ConfusedAboutEnergy.co.uk

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Confused About Energy is a free impartial service to help you reduce energy consumption and save on your energy costs. Much of the available information regarding energy efficiency savings is confusing and misleading. At Confused About Energy we aim to cut through the jargon and provide practical, impartial advice on all aspects of energy use and ways in which you can save money, this includes:-

 

Household Energy Costs: Heating, insulation, water, harnessing energy and more.

house hold energy costs

Car Energy Costs: The real MPG, using less fuel, green cars efficient cars and more

car energy costs

Energy Grants and Schemes: A quick guide to help you see what grants and schemes are available to help you out.

car energy costs

Energy Storage: also new to Confused About Energy, starting with batteries, again much more will be added throughout the year.

batteries

Current Fuel Prices

Calculations throughout this site give an indication of the costs of energy used in various domestic applications.

The current prices of fuels are used and they are updated annually.   They can only be indicative, as prices do vary between suppliers and your circumstances.

The prices currently in use on this site are in the bar chart below. When prices are updated, calculations throughout the whole site also update automatically.

energy prices kWh gas electricity kerosene fuel oil wood biomass LPG coal smokeless propane butane

Read more about domestic fuels...



Prices were last updated
19thFebruary2013

The Prices for electricity and gas are taken from BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) and are updated annually, All prices include VAT and delivery where appropriate

 

Teaching Global Warming

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Our Children can’t be expected to understand the Global Warming debate until they have an understanding of “The Facts”

I recently picked up my teenaged son’s school science revision guide, at the same time asking him if he needed any help. “I'm fine” he said and maybe I should have respected this but I was bored and felt a familiar urge to irritate him without motive because unfortunately that’s the kind of Dad I am (in return I have made an implied promise to leave him half a house when I die and to be fair both he and his brother seem relaxed about this arrangement). So anyway, I resolved to test him on the material in the guide with a view to ensuring that he gets enough qualifications to get him a job that will allow him to escape my tormenting at the earliest opportunity? The subject of the open page of the booklet was “The Environment” and since I didn’t feel inclined to wade through the whole document I decided to play the cards as they fell. “The Environment” it was.

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Top 10 tips for improving your car fuel economy

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0fficial mpg

With the current high fuel prices, even a relatively small improvement in your MPG can save you money. Most drivers will be able to make savings by changing their driving habits and techniques.

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Confused About Batteries

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We are! We have decided to try to find out how much energy there actually is in your average battery. There are so many brands, names, categories and types it is very unclear what you actually get for your money. Should you buy an expensive alkaline battery or would a cheaper brand suffice. Batteries use descriptive words like, superpower, power plus or extra energy to describe what you get, but there is no data on the side of batteries to quantify what you are buying. So we have decided to find out.

There are complications in calculating the energy in a battery, since the energy of the output varies with the change in voltage as a battery is discharged at a given rate (mAh specified). An absolute number for the capacity of the battery (the number of mAh) can however be evaluated easily by setting the discharge current of the test apparatus to a fixed value. If you are then willing to accept an approximation of energy by averaging the discharge voltage over the discharge time then the energy in each battery can be estimated.

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Android Phone App

android energy app

We now have a bit of fun energy calculator app for android phone, click the link to find out more. Link to app

Site Symbols

Icons are also used throughout the site to indicate the level of saving or the relative cost implications associated with an choice you might make, or a tip you read or related to how your house is currently configured. These icons below.
pence lowest priority
£ 10+ Think twice, perhaps you should focus elsewhere first
£ 100+ Worth doing
£ 1000+ Focus your effort here to save as much money as possible

In some areas there are some substantial investments you may choose to make, in sections describing these we indicate with two icons, thumbs up or down, if the investment is a good one. Payback in less than 15 years is regarded as reasonable, but longer that that poor. These icons are below.
less than 15 years to payback investment
More than 15 years to payback the investment

Site Units

The main units used in this site are in the table below, For a complete explanation of any of these Wikipedia is an excellent resource.

Unit Name Detail
W Watt Unit of Power
kW Kilowatt 1000 watts
kWh Kilowatt hour Measure of Energy
L Litre Measure of Volume

Best Investment table

Measures to reduce fuel bills ROI*
Lagging 1
Loft Insulation 1.9
Cavity Wall Insulation 2.2
Underfloor Insulation 4.2
Solid Wall Insulation 15.1
Solar Hot Water 34
Double Glazing 55.6

*ROI is the time it takes in years to return the investment in fuel savings for an average gas heated 3 bed semi-detached house. The table assumes no government incentive schemes are used.

Renewable Energy Measures ROI**
Heat Pumps
- Replacing Electric
4 to 8
Heat Pumps
- Replacing LPG
15 to 30
Wind Power 14 to 55
Solar Photovoltaics 24 to 64

**ROI is the time it takes in years to return the investment in electricity savings. The table assumes no government incentive schemes are used.

Selected News

Scientists boost battery strength with small holes

"Batteries for phones and laptops could soon recharge ten times faster and hold a charge ten times larger than current technology allows."

UK joins laser nuclear fusion project

"The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have now joined with Nif to help make laser fusion a viable commercial energy source."

World Power Production

This is the best world enery graphic and simulation tool we have come across so we have put it on the home page! Wish we had done it.

world power generation graph coal oil gas solar wind nuclear biomass

Electrical Energy Cost Calculator

Power (Watts)
Time (Hours)


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