Electricity Smart Meter

[grams]

2 out of 3 used less and 2 out of 3 used more? Did AstraZeneca organise the trial?

[ian]

Up to 7p/h now. This wouldn't matter if we all had our own home nuclear power generators.

Dont put the kettle on, you will start screaming.

I did start bouncing around the kitchen like a trapped wasp when I saw the gas reading for the first time (91p/h!) when the heating cranked up. This wasn't helped when I noticed my wife sharing the scene with her iPad through the serving hatch* with her Zoom buddies. I'm pretty sure they have this 'worst husband' thing going.

*yes, it's spendid, bless the 1960s. Not that we use it, it's got glass doors to let extra light into the kitchen, and it's next to the kitchen door so not much actual use, but it's conceptually pleasing.

[Kim]

'worst husband'

I've just checked, and this is a much less entertaining google image search than 'worst ladder'.

yes, it's spendid, bless the 1960s. Not that we use it, it's got glass doors to let extra light into the kitchen, and it's next to the kitchen door so not much actual use, but it's conceptually pleasing.

My parents had one with a rickety wooden sliding door arrangement.  This was useful for re-creating^[1] the "...unless they figure out how to open doors" scene from Jurassic Park whenever the cats sensed that someone was carving a roast.

This has absolutely nothing to do with energy consumption.  Though one of the cats did function as a rudimentary energy monitor by sleeping halfway up the stairs whenever someone left the light on in the cupboard beneath.


_{[1] Technically, our cats had prior art.  Hence the whole family struggling to contain their laughter when we first saw that scene at the cinema.}

[offcumden]

Our SM has just been installed. Booking was for this afternoon, and the electrician finally turned up at 4pm, which meant we sat in the dark without heating for nearly an hour. Otherwise uneventful.

As we already have apps for the PVs and the Zappi charger, the new usage gadget will not tell us much that we didn't already know. I've left it in the garage for the time being - until any tenacious lurgi bugs have expired - but will bring it indoors soon to add to the starship control panel.

[ian]

'worst husband'

I've just checked, and this is a much less entertaining google image search than 'worst ladder'.

yes, it's spendid, bless the 1960s. Not that we use it, it's got glass doors to let extra light into the kitchen, and it's next to the kitchen door so not much actual use, but it's conceptually pleasing.

My parents had one with a rickety wooden sliding door arrangement.  This was useful for re-creating^[1] the "...unless they figure out how to open doors" scene from Jurassic Park whenever the cats sensed that someone was carving a roast.

This has absolutely nothing to do with energy consumption.  Though one of the cats did function as a rudimentary energy monitor by sleeping halfway up the stairs whenever someone left the light on in the cupboard beneath.

_{[1] Technically, our cats had prior art.  Hence the whole family struggling to contain their laughter when we first saw that scene at the cinema.}

It was the wooden door (swing) arrangement when we got The Asbestos Palace (everything was pretty much as it was when the place was built in 1966). The refurbilators wanted to brick it up, but I stood firm, and we put in glass doors instead. The kitchen is sort of semi-underground so the windows don't exactly gush illumination.

[ian]

Getting bored with it now. It's actually interesting to see what we're using, since we normally just get the quarterly bill, but I have to agree, beyond that it is what it is, I'm not sure how we'd change it. Sit in the cold, become raw-food gurus, and regularly purge ourselves with cold showers. Or knock down our mid-sixties shrine to asbestos and build a Scando-superhome. That's probably the solution, though it comes with a measure of drastic, and it's a bit late in the evening to start demolishing one's home.

It probably terrifies people on a budget, who see their money trickling away. I remember once scoffing an entire sharing plate of nachos and then, it being one of the classy joint, noticing there was a calorie count on the laminated menu. It's that sort of a shocker. I couldn't exactly uneat it. And that was only the starter but once you've started, you may as well finish.

[offcumden]

Re the usage gadget: I was puzzled for a while to see it indicating that our current (in both senses) take was 0watts, given that we had lights on and the washing machine was turning over. Then I realised that the output from our PVs was being deducted from the overall take.  Very nice to be reminded that, even during the current grisly weather, we get a few free electrons to keep life ticking over.

[rob]

I do go round the place turning lights off.  The only other way to save is to go cold, to be honest.

Most modern electrical appliances are as efficient as you’re going to get them.

Actually I’ve just counted and there’s 24 spotlights in this room - kitchen/diner.   Good job it’s a rental place.

[offcumden]

LED lights are getting cheaper. We had a couple of multiple spotlight fittings which came with halogen GU10 bulbs.  Changing these to LEDs reduced electricity usage by, I think, five or six times.
Screwfix or Toolstation are my usual sources.

[quixoticgeek]

The problem with LED lights, is in a way, they are too efficient.

When I moved into my flat in Canterbury, my bedroom had 3 100W R80 spot lights. They put out enough light, and they also dumped nearly 300w of heat into the room.

Now I have 3 9w LED lights, that put next to no heat into the room. So I have to put a bit more heat in elsewhere.

I notice it.

J

[Diver300]

The problem with LED lights, is in a way, they are too efficient.

When I moved into my flat in Canterbury, my bedroom had 3 100W R80 spot lights. They put out enough light, and they also dumped nearly 300w of heat into the room.

Now I have 3 9w LED lights, that put next to no heat into the room. So I have to put a bit more heat in elsewhere.

I notice it.

J

Of course the additional heat is on and offable separately from the lights, so won't be needed all the time that the lights are on.

