Energy price cap

ljffoxy

The_Fat_Controller said:

How do you heat your home ?

Very surprised a new build would have a SMETS 1 meter.

You and me both! My previous supplier put it in when the house was built, never gave me a display unit at the time so I assumed I didn't have a smart meter. 

Heating and hot water is via a gas combi boiler,  up to date with servicing. I can assure you I don't cook much either! 

ljffoxy

MWT said:

ljffoxy said:

Thanks for the assistance, not sure how it can be a cap if you can go over it...but there you go.

It is not entirely your fault as there is far too much talk in the media about the £2,500 figure without explaining what it means.

There is a cap on the price per kWh and the standing charge, so the cap is real and does exist. ...but there is not a cap on your total bill.

The £2,500 figure is just an example of the national average annual bill for someone using 12,000kWh of gas and 2900kWh of electricity, and paying by DD.

Your bill will not be £2,500, because you are not using exactly 12,000kWh of gas and 2,900kWh of electricity, and you will not pay the national average price per kWh, you will pay the prices for your region.

Hope this helps...

Thanks it does, I've now found the info on ofgem that states what the capped price per kwh is. If they advertised that and gave an example, rather than a £2500 cap then that would make it easier to swallow. I initially struggled trying to find what was included in the cap and what it actually meant, hence why I turned to the forum. 

I really don't trust my energy provider and their billions in profits, to explain this to me, especially whilst they are hiking up my bills and telling me my usage has gone up when I've unplugged a lot of devices that would have been on stand by in the same period last year. 

[Deleted User]

ljffoxy said:

MWT said:

ljffoxy said:

Thanks for the assistance, not sure how it can be a cap if you can go over it...but there you go.

It is not entirely your fault as there is far too much talk in the media about the £2,500 figure without explaining what it means.

There is a cap on the price per kWh and the standing charge, so the cap is real and does exist. ...but there is not a cap on your total bill.

The £2,500 figure is just an example of the national average annual bill for someone using 12,000kWh of gas and 2900kWh of electricity, and paying by DD.

Your bill will not be £2,500, because you are not using exactly 12,000kWh of gas and 2,900kWh of electricity, and you will not pay the national average price per kWh, you will pay the prices for your region.

Hope this helps...

Thanks it does, I've now found the info on ofgem that states what the capped price per kwh is. If they advertised that and gave an example, rather than a £2500 cap then that would make it easier to swallow. I initially struggled trying to find what was included in the cap and what it actually meant, hence why I turned to the forum. 

I really don't trust my energy provider and their billions in profits, to explain this to me, especially whilst they are hiking up my bills and telling me my usage has gone up when I've unplugged a lot of devices that would have been on stand by in the same period last year. 

You mean your energy provider that doesn’t make more than 2% profit and is putting your bills up because the prices have gone up?

dunstonh

I really don't trust my energy provider and their billions in profits, 

Your supplier is running on peanuts and a number have failed.   Their margins are very small.

especially whilst they are hiking up my bills and telling me my usage has gone up when I've unplugged a lot of devices that would have been on stand by in the same period last year. 

Suppliers use the data they have available to them.  If you speak in their language, i.e. kWh real use then you will find the whole thing so much easier.    If you have given them real meter readings over a period longer than a year, they can see exactly what you are using.  If you have made efforts to reduce, that may take time to show through depending on when you started doing it.  However, if you have been doing it for months you can show you September 2022 real use against September 2021 real use (and any other months).   In other words, use facts

Glum

ljffoxy said:

It's the real-time info I want, like how efficient is my tumble drier? If I put my massage chair on, how much juice is it using? I have been looking for something that would substitute and in house display linked to a smart meter but everything always points back to the energy supplier. I will try the bright app thanks. 

An energy monitor uses a sensor that clips around one of the thick wires coming out of your electricity meter. It measures the actual current and displays the power being used in kW or Watts. Note that it can only show the total at that moment so if you turn on a 100 Watt lamp when your freezer is running, it might display 280 Watts.

I was just looking at The Owl monitor but I doubt that the amount you lay out to buy one would be repaid in the savings you make when you realise, shock horror, that your tumble dryer has a power-hungry heating element. However, you might be surprised at how the low power devices (TVs etc on standby) all add up and that could definitely save you money.

You can monitor your load for nothing by counting the flashes on the meter. As long as the meter displays 1000 imp/kWh, simply divide the average time between flashes into 3.6 to give you the power in kW.

Examples:
3.6/7.2 secs = 0.5 kW (500 W).
Flashes at one second intervals equals a total load of 3.6 kW (3.6/1 sec).

Footnote: The result is only as accurate as your timing so I would suggest you time ten flashes and divide by ten.

Alnat1

You can buy simple energy monitors that can be used on anything that plugs in, to test how much energy they use. A popular model on these forums is the Tapo P110 which is around £10 and doubles up as a smart plug.

Simply plug it in a socket and plug the device/appliance you want to monitor into it. You can see via an app on your phone how much the appliance is using at that moment and over time.

BUFF

Alnat1 said:

You can buy simple energy monitors that can be used on anything that plugs in, to test how much energy they use. A popular model on these forums is the Tapo P110 which is around £10 and doubles up as a smart plug.

Simply plug it in a socket and plug the device/appliance you want to monitor into it. You can see via an app on your phone how much the appliance is using at that moment and over time.

currently on Amazon a 2-pack is £17.99 - effectively £9 each,