Oct price cap increase likely to push energy bill to over £10k... for a family of 4...

Alnat1

It's great to hear from parents who do actually make their kids pay board. None of my friends kids were made to, in fact one friend still pays her kids mobile contracts and they have both left home now.

My 2 always knew it would be expected and offered around 20% of their pay. It teaches them the value of money and about cost of living expenses, even if the parents don't actually need it. Parents can always put it away and gift it back later, maybe towards a house deposit, car when they pass their driving test, etc.

MariaAH

UPDATE: I have had a TP link plug monitoring consumption of our 'American' fridge freezer. The advertised consumption is 1.2kWh per day. The usage for the 18 hours today has already measured 1.9kWh - over 24 hours, this would suggest 2.53kWh, over double what we expected! This is an extra £136 per annum based on todays rates, but that will be a lot more after the Oct and Jan price increases! 

For clarity and comparison - the freezer is fairly full, probably 3/4 or more. The fridge is a less full, as we tend to do one large weekly shop, and we are due a shop. I did read that it take more energy to cool air than it does to cool food, so before monitoring, we followed a top tip and put lots of water/cola/wine bottles in the fridge to use up the space. It is probably just under half full taking the bottles into account. Recommendations are that fridges should be 3/4 be most efficient.

Well I have to say I am rather shocked. We shop once a week (as I am sure a lot of people do). Fridge and freezer are full on the shop day...and then this reduces as the week goes on, until the next shop day. What is the advertised 1.2kWh a day based on, does any one know? Is it based on the fridge and freezer being constantly 3/4 full?

We will have to seriously consider at what point it would make more sense to replace the fridge freezer!

Magnitio

MariaAH said:

UPDATE: I have had a TP link plug monitoring consumption of our 'American' fridge freezer. The advertised consumption is 1.2kWh per day. The usage for the 18 hours today has already measured 1.9kWh - over 24 hours, this would suggest 2.53kWh, over double what we expected! This is an extra £136 per annum based on todays rates, but that will be a lot more after the Oct and Jan price increases! 

For clarity and comparison - the freezer is fairly full, probably 3/4 or more. The fridge is a less full, as we tend to do one large weekly shop, and we are due a shop. I did read that it take more energy to cool air than it does to cool food, so before monitoring, we followed a top tip and put lots of water/cola/wine bottles in the fridge to use up the space. It is probably just under half full taking the bottles into account. Recommendations are that fridges should be 3/4 be most efficient.

Well I have to say I am rather shocked. We shop once a week (as I am sure a lot of people do). Fridge and freezer are full on the shop day...and then this reduces as the week goes on, until the next shop day. What is the advertised 1.2kWh a day based on, does any one know? Is it based on the fridge and freezer being constantly 3/4 full?

We will have to seriously consider at what point it would make more sense to replace the fridge freezer!

The ambient temperature will make a difference. I would guess that it is currently above average in your kitchen and in Winter (once you use the lower thermostat setting) it will be cooler.

k_man

MariaAH said:

UPDATE: I have had a TP link plug monitoring consumption of our 'American' fridge freezer. The advertised consumption is 1.2kWh per day. The usage for the 18 hours today has already measured 1.9kWh - over 24 hours, this would suggest 2.53kWh, over double what we expected! This is an extra £136 per annum based on todays rates, but that will be a lot more after the Oct and Jan price increases! 

For clarity and comparison - the freezer is fairly full, probably 3/4 or more. The fridge is a less full, as we tend to do one large weekly shop, and we are due a shop. I did read that it take more energy to cool air than it does to cool food, so before monitoring, we followed a top tip and put lots of water/cola/wine bottles in the fridge to use up the space. It is probably just under half full taking the bottles into account. Recommendations are that fridges should be 3/4 be most efficient.

Well I have to say I am rather shocked. We shop once a week (as I am sure a lot of people do). Fridge and freezer are full on the shop day...and then this reduces as the week goes on, until the next shop day. What is the advertised 1.2kWh a day based on, does any one know? Is it based on the fridge and freezer being constantly 3/4 full?

We will have to seriously consider at what point it would make more sense to replace the fridge freezer!

 If you have only measured for a day, and that included cooling all the extra bottles, then this is likely an unusually high usage day.

