Energy saving tips

[Tobes]

Looking at the logic and scientific factors involved I conclude that excluding opening an d closing the door of the freezer, it uses exactly the same amount of power to maintain the content at the freezers temp setting. The reason is the freezer only has to manage the heat transfer through its walls, and the content of the freezer plays no part in the this thermal transfer.

Consequently depending on what criteria you use for determining "efficiency" it could be construed a full freezer is more efficient as it can keep a larger quantity of produce frozen, but equally it will exactly the same amount of energy it it was empty.

Different factors apply if open the door, or add anything that is warmer than items already in the freezer.

Indeed - also a full freezer allows for less air exchange with the outside each time the door is open, requiring the new (warmer) air to be cooled. If you have a freezer that is full of draws, these help to form a separator for the cool and warm air with the door open, again reducing mix and aiding efficiency.

 

[Buckman]

Dry your clothes outside as much as possible. Tumble dryer eat electricity. Draping them on radiator s increases heating costs. Surprising how many folks use a tumble dryer even on a nice day.
mel

Although I am not keen on our new heat pump tumble drier as it takes ages to dry clothes, it is very energy efficient. I used it this morning and checking the consumption graph it made hardly any difference to consumption.

 

[Gafferbill]

.......just to point out that opening the lid of a chest freezer causes virtually no loss of cold air and is thus more efficient in that respect than an upright.

 

[Hutch]

Taking the Barnsley lamb Chump Chops out of the fridge tonight, did not make me think twice about the power lose from the fridge. Lets get real folks.
Mint sauce, bought or home made. Always the leafs from above shoulder height of our dog. 😉😉😉

 

[macandy]

Must get around to replacing the old school fluorescent tubes in the garage and workshop.
12 x 56w tubes - time for LEDs

 

[otherclive]

I fitted some LED strips in the garage and Damian did similarly for his workshop. Big improvement all around. Mine have been in for around two years and no issues. They came from Screwfix which is 10-15 walk should I have needed to take them back.

Here’s the thread.
https://forums.practicalcaravan.com/threads/led-tubular-lights-for-garage.60857/

 

[Parksy]

The government in their infinite wisdom are about to introduce a windfall tax because energy companies have made record profits recently.
The windfall tax will be used to fund government help with high fuel bills for people.
So the government are taking money from energy suppliers to give to us who will then give it back to energy suppliers.
Is it me, am I missing something here? 🙄

 

[Sam Vimes]

Daft init.

Also the Government through Offgen allow the price cap to rise so we pay more and the energy companies make more profit (especially when the wind blows hard). Then the government takes a cut of the profits and gives it back to us.

Would have been easier to keep the price cap low.

And why can't a price cap be introduced for petrol and diesel,?

 

[Beachball]

I fitted some LED strips in the garage and Damian did similarly for his workshop. Big improvement all around. Mine have been in for around two years and no issues. They came from Screwfix which is 10-15 walk should I have needed to take them back.

Here’s the thread.
https://forums.practicalcaravan.com/threads/led-tubular-lights-for-garage.60857/

May have to invest in some for my garage

 

[Buckman]

If I had money taken away from me, to recoup it I would charge the maximum price possible from that point forward as I need to keep shareholders happy!
Sadly when these energy companies make huge profits in stead of investing the profits improving the infrastructure, they keep some and give some to their investors instead of using some to improving their infrastructure and some to investors.
Oops almost forgot they like to pay senior management millions each plus millions in bonuses.

 

[otherclive]

The government in their infinite wisdom are about to introduce a windfall tax because energy companies have made record profits recently.
The windfall tax will be used to fund government help with high fuel bills for people.
So the government are taking money from energy suppliers to give to us who will then give it back to energy suppliers.
Is it me, am I missing something here? 🙄

I thought that most of the money would go direct to the energy supplier who then deducts it from your bill. That way you can’t spend in diesel, booze, civvies or the horses and complain that you cannot afford heating next winter as you’ve already spent it. An imperfect scheme, but a scheme nevertheless.
What happens if you have oil, delivered gas or solid fuel heating not clear. Presumably the payment goes against your electric bill.

 

[Buckman]

I thought that most of the money would go direct to the energy supplier who then deducts it from your bill. That way you can’t spend in diesel, booze, civvies or the horses and complain that you cannot afford heating next winter as you’ve already spent it. An imperfect scheme, but a scheme nevertheless.

If the money is going direct to the energy supplier I wonder if they will lower your DD? Somehow I doubt it!

 

[otherclive]

If the money is going direct to the energy supplier I wonder if they will lower your DD? Somehow I doubt it!

Yes I that’s what I read. We are currently being advised by BG to reduce our energy DD from £80 to £43ppm so on that basis we could pay very little for the rest of the period until our fixed contract runs out in April 2023. But I doubt it will run that smoothly once admin issues mount up. Still it’s an unexpected “ windfall” so it will be welcomed whenever it arrives.

