Having exceeded the budget for the last calendar month I have been taken to watching the SMART meter like a hawk even writing down the changes and what was on when. The meter only goes red when the electric shower is running and it ticks over at 40 watts when everything major is turned off in the house and just standby things are happening.
Then my husband changed the reading to ££££ and gosh, that concentrates the mind! I am reminded of my early childhood and my mother feeding silver shillings into the meters. If we were still doing that I think £2 a day would just about cover things for electricity. Our oil, gas and wood being separate.
For example, discounting all the background standby stuff happening, between 7.30 and 9.15 am we spent 21p on kettle, radio, toaster and 2 showers. Two days later it was a bit colder so the boiler was working harder and I had put on a short wash when I got up and we spent 27p.
Husband has always maintained it is the dishwasher and washing machine that eat the electricity. But both are new and I have now proved that they only add a few pence to the drain. I do agree with him that the oven is a nightmare - between 4pm and 7pm one evening with boiler going from 5pm, the oven on from 5.30 to 6.30, then the dishwasher and the main TV on and lights in 2 rooms, we got through 67p!
We monitored a few more evenings and realized that our 12 year old large TV is probably not helping things at all. An evenings' TV can rack up 30 to 35p extra. It throws out loads of heat as well. So now the argument is new TV with a better electricity rate??? The man of the house obviously wants the latest gadgets, personally I can live with turning it off!
There was a news article about poverty and energy (again) the other day and a focus on SMART meters. I don't think just having a Smart meter "helps" , that is far too simple, it is about the working out what is happening, what is costing and what you can do/not do with what you can afford. I get cross at the news commentators/journalists sometimes when it is reported as glib headlines as I am sure if I was stressed a lot and worried I could not "sort it out" in my head. I then heard about a new "app" that stopped you, via your bank, overspending on gambling and other addictions. I wondered when it would be applied to other bits of our lives like fuel bills. Is that an extension of my mother and the meters? When she "overspent" the meter ran out and we went without!
I have a smart meter and all I've done since having it installed is watch how much it's costing me, my house is all electric with storage heaters so this time of year it's a nightmare so I only put the heaters on in sitting room and bathroom when it gets really cold I'm glad I don't like heat in bedroom. I do remember how we used to deal with winter when I was younger and we only had I coal fire. Heather
ReplyDeleteMy parents did not have heating upstairs and we wore jumpers over pajamas in bed. I understand the new generation storage heaters can be effective but I do remember the ones we had in the 1970s being a nightmare!
DeleteMine are the old ones unfortunately. Heather
Deletei remember my mum filling the meter with coins, we all loved the day the man came to empty it, there was always money to come back. We love our smart meter, like you it has not changed our lives, but it is interesting to see what things cost. we try and stay below £2 most days for gas and electric.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten that "refund" bit!!! Yes, it was exciting. I remember being sent to the "gas office" in the village but cannot image why that was.
Deleteim desperately trying to avoid a smart meter as my other half would drive us all mad , hed bill everyone individually and i would imagine that would include me for the cooker and washer !!
ReplyDeleteThe ads that say having a smart meter would save people money really annoy me as it's only by using less electric that you save money!
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