Air Fryer worth it at all for someone with severe ME?

[Kitty]

I can’t remember where/why now but got the impression from somewhere you might have tried the Octopus thing where they say you ‘get free electricity at certain times’ (but there’s more to it than that) - is that me putting 2+2=5?

No, you're right, I have signed up for it.

The plans follow the rates the supplier pays to buy the electricity, which change every half hour depending on demand. Between 4 pm and 7 pm they're higher than the standard rate, but the rest of the time they're usually lower. Consumers who can choose when they run power-hungry appliances may be able to save money by doing it when power is cheapest.

I probably won't save a lot, but I like the idea of getting used to spreading my overall power usage over longer periods—if enough people do it, we get the best out of renewable energy sources. I've no kids, I don't work inflexible hours, I'm okay to run appliances in the night, and I have spare time to look up the prices, so I'm fairly well placed to do it.

 

[bobbler]

No, you're right, I have signed up for it.

The plans follow the rates the supplier pays to buy the electricity, which change every half hour depending on demand. Between 4 pm and 7 pm they're higher than the standard rate, but the rest of the time they're usually lower. Consumers who can choose when they run power-hungry appliances may be able to save money by doing it when power is cheapest.

I probably won't save a lot, but I like the idea of getting used to spreading my overall power usage over longer periods—if enough people do it, we get the best out of renewable energy sources. I've no kids, I don't work inflexible hours, I'm okay to run appliances in the night, and I have spare time to look up the prices, so I'm fairly well placed to do it.

Thanks for the reply. oooh. I had an email about it and wondered myself but a bit too poorly to be able to predict at the moment as I think I need to take any window where I can put those bigger-energy things on health-wise right now (as if I had to wait then I mightn't be able to get back to it later), even though mostly it probably is outside of those hours anyway. I might try and gather if there is a pattern to when I do/don't use them over the coming weeks just to see.

I've no idea if any of these appliances have timers I can set so load them but have them come on later etc. when I'm back in bed so might see if I can get someone to schlep through manuals with me at some point.

It would be interesting to hear how you find it? and if it is a lot cognitively etc or turns out to be quite simple and there is a bit of 'routine' to it?

 

[Kitty]

I've no idea if any of these appliances have timers I can set so load them but have them come on later etc. when I'm back in bed so might see if I can get someone to schlep through manuals with me at some point.

They usually do, specially washing machines and dishwashers. With all the ones I've had, you set your programme and then press a timer button instead of Go. This advances the length of delay an hour at a time until it gets to the number of hours you want. Then you press Go.

The only confusing thing about washing machines is that the delay often calculates the time of the end of the programme, not the beginning. I think the assumption is that people want to delay it in order to have the cycle finish just as they get up, or get home from work. But it doesn't really matter, a three-hour delay will still delay it for roughly three hours.

Maybe try looking for a clock button next time you're running a cycle anyway? A washing machine may look as if it's starting straight away, but all it's doing is weighing the load, calculating how long the cycle will need to be, and therefore what time it needs to start.

It would be interesting to hear how you find it? and if it is a lot cognitively etc or turns out to be quite simple and there is a bit of 'routine' to it?

It is routine. If I didn't do any more than avoiding using anything power-hungry between 4 pm and 7 pm, I'd still be saving a small amount of money. Running the dishwasher and washing machine in the small hours will always be cheaper too. I could choose to hold onto laundry until the night-time rates are especially low or even negative (which I don't think will happen often in winter), but if I hadn't time to faff about looking it up, I'd just do it at night.

I'm trying to keep a spreadsheet of the half-hour rates for every day, as a reference point. I've missed a couple of days because the website's been crashing, but I'll do it for as long as I can be bothered to get an idea of the pattern through the year. There's not enough detail to make it worthwhile yet, but if anyone wants it later on, I'm happy to let them have it.

 

[bobbler]

They usually do, specially washing machines and dishwashers. With all the ones I've had, you set your programme and then press a timer button instead of Go. This advances the length of delay an hour at a time until it gets to the number of hours you want. Then you press Go.

The only confusing thing about washing machines is that the delay often calculates the time of the end of the programme, not the beginning. I think the assumption is that people want to delay it in order to have the cycle finish just as they get up, or get home from work. But it doesn't really matter, a three-hour delay will still delay it for roughly three hours.

Maybe try looking for a clock button next time you're running a cycle anyway? A washing machine may look as if it's starting straight away, but all it's doing is weighing the load, calculating how long the cycle will need to be, and therefore what time it needs to start.



It is routine. If I didn't do any more than avoiding using anything power-hungry between 4 pm and 7 pm, I'd still be saving a small amount of money. Running the dishwasher and washing machine in the small hours will always be cheaper too. I could choose to hold onto laundry until the night-time rates are especially low or even negative (which I don't think will happen often in winter), but if I hadn't time to faff about looking it up, I'd just do it at night.

