New electric connection - is a smart meter mandatory?
- Thread starter ivandrago
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Some tinfoil hat nonsense about big brother fuelled further by the fact the initial version of the meter was rubbish and stopped working when you switched suppliers making a complete waste of time and money (which you ultimately paid for through your bills).
People also don’t see that dynamic pricing is a good thing and fail to realise the cost varies significantly throughout the day but is averaged by the system to make it ‘easy’ at the detriment of everyone. The 5-8pm peek means the grid has to spin up the oldest, dirtiest and most expensive power stations to cover it. Right now, there is literally zero incentive to not turn on all your high power draw appliances in the peek period (dish washer, washing machine) which could just as easily be run overnight. If people stopped doing that, the normal tariff we all pay now would be significantly cheaper.
People who are excessive users of power during peek times are also incentivised to fight it against it because they ultimately pay less than they should. Everyone pays the average rate regardless of when they use it so their usage is ultimately subsidised by everyone else. The more people that move to dynamic pricing, the more expensive it gets for them paying the average.
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Tin foil hat brigade, flat Earthers, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists, etc.
Proof in this thread:
And the move to electric cars will make the environmental need and economic case for variable pricing inevitable and it will be combined with home chargers like this: https://www.octopusev.com/eo
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fixed that for you ..
we will all know in the next 10 yrs that wind energy is a scam .. environmental damage at it's worst .. the size of the cement blocks used to anchor them to the dismantling and destruction of them ..
This is very funny.
There are no burglars that use non specific electricity usage to plan their attack.
Rather than have the knowhow and ability to use tor, find the stolen databases, sort through millions of rows of data
Possibly have to try and link data to individual properties
Examine energy usage on an hourly basis
Try to extrapolate your movements based on low usage. Ignoring the fact that you might just not be having a shower or cooking, you might just be watching TV/cleaning/reading.
Much much much easier to just sit outside one morning and wait for the cars to leave the drive.
What field exactly are you a professional in?
"environmental damage at it's worst"
Please provide reputable sources to your nutjob comments.
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NextEra Energy uses over 800 metric tons of concrete for each turbine they construct
https://townhall.com/columnists/dug...turbines-generate-mountains-of-waste-n2576862
https://peckford42.wordpress.com/20...eel-2500-tons-of-concrete-45-tons-of-plastic/
http://www.aweo.org/faq.html
and we do know cement causes lots of c02 and other gases
One ton of cement production produces a ton of CO2 emissions, and with 5 to 7 percent of the world’s carbon emissions emanating from the production of cement itself.
portland-based cement may see 50 years or less of life in seawater before erosion sets in.
the steel bolts used to connect the turbine to the cement have a life of 10yrs
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Reputable does not mean a wordpress website or a wind opposition website.
Completely agree that there are no perfect energy sources. Wind power uses a large amount of resources and energy to build and install and this is often forgotten.
Very keen to see some reputable sources to suggest it's environmental damage at it's worst though.
Or even how it is a scam (genuinely interested).
Octopus energy have an open API. They offer 30min prices also. Have saved us 32% against the standard tariff so far. All we have had to do is make sure we program the washing machine for the cheapest time of the day and not use the electric shower between 4pm and 8pm. It won't work for everybody, but its been great for us!
They can also give you (and me) £50 to switch..... let me know if you want the code
I did look at Octopus before, but was a bit worried that the price they charge during peak times far outweighed some of the competition. I can see it being great if you have an immersion tank or an electric car that you can charge up when the costs are pennies.
I WFH during the day, so i guess it does give me the flexibility to put the washing machine/dishwasher on during the cheaper parts of the day. Ideally though more things need battery power that can be used during peak times and charged up during off-peak times.
Really?
The first two are clearly not reputable, the first one has clear political bias in the first line. I didn’t bother reading the third.
what’s your alternative? Fossil fuels are objectively more damaging and no one claimed wind power had zero impact.
I came across a short documentary on Youtube the other night that had a timelapse footage of building a wind turbine.
It's quite unbelievable the amount of concrete and rebar that goes into the base of these things. I know that these things stand insanely tall and have many-many tons in weight of a turbine at the top of the tower, and obviously have to withstand strong winds. But you can see why people aren't always keen on wind power.
Really?
The first two are clearly not reputable, the first one has clear political bias in the first line. I didn’t bother reading the third.
what’s your alternative? Fossil fuels are objectively more damaging and no one claimed wind power had zero impact.
Please edit your quote in your post.
It looks like I'm the one talking nonsense.
Nuclear. The safest and cleanest form of energy production.
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but the fact is fossil fuels can be made safe to use .. just a little more money .. and whats the run time on a uk wind farm ? 40% of the yr ?Really?
The first two are clearly not reputable, the first one has clear political bias in the first line. I didn’t bother reading the third.
what’s your alternative? Fossil fuels are objectively more damaging and no one claimed wind power had zero impact.
