Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

Adam said:
I’ve just bought an electric car which has prompted the change to a smart meter and moving to the intelligent octopus tarif. I have never taken an interest in our energy supplier previously as that was my wife’s job :D

I’m having an Ohme charger installed which can time/delay the charging process to coincide with the cheaper energy prices throughout the night.
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If you're on intelligent, it actually manipulates the cheaper energy price slots to meet your charging/preconditioning needs.
 
Had to queue up to login to Scottish Power earlier, giving our meter readings for second consecutive day.

I had a drawn-out text chat with them in November when I spotted I mistyped our previous night reading in October, hitting "4" instead of "3" for the second meter number of five, suggesting our consumption suddenly increased by ~400%. Supposedly sorted, but when I've submitted readings last two days, it accepts my input, but thinks it's an error and I'm in no state to deal with another text chat... Will take photo of meter tomorrow and submit numbers again online.
 
I'm with Eon at the moment. Just been put onto a tracker so paying for what I use. Got a bit of a shock with a £316 bill but that's as that covers from 6th October to 12th December.

I'm a bit out of the loop, are there any fixed tariffs worth looking at at the moment? I assume due to ofgem raising the cap it's unlikely?
 
Gixer said:
I'm with Eon at the moment. Just been put onto a tracker so paying for what I use. Got a bit of a shock with a £316 bill but that's as that covers from 6th October to 12th December.

I'm a bit out of the loop, are there any fixed tariffs worth looking at at the moment? I assume due to ofgem raising the cap it's unlikely?
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You ideally want to be on octopus tracker, which gives you a daily price based on a formula/wholesale prices. It has so far been the cheapest for the past year.* For the past few weeks people have been enjoying very low energy prices! (compared to what we're now "used" to)

*Past performance does not indicate future performance!
 
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Gixer said:
I'm with Eon at the moment. Just been put onto a tracker so paying for what I use. Got a bit of a shock with a £316 bill but that's as that covers from 6th October to 12th December.

I'm a bit out of the loop, are there any fixed tariffs worth looking at at the moment? I assume due to ofgem raising the cap it's unlikely?
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Octopus tracker is by far the cheapest at around the 12p for electric for alittle while now. By far the cheapest option if you don't have electric car. Been lower than the normal rates for over a year.

Remember to use a octopus refferal also for £50 credit ;)
 
Gammawolf said:
You ideally want to be on octopus tracker, which gives you a daily price based on a formula/wholesale prices. It has so far been the cheapest for the past year.* For the past few weeks people have been enjoying very low energy prices! (compared to what we're now "used" to)

*Past performance does not indicate future performance!
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what im on. its cheap as hell, providing nothing happens to spook the energy market
 
TNA said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Will hotter heat pumps win over homeowners?

Could a new generation of heat pumps overcome British fears that they can't heat a home.
www.bbc.co.uk

Sounds good. I will eventually go for one of these together with solar panels and batteries I think.

Was always concerned they were not good enough. But seems they are now.
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Much better solution for homes with a combi-boiler and no HW tank as these appear to be able to run hot water for showers etc in the same way as gas combis do.

As the article states - Gas Combi out, Heat pump in and job is done.
 
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Richie said:
Much better solution for homes with a combi-boiler and no HW tank as these appear to be able to run hot water for showers etc in the same way as gas combis do.

As the article states - Gas Combi out, Heat pump in and job is done.
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What the article doesn't explain is the cost to run. It's very well achieving higher temps but guessing the cost to achieve this will also be higher
 
Uther said:
Yeah, about that...
news.sky.com

Oil prices volatile after latest attack on shipping container in the Red Sea

Maersk reacts to an assault on Sunday by sending all scheduled sailings around the coast of Africa, extending fears of higher prices for many imported goods from Asia.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
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Yeah I think that's already priced in. We seen a drop in oil price today. Thers no spike atm. But as with any commodity there's volatility. Can get off tracker if needs be. With tracker you just need to check the price your paying daily and adjust if needed
 
Richie said:
Much better solution for homes with a combi-boiler and no HW tank as these appear to be able to run hot water for showers etc in the same way as gas combis do.

