Sunday, 4th September, 2022
The new price cap will come into effect 1st October. For those that don’t know the UK system for gas and electricity price (and I’m not an expert) this basically means the “maximum” that can be charged by utility companies for gas and electric. Every 6 (or maybe it’s 3 now given the current situation) the regulator looks at wholesale prices and adjusts the cap accordingly. I say “maximum” because it’s defined as the maximum an average household would pay. It’s sort of like a maximum p/kWh, because if you use more then you’ll pay more. Most companies have a rate plus a daily fee, and they play about with each. So I’m yet to hear what our new electricity price will be. However, today it’s 27p/kWh for electric and 7.3 p/kWh for gas. Last time I had a fixed rate tariff (before all those companies went bust) it was 15p and 2.8p, and I thought they were bad. Supposedly this hike is the small one, January’s will be even bigger 🤢.
Whilst the UK doesn’t get much gas from Russian (or didn’t use to), Europe does a lot. Particularly Germany it seems. However, as we’re all one gas system then the price acts accordingly.
As it’s a rainy day and seems cooler than just a few weeks ago, I want to see what we can do before the winter to try and keep bills under control. I’m in two minds about smart heating controls, and as to what could we really save. I think moving the thermostat to the main room would be better, vs. the hallway where it is now, as that’s a generally colder area. Ideally controlling every radiator too would be good, but getting a TRV for each will be a lot of money. We have nine downstairs, and that would be £350 worth. Probably I could strategically place some of them, or just do one in each room and manually set the other rads.
I have ordered 2 smart plugs that measure usage. Plan to install them about the house then move them around to see what does what. At these prices (and increasing) older stuff starts costing more than buying a new one! We have a very old TV and on the back it says 260W, versus new ones which use about 8W whilst on. 4 hours of use a day is £106 a year, vs. £3 for a new TV (at current prices that will increase in 4 weeks!). I think the big user will be the tumble dryer. We only recently got one (well maybe 2 years ago) and I didn’t buy a heat pump one as they’re expensive - 2-3x - but supposedly they use half the power. The plug will help me see what’s what.
I also I think it might be time to reassess the home server too. It’s on 24/7.
Underfloor heating…that’s long gone now! I’ll take the fuses out so no-one can turn it on if they want to.
It’s sort of a fun activity, until I remember why I’m doing it. However, justifying new toys because they’ll save money is surely a win:win 😅.
This could’ve been a blog post…should’ve been? Once I do the measurement and sums it might be useful to other people. My main site’s main nag to me is that it’s not a “normal” blog and linking and finding stuff is different (tiddlywiki) and so would anyone find it? 🤔 Do I need something else. You know, a normal site, a static blog?, blot, A N Other…
