Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[TNA]

Dryer is just not economic especially with energy prices increasing.

Toss in the fact that some clothes items get ruined if you toss it in a dryer

Yea, some of my tshirt have got timy over the past year.

I have a heat pump drier which I used a lot until recently where prices have sky rocketed. Now getting used to hang clothes on the line outside. Should be fine doing that until October/November. Then back to the drier again for me until April/May again.

This is why if I ever do go solar I want to go 6-8kwh so I get decent winter generation of electricity.

 

[opethian]

Things are going to get a lot worse in a few months. Then again a few months after that. Combined with the self-inflicted crippling sanctions (aka Brexit), you have to ask the question: those who made the decisions for everyone, how much are they going to be affected by this?

 

[LabR@t]

Things are going to get a lot worse in a few months. Then again a few months after that. Combined with the self-inflicted crippling sanctions (aka Brexit), you have to ask the question: those who made the decisions for everyone, how much are they going to be affected by this?

Brexit has nothing to do with the. It's a global issue

 

[scarps]

My mate does this, as no room for a drier until he moves. He endEd up having to use a dehumidifier due to damp and mould.

We have dried clothes inside no problem for 7 years in this current house, even over the doors and with them being the cheapest doors in history I expect, they even aren't showing any signs on water damage/damp etc.

Not one bit of mould/damp in the house, even around windows, hell even the bathroom is damp free

 

[Puzzled]

Brexit has nothing to do with the. It's a global issue

It's not exactly helped has it, icing on the cake.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Brexit has nothing to do with the. It's a global issue

Other counties doesn't seem to be as bad as us

 

[Harnser]

Something doesn't seem right here.
You say your annual usage is 3300kWh but the monthly graph shows about 3100kWh in a single month (Jan 21)

Ahem, thanks for pointing that out. I'd deleted the wrong series from my chart (AFAICT Google Sheets won't let you toggle on/off series on a chart like Excel does) and exported the gas usage.

Original post updated with the correct annual electricity chart.

 

[Harnser]

I think unfortunately as you plan to move within 10 years its not really something to recommend. Now you could be saying that and due to life it creeps over by three or four years which would make it more worthwhile.

Yes, it's certainly an unknown. We look at each other and say "how could we stay somewhere that long?" and we might, or might get restless. The neighbours have both been here almost 25 years, and if we ended up staying it would pay off. I think we will get itchy feet, but if I could predict that far ahead I'd be running an investment fund

The biggest thing the government can do is to look at making dwellings that have solar (or renewables) a massive positive and start encouraging it as criteria needed moving forward.

Definitely. Maybe that will change anyhow with the price rises but when we bought 2 years ago it was noticeable how a solar install hardly affected the property's selling price. So I can't rely on that to recoup costs if moving in <15 years.

 

[opethian]

Brexit has nothing to do with the. It's a global issue

I said combined with the gunshot to the head self-inflicted economic sanction that is Brexit, not just solely Brexit.

 

[jpaul]

I've been weighing up solar since 2020 and never made the costs work so with all the talk here of how it will pay back and how MSE is underestimating payback let's see if you can spot where my calculations have gone wrong.

Have you considered exclusively load shifting (no pv), and getting a powerwall/embedded-invertor type configuration which you could transport to a new house,
assuming, that with the battery usage pattern it maintains a good capacity after those 8 years, it's probably resellable too, if new property was already equipped.

That does rely on the differential between favorable night, and day, rates, with the likes of octopus, remaining; maybe other suppliers will soon be onboard and restriction of EV ownership 'relaxed',
more wind capacity coming online and limited supplier storage capacity investment suggests it will (private market and ev's monopolising lithium supply)
Unclear how any change in vehicle/EV taxation - mileage based ? might modify market.

 

[cheesefest]

Only have my tumble dryer for 15-20 mins a week for my towels as that keeps them fluffy. Drying them either outside or on the airer, makes them hard.

Some people use their tumble dyers til the clothes are to a crisp. That’s wasteful

 

[purplesky]

Things are going to get a lot worse in a few months. Then again a few months after that. Combined with the self-inflicted crippling sanctions (aka Brexit), you have to ask the question: those who made the decisions for everyone, how much are they going to be affected by this?

Brexit this, Brexit that. I know lots of British people who have benefited from Brexit. Some people just can't accept that the vote didn't go their way. This is likely linked to my posts which talk about entitlement.

But if we do want to talk about the EU here (I don't, so will be very brief), we could talk about how the euro is currently crumbling against the US dollar, Italian and other member states eye-watering debts that will almost certainly rip the EU apart, the ECB's failure to start meaningfully increasing rates, and how Germany is in a right pickle, particularly how they're going to be asked to pay to support the basket case members whilst facing an energy/gas crisis.