Existing windfarms in Scotland generate an average 27% of their maximum output each year, compared to 26% in England and Wales. For new build sites, Scottish load factors are expected to reach 33% versus only 30% in England and Wales
Only works for base load, takes an age to build, finances don't work out against wind, long term storage of spent nuclear fuel and then decommissioning costs and time frames. I was all for nuclear 20 years ago, but not today (and it has nothing to do with Chernobyl type events).
Also, concrete.
Oh completely, huge amounts of resources used and always important to consider. My point is though it's not the worst environmental damage ever as previously claimed. Wind power still remains the lowest cost of energy production. Would be interesting to see how this translates to environmental impact over their lifespan.
Yep, absolutely enormous costs involved and terrible public perception but i'd somewhat agree with you, especially considering the newer reactors are very safe. I would completely agree if more research was done with alternative nuclear fuels.
It's all about the off-shore wind in the UK. Deep water Scottish sites are thought to be the next step.
Your source quotes 47.7% load factor. That's more than solar, hydro, wave, tidal. Remember this is purely renewables. And considering they are based on wind - almost 50% load factor, to me, is just incredible!
Fossil fuels are not renewable. That's what it comes down to. They pollute unless huge money is spent on capture and storage, and there will be a time in the not-too-distant future where these resources run out. With the environment at a tipping point, we are quite rightly moving away from fossil fuels. Unless you also believe climate change is a myth.
most washing machines / dishwashers / tumblers have delay timers so you just program for the cheapest period.
immersion heater is great to defer as well as almost all of them will be on a timer.
Octopus now also work with ITTT which enables smart devices to automatically set start times etc.
the things that cost the most involve heating so as long as you’re not doing a lot of that in the expensive time, the savings more than make up for it.
We sometimes have trouble waiting until gone 7 to start cooking (electric job / oven) but still manage to save 30% even if we don’t hang around.
we have a log burner that we will fire up between 4-7 to warm the house in the coldest months.
Also looking at the data we would only need a 3kw home battery to enable us to power ourselves through the peak. Just need to wait for a system that’s less than £1000....
You are right. Although I get that people don't like the power companies looking at their data, the truth is that the data really is extremely useful for them. They can monitor your power use on an hourly basis ( mine do ) and with that they can accurately forecast demand which in turn allows the correct generation and distribution of energy at any time of the day. It doesn't really do you any direct good but it really helps the energy companies, which in the long run does help you and the planet.
In the long term it may help them introduce flexible hourly based tariffs but personally I don't care about that. If there is a way to save money I would take it!
Genuine lol
there is half hourly pricing available now. As long as you can defer your most energy sapping activities until the cheapest times of the day then you can save a large chunk of change.
today is quite an average day price wise with the time on the left and price per kWh on the right.
00:00 - 00:30 6.30
00:30 - 01:00 5.12
01:00 - 01:30 5.04
01:30 - 02:00 5.29
02:00 - 02:30 6.26
02:30 - 03:00 5.88
03:00 - 03:30 6.26
03:30 - 04:00 5.46
04:00 - 04:30 5.88
04:30 - 05:00 6.26
05:00 - 05:30 8.32
05:30 - 06:00 8.99
06:00 - 06:30 9.24
06:30 - 07:00 9.16
07:00 - 07:30 9.24
07:30 - 08:00 11.47
08:00 - 08:30 12.07
08:30 - 09:00 11.42
09:00 - 09:30 11.99
09:30 - 10:00 11.03
10:00 - 10:30 11.03
10:30 - 11:00 10.08
11:00 - 11:30 10.16
11:30 - 12:00 9.83
12:00 - 12:30 9.41
12:30 - 13:00 8.40
13:00 - 13:30 8.15
13:30 - 14:00 7.64
14:00 - 14:30 7.73
14:30 - 15:00 7.14
15:00 - 15:30 6.91
15:30 - 16:00 7.46
16:00 - 16:30 20.75
16:30 - 17:00 23.00
17:00 - 17:30 23.08
17:30 - 18:00 25.33
18:00 - 18:30 25.47
18:30 - 19:00 26.23
19:00 - 19:30 12.68
19:30 - 20:00 11.42
20:00 - 20:30 9.91
20:30 - 21:00 8.82
21:00 - 21:30 9.45
21:30 - 22:00 7.73
22:00 - 22:30 7.25
22:30 - 23:00 6.13
I would say average tariff price in the uk is around 14p so as you can see, ever other hour of the day is between a little cheaper and a LOT cheaper. But then it goes crazy between 4-7pm.
don’t get me wrong, there are expensive days, recently, there was a very calm period and only managed to save around 10% for a few days and even 1 day where it was 3% MORE than average (think we cooked dinner between 4-7 as well). But this is massively outweighed by the savings.
Honestly it’s saved us loads. We used to spend around £120 a month average over the year, we are now keeping it around £50 but winter is coming.... so budgeting around £30/month for heating at <8p/kWh gives us 4ish+ hours of 3kw heating which should be plenty with the log burner running from 4-7....
we looked at our usage as we were with Ovo and realised that we could make it work with a little thought. Then with the no minimum period and £50 (referral link) for switching we made the jump and were amazed.