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Iron Giant said:
Had smart meters installed last year mate, but that little monitor that you can see your energy use never worked from the off, we are pretty good and been sensible with energy and swapping for energy saving stuff
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You can get an app which connects to the smartmeter data centre to get your data, it's called 'Hugo Energy'.
 
ched999uk said:
It was the UK gov than mandated Smart Meter roll out. As you say it helps people save money or makes the demand not so high so the national grid can cope!!!

Currently unless you are on some sort of split tariff (1 low rate charged during early hours of morning, then a 'standard' rate during the rest of the day) then you are right gas and elec is a set charge per KwH.
The problem is without massive investment in both the national grid and peak generation then the UK power systems can't take everyone plugging their electric cars when they get home. The first thing the gov has just done is mandate all new ev chargers have to be internet connected so they can be controlled centrally to not all charge at the same time of day - users can override this timing. So they will spread out the load on the network.
There have very recently been articles published saying that one of the Big 6 energy providers wants to 'pay' customers not to use lots of power during peak periods (4pm to 7pm ish).
Having smart meters enables the gov to allow energy companies to charge different prices based on demand! Octopus already have a tariff called Agile I think. This updates each day the price of energy you generate to the grid by the half hour for the next day.

In the future there will be tariffs that vary based on time of day or by demand - without smart meters this wouldn't be possible!!!

I'm not saying it's a nasty thing coming but variable rates will come!!! Personally I think it's a good thing as people who put some effort in can save money. Bit like before the energy crisis and the cap was introduced if you shopped round you could save money!!
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So in other words the 5% of people that can be bothered will save , whilst the vast majority including nearly all of the vulnerable and elderly will be worse off.

I want to cook a meal or have a bath when I choose, not when a power company wants me too.
 
Jaygti said:
So in other words the 5% of people that can be bothered will save , whilst the vast majority including nearly all of the vulnerable and elderly will be worse off.

I want to cook a meal or have a bath when I choose, not when a power company wants me too.
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You will be able to just at a higher price!!
I'm not saying I like it, just I understand why!
 
ched999uk said:
You will be able to just at a higher price!!
I'm not saying I like it, just I understand why!
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It sounds like a good system to me, we've got to move with the times. The reality is that we are going down the electric vehicle route and electric power route, there's no getting away from that, like it or not. So if we're going down that route then the power generated by 'green' energy (like solar panels) has to be stored somewhere or else it cannot be used at night time. So it makes sense to store that energy in people cars and when they need that energy to the main grid they can take it away from peoples cars.

In order to do the above they would need some way to charge people to charge their cars but also credit people for energy that goes back to the grid, if a smart meter allows them to do this then I'm all for it. Those that want to continue to burn fossil fuels, not have smart metres and run diesel vehicles forever... well let them, it's there choice, but for everyone who wants electrified cars and energy then they should also have that choice.

It makes sense to me.
 
Part Timer said:
They managed because the USA baled them out. It's indirectly Germanys fault as they got rid of coal and nuclear power and relied on Russia.
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Yes they were reliant on Russia, over 50% of their gas was coming from Russia, but in the space of 6 months they've managed to almost ditch Russia. They might have not been right on relying on Russia for their energy, but the way they've reacted is very efficient.

If you read this article it highlights all the lengths they've gone to. They've set a target of reducing the natural gas they use by 20%.

 
Chris34 said:
Yes they were reliant on Russia, over 50% of their gas was coming from Russia, but in the space of 6 months they've managed to almost ditch Russia. They might have not been right on relying on Russia for their energy, but the way they've reacted is very efficient.

If you read this article it highlights all the lengths they've gone to. They've set a target of reducing the natural gas they use by 20%.

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But they got themselves into the position of reliance. Even Trump warned them and when you see their ex Chancellor is a personal friend of Putin and head of a Russian Company that is the biggest supplier to Germany it stinks but non of this is mentioned.
 
Part Timer said:
But they got themselves into the position of reliance. Even Trump warned them and when you see their ex Chancellor is a personal friend of Putin and head of a Russian Company that is the biggest supplier to Germany it stinks but non of this is mentioned.
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Yeah it's not ideal, but then again you see a lot of 'insider' stuff going on in all countries, unfortunately you don't have to dig deep to find it everywhere.
 
