Energy Cap

Overheard in the living room:

Chairman: "Whatever happened to Arthur Brown of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown?"

Hay: "I don't know - I imagine he burned to death."

I crunched the figures on my electricity bill yesterday and my annual bill for my usage (8,300 kWh) has risen from £2,768 to £3,131 - an increase of £363 p.a. Not as much as I was expecting.

Thank God I no longer have 2 sons living in caravans in the garden - that alone has reduced my annual consumption from just short of 18,000 kWh, more than double my current usage, and would have resulted in a bill of over £7k.

One thing affecting my usage is that one of the rented cabins is on our tab, and that increases our usage quite a bit; however, we get that back in the rent, so our actual usage is below the 8,300 kWh.

The current bill is, of course, offset by gaining an average of £1,300 a year in feed-in tariff for the solar PV array on the roof, further reducing the bill to £1,831 - a very manageable amount. Still far from the even balance I enjoyed for many years, but not disastrous.

To further reduce consumption, we're using the log burner and fired it up on Friday afternoon when it was wet and cold.

Very cosy it was too, if not a bit too cosy, given the heat it pumps out, which is a whopping 12kW - the same as our entire solar PV array at maximum output. Yes, overkill, but we thought it a good hedge against power cuts and electricity prices, and we have a very large area to heat, what with the house being totally open-plan with vaulted ceilings upstairs (living/dining/kitchen area and the entire upstairs).

We can even cook on the top of it and a pan of water boils in a few minutes, further reducing energy consumption. Using a raised trivet enables slow cooking. I registered a temperature of over 300 degrees C on it. 3 or 4 logs, lit at 4pm, lasted all evening and the residual heat in the cast iron lasted through the night. Didn't need it at all on Saturday, as the weather turned warmer.

With the reduction in kWhrs consumption I've enjoyed over the last few years, along with the input from the solar PV, there's no real reason to use the log burner, which isn't exactly green, but using it will enable there to be more energy for those who may need it and help reduce the UK's overall consumption, thereby doing my teeny bit to combat Putin.

The only fly in the ointment is the ground floor AirBnB, which due to being self-contained can't be reached by the heat from the log burner and will require either the underfloor heating zone to be activated a day before a guest has a booked date, or the use of a silent electric heater.