Anyone had a Smart Meter fitted at home?

[steve_earwig]

Phillips, Verbatim, Robus, Aurora or LAP.

I think the only one of those bands I've seen here was Phillips but I think they were in the "holy sh*t, I'm not paying 30 quid for a light bulb!" section. Other than all the "never blood heard of them" brands I've only seen the GE, which are some (probably) Chinese firm who have paid for the rights to use the "GE" emblem. Presumably the money GE get far outweighs the distinct possibility of their brand going down the pan because of shoddy merchandise. Or maybe management figure they'll get their bonus out of that and be gone before the do-do hits the fan.

Wanders off to look at candle making videos

[trufflehunt]

I was under the impression that the situation with smart meters was, and is, a right mess.

The earlier types, call them Type 1, cease to be smart if you switch supplier ? They are then as dumb as the old style meters.

Type 2 are the real smart ones, you can switch supplier, and they stay smart.

I've gone down the road of choosing green, renewable electricity. I did a one year fix last year with Octopus Energy.
This time round, I chose Green Network Energy.

No smart meters involved for either.

[Welly]

I chose Green Network Energy.

No smart meters involved for either.

I'm with GNE, they tried to increase my monthly amount from 138.00 to 168.00 based on 'usage' .....I conducted a metered 14 day test with them and they said "oh ok you can stay on the 138.00 plan). To be fair I've had this with all of them in the last few years; I believe its in their interest to keep you in credit unless you complain....then they've got all that lovely spare money to play with ......

[GingerMagic]

I mustard mitt I'm tempted to go back to paying for my gas and electric by cheque, at least this way my £88 pounds per month stays in my account for 6 months, not in their bank a month in advance, and in credit..

[rwb]

I believe the trick with smart meters is that your tarriff will vary hour by hour so that you pay more during peak hours.

Large consumers have had this for years; organistions that have to do carbon accounting have half hourly meters. IIRC a branch of M&S in the south west (to where it is quite expensive to transmit electricity) were charged so much during peak hours that they installed diesel generators.

We moved in in Feb 2006 and I think the big different in electricity from 2017 onwards is the lights in the living room and kitchen. Originally the living room was six 40W and 60W incandecent (in a fitting rated for 40W). LEDs were forbidden so I replaced them with 18W halogen which was a never ending job because they didn't last long. I was allowed LEDs in the kitchen GU10s (8 of); I had to get a bench grinder to grind the bulbs down to fit into the holes.

The drop in electricity since March is a big surprise. I turn things off at the sockets now, and I don't leave a light on over night. However, I tink the biggest difference is that I only run the dishwasher when it's full rather than every night.

On the other hand the gas hasn't dropped as much as I was expecting. We have two central heating zones; the living room had to be on 24 and the rest of the house on 22 degrees 24/7. I used to sit there sweating. Since turning it off the cat's dandruff has completely cleared up.
Huge gas use at the start of 2018 was when it snowed.

[Welly]

Your Water has changed a lot

What's the thing with dishwashers? even on 'Eco' ours runs for at least 2 hours, probably 2.5hrs, why is it so long? and especially as Mrs_Welly insists on 'mega rinsing' everything before it goes in the machine...

I might suggest tonight that we wash up the old fashioned way. And then stand back. A lot.

[Bailes1992]

There's lots of standard tarrifs out there where the price is set for the duration of the tariff where you can have a smart meter installed. I'm not one for having different tarrifs for different times of the day.

I suspect over the next few decades gas will get phased out and/or more expensive and electric will become cheaper.

I'm amazed that fitting eco-friendly/renewable energy systems onto new houses hasn't become mandatory. Installing solar panels, geothermal/air-source heat pumps, solar thermal hot water etc etc.

If I had the money I would love to rip out our combi, install a large hot water tank, solar-thermal panels for hot water and an air source heat pump for heating the house and heating up the hot water tank when the solar-thermal panels aren't being heated. I'd also install an array of solar PV to help with the electricity of running it all. I've got plans all drawn up and everything but lack the £30,000 or so I need to install it.

[Welly]

I think new homes design is way off where it should/could be, even the layout of houses hasn't changed much.

A minor thing but I think new houses should have a proper laundry room large enough to wash, dry and iron clothes - out of the way of the main living spaces.

Ground/Air source heat pumps for heating is doable but you'd ideally need underfloor heating and tiled floors....or enormous radiators to suit the lower flow temperature.

I don't think you can beat having a hot water storage cylinder, ours has 28mm hot & cold connections and can run 2 x power showers simultaneously, it has a fast recovery time using the heating boiler. I leave the hot water on 24/7 and only occasionally hear the boiler running for about 6 minutes to top up the temperature, plus we have hot water on tap whenever we want, can't see the point of letting it go cold and then paying to reheat it.

