Cost of electricity - finding a deal

Update on energy cost... it was clearly the UFO 100watt LED light using up a large amount of energy. They are not very efficient. So yesterday I just ran the kitchen lights, I also had my PC on, internet router and fridge and I only used 69p so that's a result its maybe slightly higher but I'm not worried about a few extra pence its only when it goes into pounds just to run a single light that I get concered about, so those UFO lights are coming down and will be replaced with more energy efficient lights. With that being said I can install a few more of those 7 watt lights in the kitchen plus two in the living room, one for the plants and one for the bird aviary as supplementary lighting, then in the bedroom I will have another similar setup as what I have in the kitchen so in theory I can have all the lighting I need in each room and keep cost under 2 pounds a day 14 pounds a week although that would still come to about 56 pound a month, a much better result but still a bit pricey, I think I could have the cost cut in half I have a feeling I might still be paying for a debt and I've probably been over paying for the past few years without realizing it for an old debt of 30 pounds that should have been cleared long ago so I'll need to investigate this with the energy company.
 
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jpaul said:
a bird aviary too - that is unexpected ?


don't get the pre-occupation for have shutters that remove a lot of light ... and then having to introduce poorer quality artificial light.
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That window looks onto the road with 1-2m of garden between. Without shutters people would be able see right in all the time. So shutters are slanted to let light in. But can close when watching a film.

I only have one artifical light source in my study for my plants
 
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jpaul said:
a bird aviary too - that is unexpected ?


don't get the pre-occupation for have shutters that remove a lot of light ... and then having to introduce poorer quality artificial light.
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I don't have shutters?

I have not much natural light coming in which is beyond my control there are no shutters, most of the light is being blocked out by several large trees outside blocking out most, if not all my light particularly in the living room and I can't imagine the birds like being in a dark room all day. I wish I had natural sunlight coming in. I really envy those who have the sun literally pouring into there homes when I struggle to get hardly any where I'm having to run lights during the day because its too dark and much too dark to support any plant life without lighting. When I first moved into my flat 15 years ago I had plenty of light. Its a great shame because its a really nice flat with very high ceilings and plenty of storage space and space in general. I do get a bit more natural light during winter when the leafs have fallen off the trees.
 
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From yesterdays experiment with just running the kitchen lights for 12 hours costing a total of 69p for a total of 61 watts and doing the calculations, it actually adds up to what it should come too.

According to google it should cost 7p per hour, 7p for 12 hours comes to 84p which isn't that far off from 69p so I think everything is ok with my energy. That will be 5.88 per week or 23.52 per month. That is just for the kitchen alone. When I do the lights in the bedroom and living room it will be almost triple so around 15 quid a week I suspect which isn't too bad.
 
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Its one I chucked together with salvaged lumber. The plant in the living room catches the morning sun but that is about all the light I get and right at those glass doors it doesn't spread into the living room and by the afternoon is dark.

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I've kinda abandoned the living room for a long time because its so dark and depressing in there. The birds will get a defused light so I don't blind them with exposed bright LED's I don't watch TV anymore so I'll get rid of that and I'll have a good clean out in there and move the aviary to a better position. I think I'm fine with my energy costs. I've been reading a lot about those powerful cheap LED lights that they are not really efficient because they produce a lot of heat and use up more power than what a better designed light of the same spec would do.
 
Retro6 said:
I've kinda abandoned the living room for a long time because its so dark and depressing in there. The birds will get a defused light so I don't blind them with exposed bright LED's I don't watch TV anymore so I'll get rid of that and I'll have a good clean out in there and move the aviary to a better position. I think I'm fine with my energy costs. I've been reading a lot about those powerful cheap LED lights that they are not really efficient because they produce a lot of heat and use up more power than what a better designed light of the same spec would do.
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LEDs are more efficient than the old bulbs we had. People think that means they are efficient, however it doesn't, its still a very low level of energy thats converted into visible light, the vast majority is still converted to heat.
Its just that the old bulbs were very very very bad at conversion, where as LEDs are just very very bad.
 
