Cost of electricity - finding a deal

Its a meter with a key that you take to a shop or post office to put money on it then put it onto the meter. Without running lights I barely use 8 pound a week but with running lights I'm noticing an increase.

That's what I had for a while. I absolutely hated it. I felt I had to use the term "leccy" when asking to put 30 quid on in the corner shop.
 
Those household led bulbs do put out between 1000 to 2000 LUX when light is measured at one foot away from the light and then around 400 LUX further away at 3 or 4 foot that is with the defuser cap removed. There not bad little bulbs. I'd still rather run a 100 watt LED 6500k flood light because its like sunlight in my home although the bulbs are ok they are not going to provide the LUX I need per square foot. You'd be surprised how dark it really is indoors even with a light on compared to outside.

A Sunny day is 107.527 LUX and beyond.
Shade on a clear sunny day is 20.000 LUX
An overcast day is 5000 LUX
Indoor lighting is below 200 LUX
Office lighting is between 500 to 800 LUX
Plant lighting for low light tolerant shade plants need to be at least 1000 LUX
 
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Interesting thread. I fitted some 'daylight' bulbs in my kitchen and really like the colour of light they give out.

Want to fit that same style around the rest of my house but I'd also need some that are dimmer compatible.

Is there a go to place for daylight bulbs and what's the minimum wattage should be looking for?
 
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Interesting thread. I fitted some 'daylight' bulbs in my kitchen and really like the colour of light they give out.

Want to fit that same style around the rest of my house but I'd also need some that are dimmer compatible.

Is there a go to place for daylight bulbs and what's the minimum wattage should be looking for?

Would that not depend on how bright you want them to be? You must be able to work that out?
 
Would that not depend on how bright you want them to be? You must be able to work that out?

Lighting is actually a difficult thing I find. Daylight is great when you want it bright but what about when you don't, like if you're watching a film or want it to be cosy in the winter?

In the old days you could just stick a 100w with a dimmer. Now you have to try and figure out the wattage, the colour temp, whether it's a dimmable bulb or not, probably change the dimmer switch as well...
 
I use Hue bulbs, had them for a long time, but they allow you to change colour temp as well as dim the bulbs. I got the Ambiance versions which do any colour temp on white.

Not sure if they can do super bright daylight ones though, but for my purposes work fine.
 
Lighting is actually a difficult thing I find. Daylight is great when you want it bright but what about when you don't, like if you're watching a film or want it to be cosy in the winter?

In the old days you could just stick a 100w with a dimmer. Now you have to try and figure out the wattage, the colour temp, whether it's a dimmable bulb or not, probably change the dimmer switch as well...
Hue Ambient lights are what I use for this. Colour temp is really important to change as well as brightness throughout the day. Hue has automations that make this easy.
 
The 100 watt LED UFO light seems to be eating up the electricity so to keep my budget within 20 pounds per week I'm going to have to make some compromises. The 100watt Light is keeping my big spider plant alive that is in the bedroom, if I downgrade to a smaller light I don't know if it would be enough to keep the plant going. It could end up costing me 5 pounds a day to run it on top of the other lights in my kitchen which is where most of my house plants are. Running all the lights in the kitchen isn't so bad and cost effective. I'll have to re-think and compromise if I want to run these lights 12 hours a day and keep within a 20 pound a week budget so the 100 watt light might have to go and then I would need to re-think about where the spider plant can go where it could get enough light.

I'll upload some photos tomorrow of exactly what I'm doing.
 
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The 100 watt LED UFO light seems to be eating up the electricity so to keep my budget within 20 pounds per week I'm going to have to make some compromises. The 100watt Light is keeping my big spider plant alive that is in the bedroom, if I downgrade to a smaller light I don't know if it would be enough to keep the plant going. It could end up costing me 5 pounds a day to run it on top of the other lights in my kitchen which is where most of my house plants are. Running all the lights in the kitchen isn't so bad and cost effective. I'll have to re-think and compromise if I want to run these lights 12 hours a day and keep within a 20 pound a week budget so the 100 watt light might have to go and then I would need to re-think about where the spider plant can go where it could get enough light.

I'll upload some photos tomorrow of exactly what I'm doing.
At current energy cap prices, that 100W lamp is costing you about £3 a week (assuming 12 hours/day), though I didn't see you actually post your unit price. If it's just for a few plants and you really want to cut the cost, perhaps get a less intense aquarium style LED hood/canopy and mount it just above the plants? A single 10-20W LED canopy will grow a few square feet of plants in an aquarium easily; so a spider plant or two will be more than happy. Then you're looking closer to 30p a week rather than £3, but given you started the OP by saying the cost wasn't really a factor...
 
When I did the experiment running only that light which was yesterday it used 1 pound for 6 hours so it would be more than 3 pounds a week. I agree something might not be right, the fridge barely uses anything and the router hardly uses anything at all so its not those. The light does get extremely hot so maybe its just not energy efficient... there could be an error with my meter or the energy company is charging me wrong or both. I was with N.Power before and they said I had a 30 pound debt which would be taken off my meter each week each time I topped up but this was ages ago before covid so unless they are still chaging me I don't know. Another energy company took over and I'm still using the same meter and key. I remember when the electricity guy came to read my meter he said the readings wasn't matching up with something but I'm assuming that was corrected as nobody came back and no letters, that was also quite a while ago.

It would seem like it should cost me 3 pounds a week running that one light but for some reason 3 pounds is more like a day than a week to run this light alone. It might be worth me calling up the energy supplier and get them to do a check.

Cost isn't a factor at this point however if its going to cost 4 pounds a day to run all my lights then that is quite a bit and even though I can afford it, something may not be right and its always worth looking into things to get cheaper energy regardless of finances.
 
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When you say experiment, did you turn everything else off? Or were you using an energy monitoring socket?
I don't actually have a energy monitoring socket but I'm going to order one after this post. Everything was off apart from the fridge, its only a small fridge and barely uses anything, other than that it was just the light that was on and I made notes of my meter credit before and after.
 
I don't actually have a energy monitoring socket but I'm going to order one after this post. Everything was off apart from the fridge, its only a small fridge and barely uses anything, other than that it was just the light that was on and I made notes of my meter credit before and after.
The fridge could be using 300w periodically. Did you turn your router off?
 
The immersion heater is off. I have had this fridge for 20+ years and its always used hardly anything.

Here is are some photos, the said UFO light.
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You understand the cost of energy has gone up loads right? At a per unit level?

Smart plugs are on offer btw. 9.99 for p110 tp link. Check HotUKDeals.
 
More plants at the bedroom window.

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My little oasis in the kitchen. I haven't finished yet... I'm just testing things right now. I'll be tucking that cable away once I'm happy with the setup.

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