[robgul]

I'm just in the process of changing light fittings and bulbs from halogen to LED which should mean, so they say, a close to 90% reduction in electricity - the outlay will probably take a couple of years to pay back but I can live with that . . . and we should get much longer life from the LED bulbs.   The one issue has been trying to work out the best LED bulbs for the warm white colour and the number of lumens - bit of trial and error buying odd bulbs but we've cracked it now.

.... anyone want a bargain lot of 20 stainless steel halogen downlighters complete with transformers and bulbs before I put them on Gumtree?

[ian]

The baseline seems to be about 3p/h, which is always-on stuff like clocks and speakers. Lights don't seem to make much difference, but we have LEDs throughout, other than my very satisfying decktop lava lamp.

[FifeingEejit]

The problem with LED lights, is in a way, they are too efficient.

When I moved into my flat in Canterbury, my bedroom had 3 100W R80 spot lights. They put out enough light, and they also dumped nearly 300w of heat into the room.

Now I have 3 9w LED lights, that put next to no heat into the room. So I have to put a bit more heat in elsewhere.

I notice it.

J

Had a similar issue, not helped by the fact the house had storage heaters!

[fuaran]

Most of the heat from lights goes up into the ceiling. Not very efficient at heating the rest of the room.

[Kim]

Most of the heat from lights goes up into the ceiling.

Even more so with dichroic reflectors.  Halogen downlighters anyone?

[quixoticgeek]

Had a similar issue, not helped by the fact the house had storage heaters!

That's how my Canterbury flat is heated.

J

[Kim]

Had a similar issue, not helped by the fact the house had storage heaters!

That's how my Canterbury flat is heated.

Ah, hence the need for extra heat...

[ian]

Hmm, getting a smart meter evidently earned us a bill (not sure why they send one at the end of the dumb-meter period, surely the meter continues, but perhaps it starts again from the big zero). I don't really mind, it's all the same money. Except the bill says estimated, then read, then estimated, then read.

I have a PhD in fancy stuff that involved genetics and molecules. It's not sums, admittedly. Honestly, I cannot understand their fucking bills. And believe me, if you ever had the misfortune to contact British Gas, you'll have realised they don't understand their fucking bills either.

[robgul]

Hmm, getting a smart meter evidently earned us a bill (not sure why they send one at the end of the dumb-meter period, surely the meter continues, but perhaps it starts again from the big zero). I don't really mind, it's all the same money. Except the bill says estimated, then read, then estimated, then read.

I have a PhD in fancy stuff that involved genetics and molecules. It's not sums, admittedly. Honestly, I cannot understand their fucking bills. And believe me, if you ever had the misfortune to contact British Gas, you'll have realised they don't understand their fucking bills either.

Yep - when we had Smart Meters installed at our previous house they sent and "end bill" for the old ones and then a new one starting from Zero.

We're waiting on booking Smart Meters from BG having just ordered a switch from AVRO (who can't seem to get their act together on billing or admin) - and the upside is that the 2 year fixed rate we have with BG is a LOT cheaper than AVRO (who purport to be cheap) - you just need to speak to a human at BG and they have some way better than published/online rates. 

[ian]

I did figure it out in the end, BG changed their prices, and estimated the reading when the price changed, and then took the final reading and basically mangled together a final bill out of the two. Without really saying they did this. Surprise bill with bonus random numbers. Good to know getting a smart meter has not affected the service.

[rob]

BG recently acquired the customers of a failed supplier.  So bad is their SAP based billing system they have been unable to move the customers over quick enough and have lost approx 50% of them to other suppliers.   This is what happens when you hire Accenture to run your IT procurement.

[Ashaman42]

Our smart meter, well the readout box in the living room, is claiming that we've used £1305 worth of electricity today.

I did charge up a couple battery packs but they weren't that big!

[ian]

Just put the electricity back when you are done. They'll never know.

As students, we had one of those 50p meters. The little coin hopper underneath somehow fell off. I blame poor workmanship on behalf of the meter-makers. That 50p did some work. It sweated to a mirror shine as it passed through the meter like dahl during dysentery. On collection day, we had to go to all the local shops and get to generate about £20's worth of 50p coins. It was like the crappest treasure hoard ever. Then we'd bodge it all together with enough coins not to raise immediate suspicion. I'm to this day unclear how we got away with this for so long, during winter we were running electric fires in every room. Eventually we had to do a bunk owing to an epic mismatch between reading and reward.

Don't judge us. We had just cause. Righteousness sided with us and waved her mighty angelic sword. Firstly, our landlord, Norm the Milkman* had a son who was the epitome of scally so he tried to rob us about once a month, somehow never twigging we had no shit worth stealing, but was dumber than the average milk bottle, and also NtMM never fixed the big hole in the roof. Also yes, as you ask, we were somehow never short of a bottle of milk, since our back window opened into the yard where he parked the milk-floats. I may well be going to Hell, but that's fine, because I already have a second home there and that's my retirement plan.

*not Norman the Gangster, who we wouldn't fuck with, because he was the real deal, the King of Kensington and he had lads who didn't just hit people, they hit people like they liked it more than they liked their mums, and they really liked their mums. I've no idea why everyone in the late-80s/early 90s Liverpool was called Norman.

[ian]

Novelty over. I put the gadget in the cupboard with the meters (it kept losing connection anyway, but as previously discussed, The Asbestos Palace is impervious to weasily little radio waves).