run a webcam, it was 135 watts or there about running
24/7 spo nearly 45p a day was my calculation so I brought a mac mini which runs at about 9 watts.Then there's the security aspect to you lwacve the lights on in the house when you go out.... While teh 50Watts or so of the bulb on dim make someone think twice before breaking in ? For me it's worth the expense.
Which? magazine currently have a campaign to end "confusion pricing".
I have no connection with Which? magazine; I just think this is worthwhile.
Mine has no standing charge and all the units are the same price, so it's appreciably >£1. I was on front-end loading but never got clear of the expensive band, never mind using enough to get a reasonable overall price.
That's where I can't get the cheaper units as my useage is about
300kWh/quarter.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.