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

TheGardener

We are all getting a lot more clued up about what manufacturers say their appliances do and what we are all discovering they ACTUALLY do  - the EV's mentioned earlier are testament to that. I suppose we all knew it was the case (advertised MPG's on new cars were ever thus) As I have mentioned in a previous post in this thread, I certainly learned a lot from a very candid dishwasher technician when I made a customer enquiry - but energy was plentiful and relatively cheap and the power cuts of the 70's had become a chapter in social/economic history books. I wonder if it will herald a new era of honesty on the 'specifications tabs' on the websites and manuals at Currys et al. and maybe even drive the market to start producing domestic electrical goods to actually use less energy? 

(...and will there be a whole new field of mis-sold litigation and compensation for folk who bought EV's that were supposed to do x miles per kwh but actually only do xxx miles per kwh...

Vincero

TheGardener said:

We are all getting a lot more clued up about what manufacturers say their appliances do and what we are all discovering they ACTUALLY do  - the EV's mentioned earlier are testament to that. I suppose we all knew it was the case (advertised MPG's on new cars were ever thus) As I have mentioned in a previous post in this thread, I certainly learned a lot from a very candid dishwasher technician when I made a customer enquiry - but energy was plentiful and relatively cheap and the power cuts of the 70's had become a chapter in social/economic history books. I wonder if it will herald a new era of honesty on the 'specifications tabs' on the websites and manuals at Currys et al. and maybe even drive the market to start producing domestic electrical goods to actually use less energy? 

(...and will there be a whole new field of mis-sold litigation and compensation for folk who bought EV's that were supposed to do x miles per kwh but actually only do xxx miles per kwh...

To be fair, some manufacturers are truthful about some of their products - I've seen some products which give their power usage in Watts and VA which in certain scenarios may be important but for the average person means not a lot.

As for the electric car, assuming the car mile/kWh number is accurate, you will NEVER EVER get just that same amount of power from the grid to charge it up. Energy is always lost in the conversion and the act of charging the batteries themselves. The faster you charge the worse it gets.
In theory, charging from the 3-pin plug charger instead of the wallbox could be more efficient but over 2x slower.
What would be interesting is if public chargers actually stated the amount of energy that was used to charge up the car by whatever amount - it may be interesting to see what the battery and charger heating/cooling systems consume. As far as I'm aware most only or primarily show the amount the car has charged up by.

MariaAH

UPDATE: Drum roll...the long awaited update after monitoring son's Gaming PC/Monitor/Aircon for 7 days...

Gaming PC = 24.3kWh/week = 3.47kWh/day = 12607kWh/year
at todays price = 97p/day = £6.80/week = £354.78/year

Aircon and monitors = 10.9kWh/week = 1.56kWh/day = 568.36kWh/year
at todays price = 44p/day = £3.05/week = £159.14/year

Overall, this is not at bad as expected. Some days the consumption is significantly higher than others, and he has used aircon almost every day.

Overall electricity usage over the last 7 days

• Car charging = 84.73kWh
• GamingPC/Aircon = 35.2kWh
• Fridge Freezer = 17.5kWh (over double what it should be)
• Everything else = 100.97kWh

Not a lot we can do about car charging...it's still cheaper than petrol, and we work from home for more than half the week.
Gaming PC/Aircon - now it is being monitored, so son can pay for what he uses.

Fridge freezer is using over twice the kW that is should be. Once we know the price cap increase tomorrow, we can make a judgement call as to whether it would be cost effective to replace this 9 year old fridge freezer for a much more economic one. Have been looking at one that is E rated (on new rating system) with consumption quoted as just 320kWh per year (0.877kWh per day). Current fridge freezer should 1.2kWh per day, but is using over double that.

As for 'everything else', the next target for my investigations with the TP monitor plug will be the 'home entertainment', e.g the TV, Sky box, games consoles etc. Washing machine/dishwasher/tumble dryer will be much harder to monitor with the TP as the plugs are very difficult to get to.