 Cooling air doesn't use more energy than food, but the issue with an empty fridge, is that lots of air rushes out when opened - you can usually feel this with cold feet effect, the warmer replacement air then needs to then be cooled.

Now the extra bottles are cooled, that will help for the next few days, unless you do a big food shop.
This should then give a more meaningful measurement.

Be careful not to overfill too, as that can  block cold air circulating, and food at the front, and especially the door, aren't kept cool enough.

Alnat1

Those figures are pretty much the same as I found with my American FF. Is it an LG by any chance?

sienew

MariaAH said:

Well I have to say I am rather shocked. We shop once a week (as I am sure a lot of people do). Fridge and freezer are full on the shop day...and then this reduces as the week goes on, until the next shop day. What is the advertised 1.2kWh a day based on, does any one know? Is it based on the fridge and freezer being constantly 3/4 full?

Manufacturers seem to use a similar method of calculation as VW do for their emissions tests.

MariaAH

Alnat1 said:

Those figures are pretty much the same as I found with my American FF. Is it an LG by any chance?

No, Rangemaster

MariaAH

k_man said:

 If you have only measured for a day, and that included cooling all the extra bottles, then this is likely an unusually high usage day.

 Cooling air doesn't use more energy than food, but the issue with an empty fridge, is that lots of air rushes out when opened - you can usually feel this with cold feet effect, the warmer replacement air then needs to then be cooled.

Now the extra bottles are cooled, that will help for the next few days, unless you do a big food shop.
This should then give a more meaningful measurement.

Be careful not to overfill too, as that can  block cold air circulating, and food at the front, and especially the door, aren't kept cool enough.

Great advice, thanks.

michaels

k_man said:

MariaAH said:

UPDATE: I have had a TP link plug monitoring consumption of our 'American' fridge freezer. The advertised consumption is 1.2kWh per day. The usage for the 18 hours today has already measured 1.9kWh - over 24 hours, this would suggest 2.53kWh, over double what we expected! This is an extra £136 per annum based on todays rates, but that will be a lot more after the Oct and Jan price increases! 

For clarity and comparison - the freezer is fairly full, probably 3/4 or more. The fridge is a less full, as we tend to do one large weekly shop, and we are due a shop. I did read that it take more energy to cool air than it does to cool food, so before monitoring, we followed a top tip and put lots of water/cola/wine bottles in the fridge to use up the space. It is probably just under half full taking the bottles into account. Recommendations are that fridges should be 3/4 be most efficient.

Well I have to say I am rather shocked. We shop once a week (as I am sure a lot of people do). Fridge and freezer are full on the shop day...and then this reduces as the week goes on, until the next shop day. What is the advertised 1.2kWh a day based on, does any one know? Is it based on the fridge and freezer being constantly 3/4 full?

We will have to seriously consider at what point it would make more sense to replace the fridge freezer!

 If you have only measured for a day, and that included cooling all the extra bottles, then this is likely an unusually high usage day.

 Cooling air doesn't use more energy than food, but the issue with an empty fridge, is that lots of air rushes out when opened - you can usually feel this with cold feet effect, the warmer replacement air then needs to then be cooled.

Now the extra bottles are cooled, that will help for the next few days, unless you do a big food shop.
This should then give a more meaningful measurement.

Be careful not to overfill too, as that can  block cold air circulating, and food at the front, and especially the door, aren't kept cool enough.

Ours has a 'door in door' to avoid this and a 'knock knock so you can see inside without opening....DKs however still feel the need to open the big door for 5 minutes every time they get a bit peckish (I know this as it starts to beep and sends a message to my phone when the door is open more than 60s).  Luckily for them the plug is pretty hard to get at so I haven't been able to put the energy meter on it.

spikejrt

Alnat1 said:

Stayed at a friends house this weekend and took my Tapo as we'd been chatting about it.

We measured her plug-in air freshener as 4w, pffft seems nothing.

She has this on constantly, so 4 x 24 x 365 = 35kWh. She has 6 of these, all over the house, 35kWh x 6 = 210kWh. Is that really £126 if we're now saying electricity will be around 60p/kWh or have I messed up somewhere with the maths?

Your maths are bang on. It's actually quite scary how much a few single figure wattage items on 24/7 will add up over the next year...