Cost of electricity - finding a deal

Retro6

Retro6

Retro6

Associate
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Posts
953
I have a key meter and I live in a very dark home due to lack of windows and several trees outside growing very close to the building that block out the little there is from the existing windows so I have to run extra lights throughout the day in order to stay sane and live a bit more healthily. Simply turning on a light isn't going to provide my home with the healthy light it needs so I have to make up for loss of day light using a different type of LED light.

I have done some calculations... I ran two regular household LED bulbs at 7watts plus a 40watt LED strip light and a 100watt UFO LED factory light. I ran these lights for 6 hours and the total cost came to 1 pound.

If I ran these lights for 12 hours it would cost 2 pounds a day maybe even 3 pounds per day, 21 pounds per week which is 90 pounds per month. I can afford this no problem however it does seem a bit much and there are people using much more energy than I am paying 3 pounds per week?

Would it be cheaper to get a contract find a deal?

Are key meters more expensive than contracts?

Does 90 pounds per month sound expensive?
 
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I am so glad I am not this hard up, that I have to sit and work out how much each light bulb in my house uses and how long it is on each day, sad times....

And yeah, key meters suck, you will be paying more
 
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I'm am not hard up as I said I can afford it no problem but I like to keep tabs on what I do spend and if there are cheaper deals out there that could save me more money then there is no point in spending more money than what I need to have the same luxuries. :)
 
We're on a key meter still at the minute and due to the lack of deals it's actually cheaper to stay on it than switch off to a credit meter and new tariff.
 
Retro6 said:
I have done some calculations... I ran two regular household LED bulbs at 7watts plus a 40watt LED strip light and a 100watt UFO LED factory light. I ran these lights for 6 hours and the total cost came to 1 pound.
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That shouldn't be possible.

100W + 40W + (2 * 7W) = 154W.

To use 1 kWh of electric would take 1000W / 154W = 6.5 hours.

On SVR 1 kWH = £0.30 roughly, even if it's a bit more on key meter, it won't be £1 per kWh.

You may be adding your general house load/other stuff to this cost as well, which makes the lights alone an unfair comparison?

There aren't really any amazing cheap deals around at the moment, and I think being on the key thing also restricts you a bit. If you own the property, can you get it swapped out for a standard DD meter?
 
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Hagar said:
Do you own the trees? A bit of judicious pruning could save a few bob.
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Nah there is no chance. The trees belong to the council and they are refusing to touch them because they are protected which makes no sense because other trees belong to the council in the area have been pruned. Me and my neighbors have been trying to get the council to prune these trees for a couple of years now and has been unsuccessful. I even contacted a lawyer about it but they said this was rarely tested in the courts and a challenge would likely be unsuccessful.
 
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Retro6 said:
I can afford this no problem however it does seem a bit much and there are people using much more energy than I am paying 3 pounds per week?
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People paying less than what the standing charge costs will be because they're feeding electricity back into the grid. Either via solar, or charging home batteries while it's cheap and discharging back while the rates are high.
 
The fridge can use a lot, if it switches in for a period during the test you might be surprised just how much it uses. The "per day" figure is pretty useless unless you are also calculating based on that time.
 
Haze said:
I am so glad I am not this hard up, that I have to sit and work out how much each light bulb in my house uses and how long it is on each day, sad times....

And yeah, key meters suck, you will be paying more
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When I bought a plug in energy monitor many years back I went around the house measuring the power draw of everything with a plug on it. :D :D :D It was a useful thing to do and I found that things that I didn't expect to draw much power actually drew more than some things I didn't expect to. I also disconnected a couple of the new fangled electric heaters (similar to those Fischer ones you see advertised on the tv) that the housing association had installed as a trial and fitted plugs to them (they originally came with three pin plugs) and found that they were drawing massively more than their specifications said. It was actually part of the evidence to get rid of the damn things after several astronomical electric bills.
 
pastymuncher said:
When I bought a plug in energy monitor many years back I went around the house measuring the power draw of everything with a plug on it. :D :D :D It was a useful thing to do and I found that things that I didn't expect to draw much power actually drew more than some things I didn't expect to. I also disconnected a couple of the new fangled electric heaters (similar to those Fischer ones you see advertised on the tv) that the housing association had installed as a trial and fitted plugs to them (they originally came with three pin plugs) and found that they were drawing massively more than their specifications said. It was actually part of the evidence to get rid of the damn things after several astronomical electric bills.
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Heaters use masses amounts of energy, generally anything with a heating element or motor is going to draw a lot of current.
 
Retro6 said:
The only other things that are on is my internet router and my fridge, sometimes my PC but those alone use very little.
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But the maths doesn't work based on the rated lights you posted, they probably aren't capable of using more, which makes the power consumption predictable and fairly linear.

My house uses 200w at idle, background stuff can use more than you expect.

If you have smart data that shows usage then you can sort of work out background usage.
 
Retro6 said:
Heaters use masses amounts of energy, generally anything with a heating element or motor is going to draw a lot of current.
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Electric heaters aren't capable of converting 1 kWh of electric into anything more than 1 kWh of heating, as gas is 4 x cheaper per kWh gas central heating is approximately 4 x better than electricity alone.

Only exception is stuff like heat pump and aircon as they can use heat transference via refrigerants to make electric 300 - 400% efficient.
 
When I first did the test to see how much these lights would use in the space of 6 hours it would have appeared the cost came to 30p I started with 16.34 6 hours later I had 16.04 after switching off the lights, the meter jumped down to 15.34.
 
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Do you know how much you're paying per kw?

You'll be paying the standing charge even if you turn absolutely everything off.
 
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