I'm trying to keep a spreadsheet of the half-hour rates for every day, as a reference point. I've missed a couple of days because the website's been crashing, but I'll do it for as long as I can be bothered to get an idea of the pattern through the year. There's not enough detail to make it worthwhile yet, but if anyone wants it later on, I'm happy to let them have it.

Oh wow you do know your stuff on this - good idea with the keeping track to get the pattern. It sounds like my first step is learning to use my appliances better - no idea why I never thought of it before, habit I guess!

 

[yME]

Does anybody have eco7 with smart meter with in house display lHD? We are having issues with ours in regards switching times, duration and displayed rates. Octopus were notified back in August but have yet to resolve. They are working on the issue. At present I would not trust the display to indicate the correct rate is being charged. This morning we caught the display showing 8 kw consumption and calculating the correct cost at 8 kw on cheap rate. Yet the house was using around 700 W according to my clamp meter. Nothing high power was running.

We have an indicator in our bedroom showing when the eco 7 is on, yet it does not match the times we are told by Octopus which differed between their verbal and written information so they don’t appear to know. Upshot is look very closely at the switching times rather than accepting what the display says.
Ours actually currently switches at 00.32 without break to 07.32. But IHD 22.32 - 00.32 then 02.32-07.32.
If this is a widespread configuration issue then a lot of money is involved. Most customers would not detect this as all looks fine. It’s just with ME insomnia my wife sees the indicator illuminate and willing to sit up to watch it.

 

[Kitty]

Oh wow you do know your stuff on this

Only because, when I first got a washer with a delay function (early 1990s?), the fact that it made no sense drove me nuts. I'd decided to test it whilst I was at home, but couldn't work out why when I asked it to delay the start by two hours, it delayed it by more than three.

Nor could I work out why it tumbled the washing around and made all sorts of clicks and noises as soon as I pressed the Go button, before going quiet.

About a year later, it dawned on me the standard running time for the cottons programme was two-and-a half hours, but it never took that long unless I filled it with towels. Basically, it was designed to adjust the running time of the cycle depending on the weight of the load, and as I lived alone, most of my loads weren't the full 8kg that it could wash.

Only then did it click that if the programme was set to end with a two-hour delay instead of start with one, a light load would start running much later than a heavier one. Honestly, it felt like I'd worked out general relativity.

 

[Kitty]

This morning we caught the display showing 8 kw consumption and calculating the correct cost at 8 kw on cheap rate.

Is the 8 Kw an accumulated total of some sort? I'm not sure I've even got enough appliances in my house to spike up to 8 Kw at once. My consumption is less than half that over 24 hours, even in the depths of winter.

If it's current consumption and you're not running several electric heaters , surely it can't be right?

 

[yME]

I initially thought it was total consumption but even that would be out at 6 am. but the IHD says cost now per hour at £1.76. Our cheap rate is 14.84 so about right. The actual displayed consumption was 8.80 kW at 06.49 am. I had the presence to take a picture showing the red led on and the graph in red zone. We have never seen the red led on in this house and it was what triggered us to investigate. We normally expect to be under £4.60 per day using electric and oil only. So no it’s not right.

The point of the original post was to highlight that the IHD and switching times MAY not always correct despite all looking correct to the user. The 8kw was this mornings revelation. Octopus - I assume actually National grid have had several attempts to sort the switching time with a few occasions where we have had Eco6.75 hrs.

I wondered if others had E7 and investigated to see if theirs was running and charging true?

 

[Kitty]

I've no experience of that sort of tariff—only thing I can suggest is download your half-hour smart meter readings from the My Energy page to see what's being metered. It only shows usage, not charges, but at least you'd know what the consumption is?

 

[Amw66]

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/air-fryer-roast-dinner

 

[bobbler]

I forgot to update that one thing I have discovered you can have on normal ovens that might be useful to some with ME:

Some have settings where you can not only set the 'auto-off' as an 'amount of time' but you can set a 'specific time' too, which basically means you a setting a time for the oven to start-up too.

So you could put something in many hours before and be instructing it to then 'turn itself on and cook for 30mins to end/be ready at 6pm'

For well people this is the equivalent of being able to go to the pub for 2hrs knowing the oven will turn on and cook dinner for 30mins in time for you coming home. For us I guess it saves us a trip/forgetting and so on.

And of course it will depend on the 'what' you are cooking as to how long you can leave it in a cold oven, but I guess particularly doable for things like baked spuds

as potatoes can be out of the fridge/freezer without being cooked. And take a long time to cook (so annoying when you realise you forgot to put them in ages ago).