I do wonder sometimes if I'm getting 100 watts of heat rather than 100 watts of LED worth of light. Yep LED's are much brighter than those old bulbs I remember cooking stuff on them when I was a kid. A 7 watt LED bulb matches the light of one of those old 60 watt bulbs. I've got to say that LED technology has come a fair way from the dull diodes that emitted a tiny bit of light. People would have laughed at the thought of an LED light bulb back in the late 90s even in the early 2000s.

According to google I could potentially have a tropical forest in either my bedroom or living room with a 1000 watt LED light on the ceiling, that is real watts not led watts and generate 10.000 lumens which is almost the intensity of a British sunny day. That would cost 34p an hour to run 28 pounds a week. Its tempting... I think I'll just stick with my orginal plan and see how the plants do with my current lighting setup first.
 
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I've moved into a another property, couple of weeks ago, where the previous owners were still using old filament bulbs so I'm currently converting them, when I can suss how to get to the bulbs in all the downlighters.
The previous owners were with Octopus, but I'm not, and they keep writing to me insisting I need to open an account with a code and when I do so it tells me I need to register a tariff with them.
Well I'm not about to and I feel Octopus have no rights to insist that I do so they will need to find an alternative method for me to pay them if I owe them any money for a supply whilst the account was being handed over.
 
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cuke2u said:
I've moved into a another property, couple of weeks ago, where the previous owners were still using old filament bulbs so I'm currently converting them, when I can suss how to get to the bulbs in all the downlighters.
The previous owners were with Octopus, but I'm not, and they keep writing to me insisting I need to open an account with a code and when I do so it tells me I need to register a tariff with them.
Well I'm not about to and I feel Octopus have no rights to insist that I do so they will need to find an alternative method for me to pay them if I owe them any money for a supply whilst the account was being handed over.
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So who you going to sign up with then??? Because you wont be able to switch while there is debt on the account
 
I've stayed with the supplier we had with our previous home and they've had the reading from the day we moved in and a current one yesterday. If Octopus tell me how much I owe them I'll pay it but I'm not going to open a account and sign up to a monthly direct debit as I feel it is unnecessary.
 
Octopus Energy I heard were the cheapest energy supplier. I might go with them at some point in the future if its easy to switch from EON but as some people have suggested that I'm not really paying much I could end up shooting myself in the foot and end up paying more by switching.

Some people have told me they are being charged 300 pounds per month on there energy and I'm like... how? lots of people are in debt and can't pay there energy bills. I don't want to end up in that situation so I'll just stick with my key meter with EON and whack 20 pound a week on it. I can run quite a few lights for 20 pound a week.

I could stretch to 30 a week
 
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Not kept up with this since earlier in the year. What's the general consensus now? Is it still better to stick on your providers variable tariff or are fixed deals better now?
 
Well Octopus has estimated my annual use at £1200 a year for just electricity alone, so from that figure I'd be paying them £100 a month to invest my money and pay their shareholders. They can stuff that as even my last yearly usage for both gas and electricity was about the same. I'm going to hold my ground and they can sing for their money as far as I'm concerned.
 
cuke2u said:
Well Octopus has estimated my annual use at £1200 a year for just electricity alone, so from that figure I'd be paying them £100 a month to invest my money and pay their shareholders. They can stuff that as even my last yearly usage for both gas and electricity was about the same. I'm going to hold my ground and they can sing for their money as far as I'm concerned.
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The clouds are that way /\ /\ /\ /\
 
cuke2u said:
Well Octopus has estimated my annual use at £1200 a year for just electricity alone, so from that figure I'd be paying them £100 a month to invest my money and pay their shareholders. They can stuff that as even my last yearly usage for both gas and electricity was about the same. I'm going to hold my ground and they can sing for their money as far as I'm concerned.
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Go on to variable payments then...
 
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