This is getting ridiculous (energy prices)

dirtychinchilla

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www.bbc.com

Heat pumps: How do they work and how do I get one?

A government grant to encourage people to replace their boiler with a heat pump begins in April.
www.bbc.com

I don’t know if this was posted here but this is a dumb article imo.

It says that heat pumps could be 3 times more efficient that boilers. Fair enough. But then it suggests that your heat pump could be cheaper than a gas boiler due to the price of gas. Gas is 5x cheaper than electricity, not 3x. Not sure how the logic here stacks up.

Maybe running at lower temps helps?
 

Richie

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I don't bother preheating the oven.

If it says 180oC for 30 mins, the food goes in and oven switched on at same time. 30 mins later and the food is ready the same as if I preheated for 5-10 mins and cooked for the 30 mins.

Waste of time and energy preheating.
 

HungryHippos

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dirtychinchilla said:
www.bbc.com

Heat pumps: How do they work and how do I get one?

A government grant to encourage people to replace their boiler with a heat pump begins in April.
www.bbc.com

I don’t know if this was posted here but this is a dumb article imo.

It says that heat pumps could be 3 times more efficient that boilers. Fair enough. But then it suggests that your heat pump could be cheaper than a gas boiler due to the price of gas. Gas is 5x cheaper than electricity, not 3x. Not sure how the logic here stacks up.

Maybe running at lower temps helps?
Click to expand...

Yeah it's efficient but then as you say gas is cheaper per kwh, but the big win would be being able to remove gas supply from your property, so one less standing charge to pay, and one less chance of carbon monoxide poisoning in your home as well.
 

Simon

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Richie said:
I don't bother preheating the oven.

If it says 180oC for 30 mins, the food goes in and oven switched on at same time. 30 mins later and the food is ready the same as if I preheated for 5-10 mins and cooked for the 30 mins.

Waste of time and energy preheating.
Click to expand...
That makes no sense from a physics point of view. You are undercooking the food
 

mattyfez

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Simon said:
That makes no sense from a physics point of view. You are undercooking the food
Click to expand...

Not with a fan oven, If I put a pizza in it (from fridge, not frozen), pre-heating to say the reccomended 180c, it will over cook it.

I always disregard pre-heating time, as it just ends up burning stuff, or making it too tough and chewy.
 

gpuerrilla

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mattyfez said:
Not with a fan oven, If I put a pizza in it (from fridge, not frozen), pre-heating to say the reccomended 180c, it will over cook it.

I always disregard pre-heating time, as it just ends up burning stuff, or making it too tough and chewy.
Click to expand...

I also find some microwave times must go by relics from 90s, if put in full power for that length nuke certain food types.
 

b0rn2sk8

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mattyfez said:
So for single person, or maybe a 2 person household you are saying that the oven is the least efficient option?
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If you can heat something via microwave, that will be far cheaper than any other method. That's not to say it will taste as good once its been microwaved though because you cant get anything crispy in a microwave.

If the choice was heating frozen peas/can of beans on the hob or the microwave, its always the microwave for me. Cheaper and faster.

If on the 3 times a year I eat a ready meal and it has something that typically has crispy top (for example a lasagne or mac and cheese), that's in the oven. If its just some curry and rice, that's microwaved. That said, if I was on the breadline and that was dinner, it would be the microwave every time.
 

theone8181

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Richie said:
No I'm not.



Perhaps but I have yet to notice any difference based on my own experiences.
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I think it depends on the oven (maybe that guy with the "dodgy" seal :cry:). If we did anything for the recommended time it would just burn, I assume you can get different rated oven powers like you do with microwaves.
 

jpaul

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Pretty sure the texture of pre-processed food would be messed up by not pre-heating oven - but I suppose food is more hygienic(until we submit to yank food quality) and less chance of something like salmonella if it was inadequately cooked.
definitely making sausage toad, baking a cake, pastry ..... would be completely scr****

Microwaves ruin the texture of a lot of from scratch foods - you spend good money on ingredients and then Nuke them, even peas ! they need gentle heat of steaming (with other veg to save energy)

Smart meters & IHD's ... if only they could tell you how much energy the oven, or hob used .
 

*seven

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*UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak Orders Plan for Windfall Tax on Electricity Generators — FT
https://www.ft.com/content/ddbde592-a4e0-465a-9dd2-d6566790403f
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Richie

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Be good to know how he plans to support households if windfall tax goes ahead i.e a better plan than using council tax bands to determine a household's financial circumstances.
 

Energize

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Richie said:
I don't bother preheating the oven.

If it says 180oC for 30 mins, the food goes in and oven switched on at same time. 30 mins later and the food is ready the same as if I preheated for 5-10 mins and cooked for the 30 mins.

Waste of time and energy preheating.
Click to expand...

I hope I never get served food by you! :cry:
 

Rroff

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Pre-heating also helps to eliminate edge cases with pathogens, etc. while in most cases they won't have replicated by any significant amount due to warming up slower before the food is heated to a level which kills them and the food will still be cooked long enough to deal with them, it is still safer in that respect if relevant to what you are cooking.

(Though usually if it is bad enough to be a problem you'll know long before cooking)
 
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