We pay 12p / kWh for electricity - thanks to a smart tariff and battery


Screenshot of our electricity bill showing 320kWh consumption.

I love my solar panels. But the solar panels don't love the British midwinter. Most of the year, my panels produce more electricity than I can use. But in winter we're lucky if they produce 3kWh per day - and most of the time it is considerably less. So our winter electricity bills must be […]

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Why we can't have an air source heat pump


Photo of an Air Source Heat Pump by Krzysztof Lis.

As part of our quest to make our house more efficient, we've installed solar panels, a battery, insulation, and all the other stuff you're supposed to do. The next step is working out if we can reduce our dependency on gas. Octopus Energy (join and we both get £50!) offered to send an engineer around […]

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No, you can't save £30 per year by switching off your "standby" devices


Chart from the report showing various bits of IT equipment and their power use.

Every few years, a dodgy stat does the rounds claiming you can save £££ if you switch off all your gadgets at the wall. The standby mode of your TV is bleeding you dry!!! Energy Saving Trust@EnergySvgTrustA quick way to #saveenergy at home is to turn off tablets, laptops and consoles as soon as you […]

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Humm Energy Monitor Set Up – Part 5 – Data Visualisation


After my disastrous attempt to upload data under Ubuntu, I found a Windows laptop to upload my energy usage data. The good news is that Sam from Humm is actively working on making the Adobe Air upload application work under Linux. So, how does the process of uploading your data to the service work? The […]

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Humm Energy Monitor Set Up – Part 4 – Data Upload


So, I've hit my first snag with the Humm Duet Energy monitor.  As I mentioned in my first post, the device doesn't have any Internet connectivity.  Instead it records everything onto an SD card. In order to visualise the data, I have to manually upload the files to the Green Energy Options MyEnergy site.  Rather […]

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Saving Money - Switching Tarrifs


Photo of an energy saving plug.

As part of my ongoing quest to save energy and save money, I decided to look into changing energy suppliers. Eon were doing a special offer in their Energy Shop for a free PowerDown Plug worth about £15.  Here's the unboxing.

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Unboxing Videos - Humm Duet Energy Monitor


Screen capture from an unboxing video.

Green Energy Options have sent me the Duet home energy monitor. The Duet offers a secondary display that is attached to the Solo display and provides the monitoring of up to 6 appliances and central heating. It also provides the ability to compare the energy usage of the appliances and heating over time. In addition […]

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