As the article states - Gas Combi out, Heat pump in and job is done.
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There is no suggestion of that in the article and all of those heat pumps still require a hot water cylinder.

Just because it can heat a heating loop to 80c doesn’t mean it’s outputting high heating power.

The Cosey 6 heat pump they they mentioned has a heating output of 6kw, despite getting up to 70C, that isn’t going to be heating hot water directly. 6kw is nothing in the world of direct hot water heating.

To put that into context, a lame electric shower has a 7kw output, a ‘decent’ one is 10/11kw and most people will tell you they are still **** compared to a decent combi (better) or a megaflow cylinder (best). For a gas combi to achieve a decent flow rate of hot water it’s burner will be outputting 20kw+ at 80%+ efficiency.

Kill_Phil said:
What the article doesn't explain is the cost to run. It's very well achieving higher temps but guessing the cost to achieve this will also be higher
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The cost to run will be higher the hotter you go, even with R290 you want to keep it below 50C if you can and that is achievable with just radiator swaps in the vast majority of properties (not usually all of them). In many cases it’s just swapping singles for doubles.

The existing high temperature heat pumps use double stacked heat pumps so they are not as efficient. They use the first heat pump to get it up to your typical heat pump temperature and the second then boosts it to the higher temperatures. But as noted above, it’s generally not necessary in the vast majority of properties and in the long run, you’ll be better off doing radiator swaps given how cheap they are to buy.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
There is no suggestion of that in the article and all of those heat pumps still require a hot water cylinder.
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Really? Because the "combi out, heat pump in" statement I lifted right off the article:
In principle, homeowners could change their heating system over with little fuss, says Alex Schoch, head of flexibility. "Combi boiler out, heat pump in," as he puts it.
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Take it up with Alex Schoch if you want :cry:


Edit: and if he didn't mean that (in the terms of still needing a HWC) then he should be clearer as a LOT of modern homes don't have HWCs as standard.

It's pretty much the only thing that's putting me off going down the HP route... I'd have the extra cost and hassle of fitting a HWC in the loft as there is nowhere else practical in the house for it to go... No thanks.
 
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Kill_Phil said:
What the article doesn't explain is the cost to run. It's very well achieving higher temps but guessing the cost to achieve this will also be higher
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This is my concern, it says in the article a COP of 3, but I guess this whould be in ideal system design that a retrofit would not deliver.

No point in changing if it’s more expensive to run.
 
Richie said:
Really? Because the "combi out, heat pump in" statement I lifted right off the article:


Take it up with Alex Schoch if you want :cry:


Edit: and if he didn't mean that (in the terms of still needing a HWC) then he should be clearer as a LOT of modern homes don't have HWCs as standard.
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It’s a **** quote but what it’s referring to is the lack of radiator changes (and potential re-piping) not the ability to not get a cylinder.

If you speak to anyone in the industry a heat pump retrofit is always heat pump + cylinder as a single package. Even if you have an existing cylinder it probably won’t be heat pump ready because its internal heating coil is unlikely to be large enough.

Monoblock heat pumps work in the exact same way as a system boiler, they require a cylinder. Everyone is developing and installing Monoblock heat because they are more efficient and easier to install than split air to water systems (no F-gas cert needed either). Even a split air to water system will need a cylinder unless it is massive and you’ll not see those in a domestic properties.

crazyDAJT said:
This is my concern, it says in the article a COP of 3, but I guess this whould be in ideal system design that a retrofit would not deliver.

No point in changing if it’s more expensive to run.
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Fortunately no, a COP of 3 is the absolute minimum you should aim for on a far from ideal retrofit. 4+ is achievable on a not quite ideal but pretty good system.

On a from scratch, full UFH (ideal but real world) set up you’d be looking at 4.5+
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Fortunately no, a COP of 3 is the absolute minimum you should aim for on a far from ideal retrofit. 4+ is achievable on a not quite ideal but pretty good system.

On a from scratch, full UFH (ideal but real world) set up you’d be looking at 4.5+
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This is kind of my point, people get obsessed with high flow temps to replicate a gas boiler, however don’t understand the impact on COP.

This is why when I recently renovated my kitchen / diner I massively oversized the radiators.
 
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