 

[cheesefest]

Anyone who suggests that we switch off our fridges and freezers to live on tinned and packets is in cloud cuckoo land.

Plus things like long life milk and half a tin of beans need to be placed in the fridge once opened.

Another way to save money is to buy full tins of baked beans as only 5-10p more compared to half a tin. Then put the rest on the fridge in a food pot.

A few weeks ago, my work stopped selling small tins of peas. I suggested the above to the moaning customer. Their reaction was the same as someone speaking with a foreign language.

 

[purplesky]

Anyone who suggests that we switch off our fridges and freezers to live on tinned and packets is in cloud cuckoo land.

Plus things like long life milk and half a tin of beans need to be placed in the fridge once opened.

Another way to save money is to buy full tins of baked beans as only 5-10p more compared to half a tin. Then put the rest on the fridge in a food pot.

A few weeks ago, my work stopped selling small tins of peas. I suggested the above to the moaning customer. Their reaction was the same as someone speaking with a foreign language.

I didn't say switch off the fridge freezer every few hours or days. I specifically said every 2 - 3 months to account for the use-by dates.
Most people don't have energy efficient fridge freezers, so it makes perfect sense to alternate. Of course, this is only one angle of attack, but combined with other cost saving measures, it all adds up significantly over the year.

 

[MadMossy]

Fridge freezers do not use that much electricity, mine for example is 11 years old, currently my energy use with my fridge/pc/broadband router on and nothing else is using 184w. The fridge is around 30w idle 100-150w when the compressor kicks in for a few minutes an hour or so.

 

[purplesky]

Fridge freezers do not use that much electricity, mine for example is 11 years old, currently my energy use with my fridge/pc/broadband router on and nothing else is using 184w. The fridge is around 30w idle 100-150w when the compressor kicks in for a few minutes an hour or so.

When looking at things in isolation, it doesn't seem a lot, but it's all cumulative over time. Someone paying £2.20 for a Starbucks for all 5 days of the week is wasting over £500 per year.

 

[theone8181]

When looking at things in isolation, it doesn't seem a lot, but it's all cumulative over time. Someone paying £2.20 for a Starbucks for all 5 days of the week is wasting over £500 per year.

But that fridge is likely not costing much over a year. Probably a hundred quid a year. That's in the noise compared to a 3 grand electric bill. And like others have said, lots of things require the fridge you going to have dry cereal?

 

[purplesky]

But that fridge is likely not costing nuchal over a year. Probably a few 10s of pounds. That's in the noise compared to a 3 grand electric bill. And like others have said, lots of things require the fridge you going to have dry cereal?

As electricity unit rates keep on climbing, those 10s of pounds will turn into hundreds. An increase in energy costs + people using less = higher prices. Companies will want to keep on making higher and higher profits. It's how continuous growth in a capitalist system works.
People can use dried skimmed milk / powder.

 

[fez]

Brexit this, Brexit that. I know lots of British people who have benefited from Brexit.

How have lots of people benefitted? Genuine question because I can't think of anything that has been better for me since Brexit and I can think of a dozen things that have been much worse.

When looking at things in isolation, it doesn't seem a lot, but it's all cumulative over time. Someone paying £2.20 for a Starbucks for all 5 days of the week is wasting over £500 per year.

Yeah, this is one of those things which doesn't help many of us have as much sympathy as we could with those struggling. All those little things add up and none of them are necessary or even improve your quality of life.

People spending money on lunches at work every day. A coffee and a pastry for £5 a few days a week. A couple of takeaways every week. People are spending thousands a year on entirely luxury items that they have just become so used to that to ask them to stop is seen as entirely unreasonable.

This squeeze is going to disappear within a year or two I imagine so asking people to tighten their belts in the short term isn't crazy IMO.

 

[cheesefest]

How have lots of people benefitted? Genuine question because I can't think of anything that has been better for me since Brexit and I can think of a dozen things that have been much worse.



Yeah, this is one of those things which doesn't help many of us have as much sympathy as we could with those struggling. All those little things add up and none of them are necessary or even improve your quality of life.

People spending money on lunches at work every day. A coffee and a pastry for £5 a few days a week. A couple of takeaways every week. People are spending thousands a year on entirely luxury items that they have just become so used to that to ask them to stop is seen as entirely unreasonable.

This squeeze is going to disappear within a year or two I imagine so asking people to tighten their belts in the short term isn't crazy IMO.

Then always buy a carrier bag too!