What should we do about rising energy prices?

[andrew Ivimey]

Crikey Ed, I couldn't cope with that. You will get your reward eventually I am sure but....bloody hell! I would run away.

As for Xmas. I don't get it. This morning I popped into the local guitar shop. Bought a set of guitar strings and then found I couldn't immediately pay. The geezer behind me said that it was Xmas and he'd pay ( the kindness of strangers) .

No, no says I. My wallet is somewhere in my bag.I rummaged and Danny, behind the counter, offered to serve the geezer. I found my wallet and paid for my guitar strings and those the geezer also wanted. Now the point is, as we three talked, Danny and new friend were really looking forward to Christmas and discussed with obvious and honest relish.... I just don't understand. Its not a Scrooge thing; I was brought up badly or something.
Puzzled of Beds.
Fuck. The weather forecast is chuntering on about another 'cold spell'.

[andrew Ivimey]

I want a 'tank suit'....and slippers. 17degrees sounds delicious. As I sip my naturally coolled cider I ponder that two hats are so much etter than one.

It's not the weather, its winter after all, but like the thermometer, my savings are tanking. Right now it's not so bad and there is no threat of Iranian Shahid drones breaking the ice and my head so to speak. But serious bastards out there are making billions as we ( even me) suffer - twas ever thus I know but that doesn't make it right.

[pre65]

Anyone here been officially asked to save electricity at certain times of day ?

I understand that there are payments to do so when asked.

[brig001]

Yes I have. Saved about 12p on one of the sessions, so no worth it financially yet, but they seem to be ramping up the incentives
There's one today, but Mrs has a few friends round, so not even worth trying

Brian

[jack]

Anyone here been officially asked to save electricity at certain times of day ?

I understand that there are payments to do so when asked.

We were asked, and when I checked was told that as we have 3 phase, we can't have a smart meter so can't do this after all...

However, I still have the Emporia monitoring system running and we're using about 30% less electricity than we were 2 years ago, so doing something right at least.

[Greg]

I’m signed up for it with Octopus Energy. We’ve done several trial periods plus today’s which was the first proper one. In our situation, it doesn’t make a lot of difference because there is little I can turn off to reduce consumption in our house. Without high consumers like the kettle, oven and hot plates (all electric) which we don’t use during the saving hour, the house runs at between 0 and 300W. Figures for today so far: Imported (Grid) 4kWh. Generated (solar panels) 5.5kWh of which we’ve consumed 2.3kWh.

[Neal]

You could make use of a battery storage unit Greg

[Greg]

You could make use of a battery storage unit Greg

Indeed. The trouble is, good battery systems and their installation are expensive and that has to be factored against how long it would take to recover the investment.

[jack]

Just switching back to fixed rate from E7.

Did the maths - we can save nearly £500/pa by doing that as we are only using 25% in the E7 window now.

[vinylnvalves]

You could make use of a battery storage unit Greg

Indeed. The trouble is, good battery systems and their installation are expensive and that has to be factored against how long it would take to recover the investment.

I have done the sums a couple of times now, and sticking the money in a saving account, seem to make most sense. The break even point was about 8 years, assuming a 10% rise every year. Hardware costs dropping, but installation costs rising. Maybe if your putting PV up now with panels it may make sense, but the losses, for converting electricity back to DC and the back again impact the calcs. So a hybrid inverter wins there, but not worth scuppering a lucrative feed in tariff for.

[brig001]

I have looked at battery systems too, but they are all grid-tied and I think that adds to the cost
Would it be possible to use a UPS with a large battery, but different logic?
The battery could charge overnight on cheap rate
During the day, I could run everything from battery until the battery was flat, then bypass the UPS and run on mains

Brian

[Neal]

it should not affect your FiT if the batteries are AC coupled as the energy would have already been metered. A retrofit battery system will be AC coupled anyhow, makes no sense to DC couple it.

[Ray P]

Electric Wallpaper - looks like its woth checking out...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64402524

[pre65]

I could warm to that idea.

[Daniel Quinn]

Wouldn't the wallpaper paste never dry