I hate to say it but I agree. A lot of the advice is just common sense (e.g don't leave consoles on standby, don't keep an appliance on that you're not using etc) but also, and maybe I'm speaking out of turn here, anyone concerned about energy will already be doing those things anyway. I don't think they're going to tell us any more than that what most of us already know and there will always be people who just don't care. Someone on tv this morning mentioned elderly people not being able to see those campaigns if they're not on tv. I'd argue most elderly people are the ones who taught us these tips in the first place!Someone told me vaguely about this earlier today and I thought it was ridiculous that a sensible sounding campaign had been blocked, but reading what it would have entailed it's such obvious stuff that I'm not sure it would be a great use of £15m really (am aware that's a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of government budgets, but still). If people can't work out for themselves that keeping the radiators on while no-one's home wastes money then
I recently saw someone on another site asking if anyone knew how they could disconnect the gas line to their cooker, in order to pipe the gas into 'some sort of container' so they could store it before the shortages hit... living in a terrace, tit like this alarms me a lot more than the potential for blackouts tbh!
Discontent #8 food, energy, transport, cost of living, society etc
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Don't forget though, your bill will increase as the energy you use increases. So it's worth putting some of the "savings" aside for that.
Absolutely, definitely being so much more cautious with money now than I used to be.
I think a better campaign would be to inform people of which household activities typically use the most energy. Of course it's going to vary somewhat by appliance manufacturer and model but I think it's fairly standard that an electric shower, electric oven and tumble dryer all use a lot of electricity, while using LED lights and heating meals in the microwave for a few minutes are very cheap. Not only would it help people know what to cut back on, I think it would also be reassuring for a lot of people to learn that some things are much less expensive than they think (e.g. boiling water in the kettle only costs about 1-2p per cup).
Which countries have tightly intertwined electricity lines? Until now, there is no common policy precisely. Energy politics, capacities and situations are VERY different from one country to another. Even the sources are different and they want to diversify them more obviously.An increase in demand shouldn't cause a power cut because of the forecasting models available, that's correctWhat some media has been saying though is that there could be intentional power cuts due to shortages, essentially forcing people that way for less consumption.
If indeed planned though and people are aware of such a cut coming up, most likely the demand in electricity would just shift to an earlier time in the day, before the power cut: people would try to cook, heat, get their washing down, charge their devices, etc. Very little would actually be gained by an intentional switch off.
It also doesn't make much sense from a stability perspective - while it might be different in the UK and Ireland due to being islands, in mainland Europe one country having a blackout can take down the rest of Europe with it, as the the countries' electricity lines are tightly intertwined. Yes, it is true that a big storm could lead to such a blackout event, this has been the case for years and the gas situation doesn't help, but I doubt that someone would add the risk of a planned outage on top of that. You need a lot of electricity to get things going again, often more than for pure maintenance.
The problem isn’t a common policy or pricing or lack thereof, but that the different providers in the different countries rely on all other countries‘ nets being stable. Strong fluctuations in demand or shutdowns can trigger wider shutdowns, for example because a sudden unplanned demand might set a plant into overdrive. To protect it, it would get shutdown, which can cause further shutdowns, and so on, it’s a cascading event. And since there’s transfer between countries, it can happen that such a cascade will cross borders.
Something like this has happened for example back in 2006: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout
I mean this says it all
The campaign was “light touch” and included three central measures that could save people up to £300 a year — lowering the temperature of boilers, turning off radiators in empty rooms and advising people to turn off the heating when they go out.
15million saved imo.
I’ve had my smart meter for just over a week now, my main takeaways are that the things like items on standby etc are not really making a huge difference (I know every little helps and it adds up over a year and that) but it’s the stuff that I know is a big use that is the problem- the tumble dryer, the oven, the dishwasher, stuff like that.
but I now have a small kitchen full of drying on an 2 airers as it’s been rainy today, and it’s so in the way I don’t know how I can do this all winter. The only other space we have that fits the airers is between the sofa and the tv so that’s worse! And sometimes I need to use the oven despite trying to slow cook things and plan better. And the dishwasher is supposed to be more eco friendly than hand washing. I’m just getting in a spiral of overthinking and not having good solutions.
but I now have a small kitchen full of drying on an 2 airers as it’s been rainy today, and it’s so in the way I don’t know how I can do this all winter. The only other space we have that fits the airers is between the sofa and the tv so that’s worse! And sometimes I need to use the oven despite trying to slow cook things and plan better. And the dishwasher is supposed to be more eco friendly than hand washing. I’m just getting in a spiral of overthinking and not having good solutions.