 

[Tobes]

Daft init.

Also the Government through Offgen allow the price cap to rise so we pay more and the energy companies make more profit (especially when the wind blows hard). Then the government takes a cut of the profits and gives it back to us.

Would have been easier to keep the price cap low.

And why can't a price cap be introduced for petrol and diesel,?

The cap is not in place to guard against high energy source costs, it’s to guard against profiteering through raising the standard tariff for existing customers who don’t look for a deal each time they renew their contract.

Petrol and diesel don’t need a cap as you make a choice about where you fill up (and therefore how much you pay) each time you go to a fuel station.

The recent raising of the cap is not to allow for more profit, it’s to prevent the amount a customer pays from being less than the actual cost of the energy being consumed. When consumers pay less than the cost of energy, energy retailers go out of business.

The as I understand it, the windfall tax is not targeted at energy retailers (like Octopus, or Scottish Power), but at energy suppliers like BP, and Shell. Their profit has increased because of the sudden increase in market prices of Oil and Gas. They mine the raw material at a more or less fixed cost but are selling at a much higher price because of the global supply issue. That creates a windfall profit.

I am interested to know who profits more when the wind blows hard?

 

[Buckman]

Yes I that’s what I read. We are currently being advised by BG to reduce our energy DD from £80 to £43ppm so on that basis we could pay very little for the rest of the period until our fixed contract runs out in April 2023. But I doubt it will run that smoothly once admin issues mount up. Still it’s an unexpected “ windfall” so it will be welcomed whenever it arrives.

To work out our monthly DD is took annual readings for the past 5 years and then averaged it out. It worked out higher than the DD BGAS had imposed on us by £100.
Unfortunately to change the amount on the BGAS was impossible so had to do the"Chat" thing as you cannot phone or email BGAS. I eventually chatted to someone who put it at the correct level.
I have been monitoring our consumption over the past 6 months since we bought those Eco friendly washing machine, tumble drier etc. Our montly consumption has definitely dropped by almost a third is some months notably January and February.
However it will take many years to reach the break even point for purchasing the Eco friendly units and by that time they will probably be near end of life so maybe it was not really worth upgrading?

 

[Dustydog]

And after all that we can look forward to a winter of discontent, power cuts for 6 million homes at a time. Most of our gas is home grown, Norway and Quatar. So has someone else poached our share? If only the Greenies hadn’t persuaded HMG to ditch fossil fuels we wouldn’t be caught with our trousers down. I appreciate being Green will become a reality, but clearly the timing has proven misplaced leaving us all at the mercy of those over whom we have no control. On petrol and diesel I can just cope with the increases but high mileage users will have to pass their costs onto the consumer, so I still lose. HMG could easily lower their extortionate share of vat and fuel tax to help the economy

 

[JTQ]

So has someone else poached our share?

I was not aware there was a "share" system in place, I thought it was more an auction model.

 

[Tobes]

And after all that we can look forward to a winter of discontent, power cuts for 6 million homes at a time. Most of our gas is home grown, Norway and Quatar. So has someone else poached our share? If only the Greenies hadn’t persuaded HMG to ditch fossil fuels we wouldn’t be caught with our trousers down. I appreciate being Green will become a reality, but clearly the timing has proven misplaced leaving us all at the mercy of those over whom we have no control. On petrol and diesel I can just cope with the increases but high mileage users will have to pass their costs onto the consumer, so I still lose. HMG could easily lower their extortionate share of vat and fuel tax to help the economy

The impact of "the Greenies" has not been to increase prices but reduce them. Solar and wind power are cheaper than gas or coal. If we had not had significant wind and solar plant, your electricity and gas bill would be even higher than it is now. Introducing more renewables into the grid reduces demand for fossil fuel, lowering the cost. Low market prices means that some extraction becomes economical unviable (consumers and industry buy low cost not high cost materials).
Being "caught with your trousers down" is about the removal of long term bulk gas storage (a buffer against market volatility) and being a nation reliant on energy import. Perhaps if we had invested more in both wind (which we have in abundance) tidal (which we have in abundance), new-build solar and grid level storage, as a nation we might be both less reliant on imported fossil fuel AND greener.

 

[otherclive]

And after all that we can look forward to a winter of discontent, power cuts for 6 million homes at a time. Most of our gas is home grown, Norway and Quatar. So has someone else poached our share? If only the Greenies hadn’t persuaded HMG to ditch fossil fuels we wouldn’t be caught with our trousers down. I appreciate being Green will become a reality, but clearly the timing has proven misplaced leaving us all at the mercy of those over whom we have no control. On petrol and diesel I can just cope with the increases but high mileage users will have to pass their costs onto the consumer, so I still lose. HMG could easily lower their extortionate share of vat and fuel tax to help the economy

HMG did reduce fuel duty but where has that landed up? Why they didn’t just reduce VAT hasn’t been explained. That would have given an instant reduction none of this waiting until the fuel station had sold all of its stock before a new delivery can have the reduced fuel duty, which hasn’t really made a noticeable reduction in prices.

