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

northernsparky

MariaAH said:

michaels said:

Thanks Maria, really useful. 

I wish I could train my kids so well re the showers.  I have fitted a lower flow shower head which is noticeable in things like rinsing hair but not really a hardship but unfortunately we only got a gas smart meter yesterday so I don't have any good comparable data yet.

We also have an EV but know we are saving a fortune vs petrol so not too worried about that.  I know tariffs are currently still up in the air but have you looked at getting a time of use tariff like Octopus go and charging (plus dishwasher and washing machine) overnight?

Last time i looked, Octopus were not taking new customers on to their EV tariff. Looks like they might be now...but it only gives 4 hours between 12:30 and 4:30 (car takes about 7 hours to charge, bigger battery cars would take longer). We only charged 8 times in the last month, and only 4 of those were overnight charging.

It would require pre-planning and organisation to co-ordinate dishwasher, washing machine and charging to happen between 12:30 and 4:30!! But I will look into it. 

I switched over to Octopus last week - it took 2 days to move over to their variable tariff, and after another couple of days I got transferred onto the Octopus go, then transferred onto the Go faster tariff - so why not give them a ring and see what they have to say

RobM99

LadyWithAPlan   Using my smartmeter which backed up my calculation,  one litre of water to boil in an electric kettle costs <3p.

xeny

MariaAH said:

I know that my iMac sleeps at a negligible level if all tabs closed down (thanks to TP plug), so I close the tabs when it sleeps BUT I have changed settings that when I open up Google it open up the tabs again. That has definitely saved and I don't lose important 'in progress' stuff.

I'd be "falls off my chair" levels of surprised if the number of tabs open makes any difference when the iMac is asleep. Quite possibly it makes a difference with the screen asleep but the computer awake, but once it's fully asleep I'd expect no difference.

michaels

xeny said:

MariaAH said:

I know that my iMac sleeps at a negligible level if all tabs closed down (thanks to TP plug), so I close the tabs when it sleeps BUT I have changed settings that when I open up Google it open up the tabs again. That has definitely saved and I don't lose important 'in progress' stuff.

I'd be "falls off my chair" levels of surprised if the number of tabs open makes any difference when the iMac is asleep. Quite possibly it makes a difference with the screen asleep but the computer awake, but once it's fully asleep I'd expect no difference.

Perhaps 'sleep' in mac land is different from sleep in PC land?

MariaAH

northernsparky said:

I switched over to Octopus last week - it took 2 days to move over to their variable tariff, and after another couple of days I got transferred onto the Octopus go, then transferred onto the Go faster tariff - so why not give them a ring and see what they have to say

I will do - a bit flat out at work but top of my non-work to-do list!

MariaAH

xeny said:

MariaAH said:

I know that my iMac sleeps at a negligible level if all tabs closed down (thanks to TP plug), so I close the tabs when it sleeps BUT I have changed settings that when I open up Google it open up the tabs again. That has definitely saved and I don't lose important 'in progress' stuff.

I'd be "falls off my chair" levels of surprised if the number of tabs open makes any difference when the iMac is asleep. Quite possibly it makes a difference with the screen asleep but the computer awake, but once it's fully asleep I'd expect no difference.

My TP plug verified this! I used to let my iMac sleep but with tabs open (Google Chrome) so I could quickly carry on where I left off. BUT closing the tabs down before sleeping significantly reduced the consumption. Honestly, the TP verified this. I have changed setting so that when I open up Google it open the tabs back up.

Sleeping with Google Chrome tabs left open used 30W whereas sleeping with Google Chrome tabs closed used 3W. 

Overnight monitoring with the TP plug verified this. I was surprised too, but cannot argue with the facts!

xeny

michaels said:
Perhaps 'sleep' in mac land is different from sleep in PC land?

I'm writing this on a Mac! Both are pretty similar though - RAM contents are kept intact (termed refreshed) so you don't lose your work, CPU is halted and screen is off.

michaels

Perhaps Maria you are 'sleeping' by doing nothing and the screen only is powering down and a period inactivity as opposed to the 'sleep' power function?

peter3hg

MariaAH said:

xeny said:

MariaAH said:

I know that my iMac sleeps at a negligible level if all tabs closed down (thanks to TP plug), so I close the tabs when it sleeps BUT I have changed settings that when I open up Google it open up the tabs again. That has definitely saved and I don't lose important 'in progress' stuff.

I'd be "falls off my chair" levels of surprised if the number of tabs open makes any difference when the iMac is asleep. Quite possibly it makes a difference with the screen asleep but the computer awake, but once it's fully asleep I'd expect no difference.

My TP plug verified this! I used to let my iMac sleep but with tabs open (Google Chrome) so I could quickly carry on where I left off. BUT closing the tabs down before sleeping significantly reduced the consumption. Honestly, the TP verified this. I have changed setting so that when I open up Google it open the tabs back up.

Sleeping with Google Chrome tabs left open used 30W whereas sleeping with Google Chrome tabs closed used 3W. 

Overnight monitoring with the TP plug verified this. I was surprised too, but cannot argue with the facts!

No iMac should use 30W when sleeping normally.
They have an option called Power Nap which enables the computer to do some updates while sleeping, but this should be intermittent. You may have measured it when it was doing this.

If it is constantly using 30W then something is preventing it going in to a proper sleep state. The Energy tab on the activity monitor should let you see if anything is preventing sleep.

MariaAH

peter3hg said:

No iMac should use 30W when sleeping normally.
They have an option called Power Nap which enables the computer to do some updates while sleeping, but this should be intermittent. You may have measured it when it was doing this.

If it is constantly using 30W then something is preventing it going in to a proper sleep state. The Energy tab on the activity monitor should let you see if anything is preventing sleep.

TP monitor consistently measured this. The 30W was consistent through the night, so not intermittent. It may have been to do with my settings, but it's irrelevant now as I close down my tabs before putting the iMac to sleep, and that works for me.

As I have found out this month, things do not always use what they are supposed to! My fridge freezer is an example, using over twice the daily consumption it should.