Do you know how much appliances cost to run?

My "gizmo" ie the display for the smart meter tells me. When it is sunny it can be free as I have solar panels- unsurprisingly yesterday was a disaster !

Depressingly my smart meter clocked up exactly £2 before I came up to bed. Goodness knows what will happen when the really cold weather kicks in.

Well, we've been quite careful so we thought.
I put the oven on for 40minutes to cook and an orange light appeared on the meter then it started sending cross messages. It told us we were exceeding our weekly budget whatever that means.

How can we improve - this was not a heavy day energy-wise.

No, I don’t - right now, I’ve got my fan heater on, because my bedroom feels cold. I know it’s expensive to run but as I’ve previously said, I don’t want to die of hypothermia …

I worked out that I can run my dehumidifier on constant for 24 hours for the same cost as my tumble dryer for four and a half hours.
Which is the better deal for drying the washing? Not sure!

What I want to know is what is using electricity before we get up. Pre 1 Oct the Smart Meter shows 65p before we put kettle on and 90p if we are out all day. Always on overnight is Fridge freezer small print says it uses 1.14kw in 24 hours; oven clock as off switch is behind oven; washing machine same as oven; and Internet router. Switched meter off Friday night dread to think what it will say when I do.

Smart meters show the daily standing charge.

It's concerning how much more quickly the cost is mounting up for electricity, according to my smart meter, compared with how much it was last week!

Callistemon21: have you tried exploring the pages on your smart meter? You can find your budget limit (separate for electricity and gas) and adjust, if you wish.

Thanks Ashcombe, we'll take a look.

It was fitted three months ago, stopped working then sprung into life again last week.

MawtheMerrier. I have gas CH but have been toying with the idea of running an electric heater when my smart meter shows I am sending power to the grid. Silly to waste what we are generating. What do you think?

Esspee

*MawtheMerrier*. I have gas CH but have been toying with the idea of running an electric heater when my smart meter shows I am sending power to the grid. Silly to waste what we are generating. What do you think?

If you have solar panels the electricity you use is probably free, so in theory you can use a fan heater but do you really need to on a sunny day
Or you could run the washing machine or do cooking.

Riverwalk

Smart meters show the daily standing charge.

Just checked and my Smart Meter from EON does not show the Standing Charge only electricity consumed since midnight. Back to square one finding out what's using electric before we get up.

kissngate - surely you have appliances plugged in ready for use. Tv's on standby, Fridge, Freezer, internet - do you have any electric clocks anywhere, plugged in (not in use), re-charging things? All these things use minimal amount of leccie, but taken together could well come to 65p overnight.

My smart meter is from EON too kissngate.
If you go to My Account, then Prices it shows the standing charge. You need to use the OK button, the up and down arrows and the return arrow to navigate the wealth of information supplied on the monitor.

Franbern - I mentioned in my original post the FF is on and the oven and washing machine but we can't get to the plugs as they are behind the appliances. We started turning the TV off however when I switched the router off we had problems connecting again the next day so its left on. We definitely don't leave phone chargers on. Just remembered we have a light outside back door for security which comes on automatically. Might turn that off one night after the dog has been out and see if it makes a difference.

Espee - thanks for info on SM will have a look at account section.

The one that I was shocked at was the cost of running the heated towel rail in the bathroom -13p-26p per hour. I left mine on all the time, no longer.

Thanks Katie59. I do use the energy from the panels with care. For example I use only one major appliance at a time, so I don’t vacuum while the laundry is on and thankfully on a dull day like today they still generate. Today was wet and overcast we had one shower, one shallow bath and three loads of laundry with a small dehumidifier running to help the washing dry as well as the usual background items like fridge freezer, router, clocks, phones etc. and the standing charges and my total bill was under £2. All cooking was done on the gas hob.

I had never thought about using the rest of the generated energy to heat the house, even a background heat would help a bit I suppose. The danger would be when you started using more than was being generated you could run up a big bill. The ideal answer of course is a battery storage unit. While they are expensive it will probably not be cost effective.

Esspee I do use the energy from the panels with care. For example I use only one major appliance at a time, so I don’t vacuum while the laundry is on and thankfully on a dull day like today they still generate.

Same here. I don't think we have smart meters here in Germany. DH is always going round switching lights off even though we have LED lights almost everywhere now.

We don't heat with electricity at all. (Except for the pump, I assume)

Our central heating and hot water is powered by solar panels from the roof (not the PV panels which produce the electricity) and when there is no sun, by burning wood pellets.

DH deals with the payments. He has told me what we pay but I keep forgetting.