Forget Smart Meters, here are my practical top tips for saving energy and using less water,

Swipe

Keu said:

Ultrasonic said:

BigSpenderLittleSpender said:

Which is better a hot water bottle or an electric blanket?

On a practical level an electric blanket since it heats a larger area rather than just the bit by the hot water bottle. If you're purely talking about cost then I bet the electric blanket is cheaper to use too (but more expensive to buy).

I seriously doubt that, maybe if you follow instructions that say you pre-heat bed and then turn it off or else you risk damaging thin wires that are vulnerable when heated and this can create a fire risk.

theguardian.com/environment/2009/jan/08/ethicalliving

Any non cheapo modern electric blanket worth its salt can safely be left on all night

Gerry1

30.  Stop watching or recording TV as it is broadcast, on any channel, stop using the BBC iPlayer, just watch catch-up online.  Stop buying TV licences, save £159 per year.

Ignore all the nastygrams from TV Licensing, you are under no obligation whatsoever to communicate with them.  If they become too tiresome (e.g. sending registered letters that have to be collected from the main post office), write to them stating that

(i) you are now a WOIRA because your letter is formally withdrawing their implied right of access, so they can't send the boys round;

(ii) you are well aware of all the dire penalties for breaking the law, so any further threatening letters to send the boys round cannot be justified and will therefore be dealt with under the Malicious Communications Act 1988.

They will never bother you again.

Note that you don't have to make any declaration that you don't need a licence, and you can sign the letter as 'The Occupier'.  There is also no need to unplug the TV nor to disconnect the aerial or satellite dish: it's lawful to listen to radio stations on Freeview or satellite and to watch DVDs.  Unlike in the RoI, in the UK it's not illegal to own or use a TV without a licence, it's what you do with it that counts.

Ultrasonic

Some electric blankets are definitely sold as being able to be safely on all night but I'm not sure all are? With a thick duvet and the faux fur top of my electric blanket I actually find it too hot if I use even its lowest temperature mode designed to be run all night. Heating the bed up  before I get in and then switching it off works for me though  . 

Ultrasonic

@Keu out of interest I have checked the annual cost increase for me moving from Pure Planet to Shell and it will be about £143 per year (£538 to £681). I only switched to PP in May so the difference will be smaller than if you had an older deal I just wanted to give you an idea of some real world numbers for a lower energy user (which I am but nothing like as extreme as you have described).

tfarm

Keu said:

1. buy one of these for the devices you expect use the most ebay.co.uk/itm/164755064577 e.g. your fridge, TV, Fish tank, add batteries to keep the readings when uplugged, put in your energy rate per kWh, plug the device in, press cost button so it shows usage and press energy button so watts used is showing.  Get to know your device, for example my fridge uses 1kWh more a day if I have heating on.


26. Resist until your dying breathe getting a smart meter, they are totally useless and you pay for the in house display, I mean, no sheet sherlock it uses more when the kettle is on or the washing machine.

Aren't 1 and 26 contradictory?

GingerTim

And if you really want to micro-manage your consumption, a smart meter would actually be really useful.

Ultrasonic

tfarm said:

Keu said:

1. buy one of these for the devices you expect use the most ebay.co.uk/itm/164755064577 e.g. your fridge, TV, Fish tank, add batteries to keep the readings when uplugged, put in your energy rate per kWh, plug the device in, press cost button so it shows usage and press energy button so watts used is showing.  Get to know your device, for example my fridge uses 1kWh more a day if I have heating on.


26. Resist until your dying breathe getting a smart meter, they are totally useless and you pay for the in house display, I mean, no sheet sherlock it uses more when the kettle is on or the washing machine.

Aren't 1 and 26 contradictory?

No in that point 1 was to spend about £10 on a power consumption meter from eBay, rather than getting a smart meter and in-home display for free. The latter seems rather more sensible though!

[Deleted User]

Keu said:

26. Resist until your dying breathe getting a smart meter, they are totally useless and you pay for the in house display, I mean, no sheet sherlock it uses more when the kettle is on or the washing machine.

The IHD costs the consumer less than a £1 a year to run. If you turn on a 3kW kettle or washing machine then the IHD will show high usage because it is reflecting the cost of the energy that is being used. The actual smart meter costs the consumer nothing in running costs. It is powered from the supply side of the meter.

wild666

Keu said:

OFGEM should make every supplier have to provide a zero standing charge tariff with no pre-conditions and the rate no higher than the average of all their tariffs.  At least then we could batten down the hatches and reduce our costs.

I have been thinking that for a while as well but they put the charge on the price of a kWh, the price cap usage per day in kWh is approx: 8.5 kWh per day so the suppliers could divide the standing charge by 9, increase the kWh price by 2.95p, standing charge of 26.5p, then low users would pay less, average users pay the standing charge and high users pay more.  

With gas they would divide by 11.4 as that's around the reading of 1 unit of gas so the same 26.5p divided by 11.4 would be to add 2.33p to the kWh of gas. 
It is said that these prices are to keep the supply network working but looking at things at the moment, France saying they will cut the electric and Russia saying they will reduce supply's of gas then that's either a con by suppliers or the larger suppliers are double dipping and the standing charge isn't as much as they claim to keep the network running. 
If the standing charge is solely to keep the network running then why isn't it a standard price from all suppliers? 

wild666

I have one of those plugs  I use it to monitor the PC in the more than 3 years I've had it the total usage has been only 655 kWh. I paid £14.99 for mine on Amazon. I should have searched more widely for them. 
 It has the 10 gang surge protector plugged into it and monitors the desktop, monitor, printer, external HDD and 2.1 speaker system.