Turning off standby power
It’s a myth that going around your house and turning off every socket will save you a ton of money. These so-called vampire devices, which are sometimes said to be using power day and night, just don’t really exist any more. Since 2013, the amount of power that appliances such as computers, games consoles and TVs can consume while on standby has been capped at 0.5W. A device left on standby all year would cost £1.24, or £2.28 from October.

After all, this talk for months about turning stuff off and I find the above reading this from The Times
 
Iron Giant said:
Turning off standby power
It’s a myth that going around your house and turning off every socket will save you a ton of money. These so-called vampire devices, which are sometimes said to be using power day and night, just don’t really exist any more. Since 2013, the amount of power that appliances such as computers, games consoles and TVs can consume while on standby has been capped at 0.5W. A device left on standby all year would cost £1.24, or £2.28 from October.

After all, this talk for months about turning stuff off and I find the above reading this from The Times
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While you are correct, some of the devices only consume that low amount IF you set it in a menu! We have a YouView box that only goes into the lowest standby power setting if you have specified that in a power menu, the reason is that the lower standby power the longer it takes to switch on - about 10 mins in lowest mode.

Also I believe the 0.5watt directive is only applicable to devices that have an off mode! I'm not sure if things like wall chargers have an off mode so they might not come under the 0.5watt regs. Even if I shutdown my laptop the power supply / charger still seems slightly warm in the morning - I guess topping up the battery and waiting for the power switch to be pressed.

One very easy way to check if things are drawing power when 'in standby/off' is just to place your hand on them or their power supply, if they are warm then they are pulling more than 0.5watts!!!
 
ched999uk said:
While you are correct, some of the devices only consume that low amount IF you set it in a menu! We have a YouView box that only goes into the lowest standby power setting if you have specified that in a power menu, the reason is that the lower standby power the longer it takes to switch on - about 10 mins in lowest mode.

Also I believe the 0.5watt directive is only applicable to devices that have an off mode! I'm not sure if things like wall chargers have an off mode so they might not come under the 0.5watt regs. Even if I shutdown my laptop the power supply / charger still seems slightly warm in the morning - I guess topping up the battery and waiting for the power switch to be pressed.

One very easy way to check if things are drawing power when 'in standby/off' is just to place your hand on them or their power supply, if they are warm then they are pulling more than 0.5watts!!!
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Couldn't be doing with waiting 10 minutes to fire up far easier with the smart plug app although my wife hasn't been too impressed when she had to phone me on her day off so I could switch the telly on for her
 
Iron Giant said:
Couldn't be doing with waiting 10 minutes to fire up far easier with the smart plug app although my wife hasn't been too impressed when she had to phone me on her day off so I could switch the telly on for her
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If I had a smart plug on the YouView box it would still take 10 mins as that's a cold start time!
I know what you mean about getting phone calls about how stuff works :)
 
ched999uk said:
If I had a smart plug on the YouView box it would still take 10 mins as that's a cold start time!
I know what you mean about getting phone calls about how stuff works :)
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We have a Manhattan tv box it fires up straight away even on the smart plug had it around 2 years now and can't fault it
 
Pjj said:
Petrol yes diesel ones I don’t think so , also LPG for vehicles is getting harder to find most of the garages down hear that used to sell it dont anymore
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Mine is LPG but I haven't used it in over 10 years. It just needs a service but I never prioritised it. The hardest part is trying to find a decent garage who does it, they're are a lot who don't know what they're doing and rip you off.

I've just spent nearly £1500 getting the head gasket done and heater matrix. One of the main reasons I had the repair work and didn't swap for a newer van is the fact it's already got the LPG installed. I've found a garage who will service it for £100+ Vat, that's a really cheap price. The system should work fine after the service.

Anyway, I was looking into all what's going on with the energy crisis and some of the companies are switching to LPG to supply the power, I cannot remember what they are using it instead of but I suspect the price of LPG will be pushed up higher as a result.

Apparently LPG conversions are ever increasing due to the fuel prices going up, however the amount of stations offering it is reducing, they're saying that there's only 1,800 stations now, they're replacing them in favour of electric charging points.

What I was getting at though, you say the cost of Diesel is going up so it's going to cost you more for the hot water, well is it simple to use LPG on the same system? Or is it solely designed to run on Diesel?
 

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