It only cost close to that to cool my whole house including the conservatory when we had peak temps of 37C. Half that once below 30C.
Well I can sort of understand the 50p/hour. I mean even a little a/c is a KW or more so that kind of fits.
Plus a little exaggeration to spice up the article 
I think you may be confusing cooling power with electric consumption. A 2.5kW (cooling) Aircon will typically only be using 200ish Watts once a target temperature has been met. Maximum power usage would only ever be circa 7-800W.
This also works in reverse, whereby you can get 2.5kW of heat for 500ish Watts.
Iām talking about raw electricity. The smallest Panasonic unit (the reporter said it was Panasonic), suitable for a bedroom, uses 1.5KW of electricity and 17600 btu/hr cooling. Our office one, ISTR, has 4.5KW for power consumption written on it (from what I remember when we installed it). I know the a/c guy was saying really we should have put a larger unit in!
That isnāt a āsmallā one. A bedroom one would be around 9000 BTU.
The 1.5kw mentioned is the maximum possible usage not the usage once the unit is running and is just maintaining the temperature. The inductive load on startup can draw quite a bit of current but it soon settles down.
I installed all of mine myself.
Sorryā¦ just reading from the Panasonic web site. However, tbh, Iām not trying to defend the reporterā¦ itās what she said.
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An oversized unit wonāt cool properly and will use more electric. This is because the unit will cycle on/off frequently, it also wonāt remove humidity properly.
Youāre been lucky. We tried to do this with a new system for downstairs at work. Spent Ā£1500 on a new setup BUT we couldnāt get hold of the gas to fill the system. Apparently they come prefilled but, in our case, the pipe work was too long and needed extra gas. Last time we did this (15+ years ago) it was a doddle to buy a small cylinder of gas. Not this time; only available to registered A/C installers. We then spent months trying to get a man to come round and commission the system. Not chance, only if they also supplied the kit 
When we gave in and said āokay, how much for a full system with installationā they said we needed a system 3 times larger and if we didnāt accept it then they werenāt interested. This went on (with several different fitters) for more months until we finally gave in. The MD has now taken the purchased system home for his bedroom.
I stocked up on R410a some time ago just in case. 
I used to get some from a company in Italy, if it was only a small amount (in my case it was) you could do a self-certify and they were happy.
Yes, they do come pre-filled for 5m. How much extra was the pipe run you needed?
Iād have to guessā¦ the inside bit would probably be 25m (maybe more) from the outside bit.
Wow! Thatās a long run!
Yesā¦ from the outside, around the warehouse, and then into the stores/packing room.
tbh the old system (3KW electricity) worked okay for about 12 years BUT the lads would insist in having all the doors open all the time with the a/c turned down to 16 degrees. Anyway weāve had to abandon the idea of a/c (which also did the heating) and install radiant heaters for the winter. The heaters are 4x800W and just over the area where the staff work. For the summer we open the warehouse door which gets a breeze going through.
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At the work office we had to get the controls locked because one end of the office was cooling and the other end was heating. 
It was just stupid so the only way was to have a fixed temperature for the whole office. If you were too cold put another layer of clothing on, repeat as necessary
We upgraded from a SMETS1 to a SMETS2 yesterday. I suppose the electric was off for 30 minutes at most during which he changed the Neutral to a blue cable. The SQ is not as good but may have to give it a few weeks to burn in.
The meter connected very quickly. I installed the Bright Energy App to get some more data having setup the WiFi on the IHD. It asked for the MAC address of the IHD and connected. I had to wait till this morning for the data as it makes the cloud connection. It gives histogram down to 30 minute intervals with up to a 30 minute delay. Considering itās free it is more useful than the IHD. Some utility companies give you this kind data. One can work out the background use of fridge, freezer and Naim boxes during day and at night. The IHD gives instantaneous power.
Phil
Still reading up, but itās reported in Colorado that smart meter customers canāt alter any settings themselves. Look online with a search. Cheers.
sorry if this has been asked before, Iāve searched through the thread but canāt see anything.
Does having a smart meter fitted mess with the sound of the Hi-Fi?
I have a separate mains (6mm) feed for my system.
Iām in the UK and my provider (Shell Energy) keeps telling me my meter is outdated and needs to be changed. Itās been in as long as weāve lived here (38 years) and could possibly be up to 50/60 years old!
Thank you.
I have had two smart meters, i could hear no difference.
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As the person who started the thread my experience to date is just ignore the nonsense that your energy company is telling you and they will eventually give up unless of course you want the inconvenience of having a not very smart Smart metre fitted, Iāll just carry on taking my monthly readings on my old but very reliable analog metres as Iāve done for about the last 20 years.
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No - not at all. In fact it may improve it as they pull the main fuse and the put it back in after the new meter is in so the contacts get a bit of a clean. In my installation, they also replaced the short tails between the new meter and incoming feed block. Something that hadnāt been touched in the 20 years since the house was first built.
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I rejected my electricity companyās kind offer for years, thinking that a smart meter might alter the sound quality.
In fact it doesnāt, I certainly didnāt notice any deterioration. Naim donāt think that it alters SQ either, Iāve asked them.
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