I know “oldies” tend to look back with rose tinted specs but when interest rates were 15-16%, inflation at around 25% and fuel expensive, or IMF bail out, wife’s income not considered for mortgage purposes, I don’t recall the clamour for HMG to provide mass support. We just went down the pub and drank with coats on and by candlelight as there were invariably miners strikes, railway strikes, or power workers strikes etc.

 

[Buckman]

The impact of "the Greenies" has not been to increase prices but reduce them. Solar and wind power are cheaper than gas or coal. If we had not had significant wind and solar plant, your electricity and gas bill would be even higher than it is now. Introducing more renewables into the grid reduces demand for fossil fuel, lowering the cost. Low market prices means that some extraction becomes economical unviable (consumers and industry buy low cost not high cost materials).
Being "caught with your trousers down" is about the removal of long term bulk gas storage (a buffer against market volatility) and being a nation reliant on energy import. Perhaps if we had invested more in both wind (which we have in abundance) tidal (which we have in abundance), new-build solar and grid level storage, as a nation we might be both less reliant on imported fossil fuel AND greener.

Unfortunately the wind and solar farms are not free as someone has to pay for them and as this is the UK and on many occasions they are ineffective. The greenies have a lot to answer for when the country is not ready to embrace the green style they demand.
Apparently the break even point for wind or solar farms is about 20 years however by that time they need to be replaced. What do we then do with the junk from these places? Somehow I doubt if all the current wind farms and solar farms can generate enough power for all the large bakeries in one day as they are big consumers of electric amongst other places. I wonder if the greenies will be happy to go without bread if there is no wind or sunshine for days on end?
We should have more nuclear stations for generation of power as we do not have enough in the UK which is why we have to im port electric from France and other countries.

 

[otherclive]

The impact of "the Greenies" has not been to increase prices but reduce them. Solar and wind power are cheaper than gas or coal. If we had not had significant wind and solar plant, your electricity and gas bill would be even higher than it is now. Introducing more renewables into the grid reduces demand for fossil fuel, lowering the cost. Low market prices means that some extraction becomes economical unviable (consumers and industry buy low cost not high cost materials).
Being "caught with your trousers down" is about the removal of long term bulk gas storage (a buffer against market volatility) and being a nation reliant on energy import. Perhaps if we had invested more in both wind (which we have in abundance) tidal (which we have in abundance), new-build solar and grid level storage, as a nation we might be both less reliant on imported fossil fuel AND greener.

The large gas storage that Centrica closed down on safety and upkeep grounds wasn’t economically viable given that at the time gas and LNG costs were so low. The other companies were not prepared to contribute to its renewal, and HMG rejected a request for Government support. There are some elements of infrastructure that are best coordinated at a strategic level by government. But the good news is that there still seems to be no shortage of gas or oil…….it’s just expensive.

 

[Dustydog]

Nothing wrong with Green energy but clearly someone got the timing very wrong. Scrapping fossil fuels before becoming totally independent was somewhat in error. Germany is in difficulties now as we all know

 

[JTQ]

The impact of "the Greenies" has not been to increase prices but reduce them. Solar and wind power are cheaper than gas or coal.

I presume that assertion is based on including any incentives that were gifted to the green energy generators?
I recall G Brown introduced some scheme where a financial incentive was given to generators, and to home feed in providers; the words I remember being to the effect that "the UK energy costing us 35% more than others was a price well worth paying".
That might be true but is it also true to say going green is saving us cost, yet?

 

[otherclive]

Nothing wrong with Green energy but clearly someone got the timing very wrong. Scrapping fossil fuels before becoming totally independent was somewhat in error. Germany is in difficulties now as we all know

Germany can only blame themselves, they had enough warnings going back years, and failed to install LNG terminals, and prematurely closed the nuclear plants following Fukushima, opting to then burn more dirty lignite, whilst supporting Nordstream2

 

[Buckman]

Nothing wrong with Green energy but clearly someone got the timing very wrong. Scrapping fossil fuels before becoming totally independent was somewhat in error. Germany is in difficulties now as we all know

One of the reasons why our daughter and family are moving to the UK is due to load shedding in South Africa when they can be without power for hours at a time every day for several weeks. Nothing to do with the greenies though as I doubt if any greenie would be that brave.
They have solar panels, but obviously those panels cannot power the fridges etc. The panels are mainly used to top up the batteries as he relies on power being an IT specialist. She cannot teach at times due to no power at the schools. Hospitals can only due emergency operations using their own fossel fueled generators.