nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Ideas for dodging the upcoming peak tariffs

the_amazing_raisin

I thought this might be a good thread to post ideas and advice for avoiding peak energy tariffs

It seems with the rollout of smart meters and all this talk of energy shortages that we're going to be getting higher electricity prices in the evening, probably between 5pm and 9pm, but maybe longer

Since that's when people seem to be doing a lot of energy intensive stuff (cooking, heating the house/water), it seems some changing habits are going to be needed

I was thinking people could post ideas of how to move their energy usage around and what impacts they've seen from it

Personally I've always thought the biggest domestic consumer of electricity is anything that produces heat. When you look at the power consumption of a TV versus an oven, its a few hundred watts versus 2-3kW

So I was thinking one idea would be to try and cook meals during the day. A lot of ovens have built in timers so you could prep a meal in the morning and set it to a low temp for the day and slow cook one or two meals

Microwaves are generally quite energy efficient compared to ovens. So batch cooking a few meals and reheating them should save a few euros each day

The other obvious candidates is the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Personally I think they should all be sold with delay timers at a minimum (most of them are now it seems) so they can be run during the night

Heating the house and water is a tricky one. If you're heating your house with a heat pump then it's generally better practice to keep it at a set temperature rather than running it for short bursts of time. You could build up some heat before 5pm and then turn it off for a few hours. If the house is well insulated then it should keep warm until the night time

Hot water is a bit more demanding, especially of you need to run baths for the kids in the evening. Only idea I have there is to shift your showers to the morning, or maybe get a bigger and we'll insulated hot water tank so you can heat it up before the peak and it'll keep warm for a while

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

denismc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118016866#Comment_118016866

Why would you see different consumption at different times? An appliance uses the same amount of electricity regardless of when it is run!

The only change you might see is to your bills if have signed up to variable tariffs with your energy provider.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118016951#Comment_118016951

This is spot on actually I have one of them and I can see on my smart socket that it is constantly using 800w for about 2 hours that it needs to dry.

Heating water from electricity is not exactly efficient but during summer doesn't matter if you got solar. I'm running a combi boiler for the heating and instant hot water, gas is still way cheaper than elec and you only heat what you use, 0 waste but I hear they will be phasing out all gas boilers in the future anyway.

beachhead

and not all are electric boom boom sum fancy themselves as technical head with kilowatts spouting everywhere

listermint

Have a smart meter a week, have absolutely zero idea if it's going to make any difference. But I'm also aware there are some absolute loopers on boards too.

beachhead

Without providing any kind of evidence I would say that smart meters are not for the benefit of the consumer and posters on Boards seem to agree.I have a smart meter.I have not activated it for smart tariffs.I receive emails every 2 weeks prompting me to do so.Maybe Electric Ireland will reduce my bill to zero.The emails look promising-in a not believable way.But the sales pitch is over the top.

bullit_dodger

While not exactly curbing peak usage, one thing I've been looking at recently is replacing my tumble dryer with a heat pump one. The old dryer has given up the ghost after 10-12 years, so it's in need of replacing. In summer of course, the clothes line is the solution, but in winter it's hard to get loads dry.

Looking at the heat pump type dryers they use about 800watts verses 2kw of an "old skool" unit.

[Deleted User]

I got the 'smart' meter installed 6weeks back........out of habit I always set the washing machine/ dishwasher to do their magic between midnight& 8AM.......not for environmental reasons.../ just habit. Can't really see any difference in consumption between using them at different times........wonder is this 'smart' meter thing all a bit if a con really??

slave1

Just refuse a Smart Meter