A question: Would video calls from my iMac significantly increase consumption? e.g. Zoom, Google Teams, Teams, and would this be further impacted by number of attendees? I need to work in this way for my job.

Sea_Shell

It's a shame you can't harness all that excess heat in winter to heat the rest of the house!!!

Can he at least leave the door to his room open!!

Please make sure, come winter, that at least his radiator is turned off.   You obviously don't want to add ANY additional heat to that room, that just needs cooling again.

Does it all still need cooling, if the weather is much cooler and he maybe opens a window?   (I have no idea what operating temperature these things need)

chris_n

MariaAH said:

UPDATE: Drum roll...the long awaited update after monitoring son's Gaming PC/Monitor/Aircon for 7 days...

Gaming PC = 24.3kWh/week = 3.47kWh/day = 12607kWh/year
at todays price = 97p/day = £6.80/week = £354.78/year

Aircon and monitors = 10.9kWh/week = 1.56kWh/day = 568.36kWh/year
at todays price = 44p/day = £3.05/week = £159.14/year

Overall, this is not at bad as expected. Some days the consumption is significantly higher than others, and he has used aircon almost every day.

Overall electricity usage over the last 7 days

• Car charging = 84.73kWh
• GamingPC/Aircon = 35.2kWh
• Fridge Freezer = 17.5kWh (over double what it should be)
• Everything else = 100.97kWh

Not a lot we can do about car charging...it's still cheaper than petrol, and we work from home for more than half the week.
Gaming PC/Aircon - now it is being monitored, so son can pay for what he uses.

Fridge freezer is using over twice the kW that is should be. Once we know the price cap increase tomorrow, we can make a judgement call as to whether it would be cost effective to replace this 9 year old fridge freezer for a much more economic one. Have been looking at one that is E rated (on new rating system) with consumption quoted as just 320kWh per year (0.877kWh per day). Current fridge freezer should 1.2kWh per day, but is using over double that.

As for 'everything else', the next target for my investigations with the TP monitor plug will be the 'home entertainment', e.g the TV, Sky box, games consoles etc. Washing machine/dishwasher/tumble dryer will be much harder to monitor with the TP as the plugs are very difficult to get to.

A question: Would video calls from my iMac significantly increase consumption? e.g. Zoom, Google Teams, Teams, and would this be further impacted by number of attendees? I need to work in this way for my job.

It will make no appreciable difference using your IMac for video calls other than the extra time it is on.

xeny

Hmm. I can imagine an extra 10-20 watts for the iMac during the calls. No of attendees won't make a difference. Teams in my experience is the worst tool in this regard, but unfortunately my employer likes it.

Are the cooling coils on the back of the fridge freezer clean?

NeverendingDMP

Thanks for updating and I loved the drum roll. We have all been waiting to see (me cos I'm nosy) it will be interesting to see the rest of your studies of household items. And at least it's an open discussion at your house now as to how the bills are formed which is informative to everyone and you are all in it together come October!

NeverendingDMP

I've ordered a watt meter plug thing to. We recently had a few new appliances which in theory should be energy efficiency but we can't get below 10 kWh a day in summer and I'm determined to slim it down to 7 or 8 if there is an obvious culprit. I'm guessing washer and shower but I'll plug things in to see 

MariaAH

NeverendingDMP said:

I've ordered a watt meter plug thing to. We recently had a few new appliances which in theory should be energy efficiency but we can't get below 10 kWh a day in summer and I'm determined to slim it down to 7 or 8 if there is an obvious culprit. I'm guessing washer and shower but I'll plug things in to see 

Good luck with the investigations…it’s been quite eye opening here!

TheGardener

@MariaAH - this has been a great thread with some brilliant contributions. As someone who tolerates a water-cooled gaming computer in the house, I'm not surprised at the costs - it isn't the biggest single culprit on your household's electricity bill but it will be one of the biggest on ours