[Bailes1992]

I think new homes design is way off where it should/could be, even the layout of houses hasn't changed much.

A minor thing but I think new houses should have a proper laundry room large enough to wash, dry and iron clothes - out of the way of the main living spaces.

Ground/Air source heat pumps for heating is doable but you'd ideally need underfloor heating and tiled floors....or enormous radiators to suit the lower flow temperature.

I don't think you can beat having a hot water storage cylinder, ours has 28mm hot & cold connections and can run 2 x power showers simultaneously, it has a fast recovery time using the heating boiler. I leave the hot water on 24/7 and only occasionally hear the boiler running for about 6 minutes to top up the temperature, plus we have hot water on tap whenever we want, can't see the point of letting it go cold and then paying to reheat it.

I have a new house so it's very air tight and well insulated. Walls are 100mm brick. 50mm cavity, 50mm celotex insulation and 100mm thermalite block. The loft has nearly 2ft of rockwoll installed. I manage to keep the house quite comfortable with the radiators on 40°c, even in the middle of winter. It also makes sure the boiler is condensing most of the time. The house is very air tight, from March to October I end up leaving all the windows locked open ajar. I would also like to install full house ventilation with heat recovery. That's something that might actually happen next year.

I see no reason why modern houses couldn't adopt more environmentally friendly technologies. In-fact, I'm of the opinion they should have to.

[rwb]

IIRC domestic heating accounts for a larger proportion of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions than does road transport.

Here's what's making your lekky right now: http://gridwatch.co.uk/

[trufflehunt]

IIRC domestic heating accounts for a larger proportion of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions than does road transport.

Here's what's making your lekky right now: http://gridwatch.co.uk/

Yup. CCGT = gas

The 0% coal is a little deceptive, as it draws attention away from the approximately 46 - 54% ( depending on the time
of day ) of electricity generated from gas, which comes straight from fossil fuels.

[Welly]

Bailes - I have a Bollard fitting on the front of the house with a SON-E 70w lamp and control gear, wondering if this is a drain on the leccy bills (it's on a dawn/dusk sensor) I always thought it was an efficient way of lighting but would an LED "corn" type lamp be much better for me?

[Bailes1992]

Bailes - I have a Bollard fitting on the front of the house with a SON-E 70w lamp and control gear, wondering if this is a drain on the leccy bills (it's on a dawn/dusk sensor) I always thought it was an efficient way of lighting but would an LED "corn" type lamp be much better for me?

Your 70w SON-E lamp produces ~5600lm of light. That's f*cking loads. Do you need that much light in the front of your house? Admittedly, it's quite efficient.

[Welly]

The road is private so there's no council street lampage, the developer put these Bollards in for everyone although I seem to be the only one who's been able to replace the control gear on mine and keep the thing going. I converted next-door's to 240v E27 flourescent cluster (energy saving) thing when the woman living there before wanted it to work but didn't fancy buying all the control stuff but I like the SON light output.

[Bailes1992]

Unless you wanted to install lesser lamps, but more of them I don't see if you could make an improvement to the current setup. Despite having visited your house I cannot remember seeing a bollard.

I'd think 3 or 4 GU10 style down lighters in the soffit of your garage and a lantern outside your front door with a smaller lamp in you bollard would save you a little bit of energy, but is it worth all the hassle?

Assuming you pay ~15p/KWh for your magic invisible energy.

Using this website...
http://projectbritain.com/weather/sunshine.htm

I have worked out we AVERAGE 11.7 hours of dark each night.
11.7 hours multiplied by 365 days of the year comes back at 4270.5 hours the light is on every year.

Your current 70w lamp on for 4270.5 hours will consume 298.94KWh and cost £44.76 to run.

Lets reaplce 70w SON-E for an LED lamp. I'm going to pick a Phillips 8.5w E27 LED lamp that produces 806lm.
I'm going to install 2N° Phillips Robin MyGarden hanging lantern outside your front door. They're 4.5w and produce 430lm. I've recently fitted a few of these and they're fantastic luminaires.
I'm also going to install 3N°IP65 GU10 luminaires into the soffit of your garage with 3N° Phillips 4.6w GU10 lamps that produce 390lm each.

The above setup will consume...
(8.5+(2*4.5)+(3*4.6) = 31.3 watts total.
(31.3*4270.5)/1000 = 133.67KWh a year

133.67*0.15 = £20.05 a year to run.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/philips-es-g ... 8-5w/7715p
https://www.toolstation.com/philips-led ... p44/p45290
https://www.screwfix.com/p/philips-gu10 ... pack/3995p