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

MariaAH

useful comments @annabanana82 but I do my video calls from an iMac (desktop) rather than a macbook (laptop). But tbh, the usage on my iMac is not as bad as expected.

MariaAH

caveman38 said:

MariaAH said:

caveman38 said:

If we assume the daily average is 3Kw and weekly approx. 20kW. Then at the new 52p per kW projected for October we are talking a tenner a week just for that - frightening. Is that right and what about future projections? BTW I have my Tapo and doing the circuit and costing all the heavy users.

The week in question was 24.3kW for gaming PC, PLUS 10.9kW for aircon/monitors, so 35.2kW...at 52p that is £18 a week or £79 a month! His money not mine!

A NOTE RE THE TAPO LINK MONITOR PLUG: they have been reliable elsewhere, but has tripped my iMac twice now, so removed my one...I know what the iMac uses;

less than 3kW when sleeping
45-65kw in 'normal' use
85kW when on Zoom calls

I hope you mean watts and not Kw

Yes! well spotted...will edit post!

Happy_Sloth

RobM99 said:

Krakkkers said:

Graphics cards are like room heaters.

A quick Google says 250w or so - is that about right (I really have no idea!)?

sadly my husbands beast is using a 500w graphic's card   we've used the TP links and i've found that almost 50% of the electric use in the house is down to that 1 PC! 

but can i get him the switch it off? .... *sob* 

RobM99

Happy_Sloth said:

RobM99 said:

Krakkkers said:

Graphics cards are like room heaters.

A quick Google says 250w or so - is that about right (I really have no idea!)?

sadly my husbands beast is using a 500w graphic's card   we've used the TP links and i've found that almost 50% of the electric use in the house is down to that 1 PC! 

but can i get him the switch it off? .... *sob* 

WOW! I'm genuinely astonished! At least it'll heat the room in winter!

Krakkkers

But OP son is heating the room with his Beast and then cooling it down with AC.

QrizB

MariaAH said:

Ahhhh...did not realise that...yes we threw away the display unit. Here are pictures...is it the black thing clamped around the red cable?

That's definitely a smart meter, a Secure Liberty 100 which is one of the earlier SMETS1 models.

Is your energy supplier able to read it, or do you have to submit manual readings? (Do you know how to read it?)

The black clamp is a current transformer (CT). It's not part of the smart meter. Where do the thin wires from the CT go? Do they connect to your EV charger?

70sbudgie

MariaAH said:

Ahhhh...did not realise that...yes we threw away the display unit. Here are pictures...is it the black thing clamped around the red cable?

The smart meter is the Secure Liberty 100 unit. The good news is that I believe that Octopus recognise this as a smart meter that they can work with. I understand that they are not taking new customers until they've worked out their post price cap increase prices. (Within a week?) So if I were you, I would keep an eye on the Octopus website and see if you can get an Octopus Go rate. If not that, an Economy 7 rate will give you at least some reduction overnight and allow the costs of charging your cars to come down.

There are plenty of people on these forums (me included!) that could give you an Octopus referral code (previously this would give the recipient and the donor £50 each. Next week, I'm not sure). So whoever's you use, make sure you use one.

I think the black thing is a current clamp. Do you have another monitoring device? If you're not sure you could take it off and see what stops working. It shouldn't affect the smart meter above it. It could be the display unit you threw out. The only other thing I'd check is whether your electrician recently fitted it. (Unless you know what it is for). 

QrizB

Happy_Sloth said:

RobM99 said:

Krakkkers said:

Graphics cards are like room heaters.

A quick Google says 250w or so - is that about right (I really have no idea!)?

sadly my husbands beast is using a 500w graphic's card   we've used the TP links and i've found that almost 50% of the electric use in the house is down to that 1 PC! 

but can i get him the switch it off? .... *sob* 

Seriously Happy_Sloth, that's verging on spousal abuse. If his graphics card is responsible for half of your huge electricity bill, he needs to take some responsibility.

Sea_Shell

QrizB said:

Happy_Sloth said:

RobM99 said:

Krakkkers said:

Graphics cards are like room heaters.

A quick Google says 250w or so - is that about right (I really have no idea!)?

sadly my husbands beast is using a 500w graphic's card   we've used the TP links and i've found that almost 50% of the electric use in the house is down to that 1 PC! 

but can i get him the switch it off? .... *sob* 

Seriously Happy_Sloth, that's verging on spousal abuse. If his graphics card is responsible for half of your huge electricity bill, he needs to take some responsibility.

On this point, I can see the increased stress on family finances and arguments about "hobby" usage and or "personal" spends are going to lead to relationship breakdowns if couples aren't on the same page. ☹️

Happy_Sloth

RobM99 said:

Happy_Sloth said:

RobM99 said:

Krakkkers said:

Graphics cards are like room heaters.

A quick Google says 250w or so - is that about right (I really have no idea!)?

sadly my husbands beast is using a 500w graphic's card   we've used the TP links and i've found that almost 50% of the electric use in the house is down to that 1 PC! 

but can i get him the switch it off? .... *sob* 

WOW! I'm genuinely astonished! At least it'll heat the room in winter!

it produces a fair amount of heat tbh but not enough to mitigate the need for CH... haha