I think there's a big need for something that I've never seen which is meter reading and understanding energy usage. Make it simple. Also does everyone have a thermostat? Are they all in the same place as I've never seen one in my home.
I've just had the last quarter's electricity bill for our village hall. It's not big and it's a new, properly insulated, energy efficient building that doesn't get a huge amount of use because there are only 28 houses in the village.
£2,057.29
They've done it off an estimated reading which is slightly out, despite me sending them a reading a week ago, but even so that'll only reduce it by about £500. We have enough in reserves to cover it, but one more winter of these prices and it'll probably fold.
£2,057.29
They've done it off an estimated reading which is slightly out, despite me sending them a reading a week ago, but even so that'll only reduce it by about £500. We have enough in reserves to cover it, but one more winter of these prices and it'll probably fold.
I've got one but my partner who lives in a similar house doesn't. They tend to be in a hallway (mine's at the bottom of my stairs so my kitchen doesn't have a door).
I would read my meter more often but it's in an awkward space to get to so I just do it once a month. I asked about an In Home Display but I'm waiting for my provider to 'wake up' my first gen smart meter that stopped working when I switched. I suspect I'll be waiting a long time. TBH I suspect they'll replace the meter before they do that.
They did three day weeks in the 70s, so that could happen again I guess. Essential services won't be affected, obviously.
Mines by my front door and I also have one for upstairs in my bedroom. The upstairs one never goes on
I try to fill the oven when I am using it.
Rather than sticking one thing in there and then boiling on the hob sides etc.
You can do mashed potato in the oven (check out Nancy Birtwistle on instagram she has a how to) can also put veggies in foil with a bit of butter and water and they will steam. Pud pudding in at the same time etc.
It's efficient to use your oven if it is full. It's inefficient if you just stick 1 tray with a few nuggets on it in
On Sunday we are having toad in the hole, mash and veg. So I will do the whole dinner in the oven. I will just need to boil rhe kettle for gravy. I might make a crumble too as we have some apples left on our tree and I will just leave it in the oven while we eat dinner to keep warm.
Also after using your oven, leave the door open so the heat circulates the room
We had an old thermostat fixed to the wall in the hall opposite our front door and also on shadier side of our house. The hall is one of the coldest places in our house which meant that it kept kicking in and heating our bedrooms up unbearably warm even if it was only set to 18.
We then got hive installed and the thermostat is portable, so it’s now in our bedroom. I can’t stand a hot bedroom. Our gas usage nearly halved after it was installed.
If the hive thermostat was in the hall it was 18c and it was nearly 22c in the bedroom
I said this yesterday as I work past 4pm on certain days of the week when my son is childcare. If blackouts are on them days I'll have to work time back on other days which means child at home plus working.
Yeah I don’t get how that’s going to work at all. My husband works for a huge company and I can’t see them accepting him working anything less than what he does now
maybe supply generators 
Mine are both on the south facing side, my girls room never goes over 16 in winter but mines 19/20, I think from the sun as well as heat from downstairs? Their room is dorma style and North facing
You can get uninterruptible power supplies for cheaper than generators. We have a few due to circumstances, I don’t know if the £90 ones are any good but ours were more than that and I’m reassured by them. We’re looking into our own generator but it’s £thousands rather than £hundreds and I’m not sure we’ll ever see a ROI on it. If we didn’t live so remotely with no signal so need WiFi calling I’d honestly just buy a few leisure batteries from Halfords and call it a day as it’s unlikely power outages will last more than a few hours for most people.Yeah I don’t get how that’s going to work at all. My husband works for a huge company and I can’t see them accepting him working anything less than what he does now
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