Energy bill increases

[mjr]

It's a pity that the UK doesn't tap into the plentiful gas reserves they have on hand. It would help keep prices down, help move away from coal and oil burning, and remove dependence on foreign sources for gas. Almost a win win transition energy source.

Not really. It's still burning shoot (and other decayed matter) and still polluting and if production is increased, they'll just be selling it the rest of the year because the UK has almost no storage which is why it's been so exposed to price fluctuations. The remaining gas needs to be extracted so as to spin it out to last the transition and ideally leave some in the ground. The biggest problem IMO is not enough seems to be being done to encourage transition to non-polluting fuels. Unlike some countries, the UK government spent its fossil fuel income without setting up an investment fund.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Slightly off topic
but many years a friend of mine moved into a flat above some shops
when he got the first bill he noticed it was rather high so he queried it - but was told it matched the meter readings
so he started checking the meter daily
he is an engineer - so soon enough he checked at every opportunity and recorded everything

he noticed fairly quickly that the electric was getting used rather a lot during the day when he was at work
so he unplugged EVERYTHING
still it was being used - and rather a lot
so he got an electrician in - who quickly found an 'unusual' wire that didn;t seem to be connected to anything in the flat but did go via the meter and the main fuse box

so the next day he switched all the electric off at the fuse box before he went to work

when he came home the hairdresser downstairs was very very angry
he hadn;t been able to work all day
and his key to my friend's flat didn;t seem to work - probably because a mechanical engineer is quite capable of changing his locks

Funny how some people get angry when they get caught out

My friend was just on the phone to the electric company to "grass them up" when he agreed to pay for the last bill plus the next one - plus the electrician's bill for finding it and cutting it

I could have told him not to mess with my friend - at school he was the ultimate weedy ginger wimp

but he broke 2 noses and an arm and something I can;t remember during secondary school - he never backed down -push him and he just acted - only needed to a few times - and always with the big kids
never got into trouble - no-one would have believed it

 

[Daninplymouth]

We are having solar panels installed on Thursday, though the battery won't come until March, but then was thinking of moving from British Gas to the Octopus Agile tariff because we should be exporting a lot more than we import, and that is about the best SEG rate.

You are better off trying to use as much generated electric as possible, as the feed in tariff is so low it’s pretty pointless exporting

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Slightly off topic again - sorry mods

but how did people who have solar panels find a decent installer??
everyone I find seems to be a front which trawls for possible customers to pass onto the people who actually do it
I would rather contact - and research - the actula people who do it right from the start and cut out th e middle man and his cut

TIA

 

[Alex321]

Slightly off topic again - sorry mods

but how did people who have solar panels find a decent installer??
everyone I find seems to be a front which trawls for possible customers to pass onto the people who actually do it
I would rather contact - and research - the actula people who do it right from the start and cut out th e middle man and his cut

TIA

We went to the Which report, and contacted a few of their list of "trusted installers".

 

[Alex321]

You are better off trying to use as much generated electric as possible, as the feed in tariff is so low it’s pretty pointless exporting

1. The feed in tariff is irrelevant, since that is only for people who had their systems installed before it was discontinued. It is now a different system called Smart Export Guarantee. And while different suppliers have different rates, they are mostly higher than the FiT rate. Octopus have both a fixed outgoing rate (at 7.5p/KWH) and an agile outgoing tariff which will vary between 4p and about 10p. The FiT rate would have been 5.24p/KWH.

2. Your concept is just plain wrong anyhow. It wouldn't matter if the export rate was 1p/KWH, you would still be better off taking that than "trying to use it all".

Obviously, if you have a use for it, then use it. But it is completely and utterly pointless just using electricity for the sake of it in order to avoid exporting it.

 

[PaulSB]

It's a pity that the UK doesn't tap into the plentiful gas reserves they have on hand. It would help keep prices down, help move away from coal and oil burning, and remove dependence on foreign sources for gas. Almost a win win transition energy source.

Also the rate of geothermal drilling activity is pathetic. My mum watched them take years to drill a single well down in Cornwall and it'll be years before she benefits from it, even with her being less than a couple miles from the drill site.

Maybe I'll buy her a few 100kWh solar panels for her roof, which seem to be a lot cheaper to buy in the UK compared to USA.

The real pity is all UK governments failed to use the financial bounty offered by natural gas to invest in UK infrastructure meaning we simply squandered the fuel for decades.

I was completely unaware of what other countries, Norway for example, were doing but I think one could expect one's leaders to have some small inkling.

Burning gas is not the answer.

 

[MrGrumpy]

1. The feed in tariff is irrelevant, since that is only for people who had their systems installed before it was discontinued. It is now a different system called Smart Export Guarantee. And while different suppliers have different rates, they are mostly higher than the FiT rate. Octopus have both a fixed outgoing rate (at 7.5p/KWH) and an agile outgoing tariff which will vary between 4p and about 10p. The FiT rate would have been 5.24p/KWH.

2. Your concept is just plain wrong anyhow. It wouldn't matter if the export rate was 1p/KWH, you would still be better off taking that than "trying to use it all".

Obviously, if you have a use for it, then use it. But it is completely and utterly pointless just using electricity for the sake of it in order to avoid exporting it.

Thanks for explaining that. I was discussing putting PV panels on the roof. It’s perfect facing south. However we are out all day. Not sure if we would see some sort of return on the install. Mate at work reckons he paid it back in about 6.5yrs but he is on the higher rate. Battery banks would be good as well but once again , 10yr warranty with them and he worked out he would see that money back again either in that time frame so no point .

 

[gbb]

At mums yesterday, and bear in mind her heating is on constantly at around 25, ours in hardly ever on, never ever at night.
Mums house doesnt have a bath so she showers, we bathe every day, hate showers.
Mums combined bill for the last quarter £450 ish
Our combined bill for a month £150 ish

So quarterly we're about the same.
Neither of us have solar.

So around £40 a week, £20 electric, £20 gas. Christ i was spending £7 a week on not enough coal to stay warm 1977, when i was earning proportionally far less.
We could shower more, but, i suffer with arthritis and ache endlessly at the end of a days work (and most of the day anyway) , a bath is an i mense relief, i can spend hours in one.
People spend more on their phones, media contracts etc etc...i dont enjoy the increases we face but is this another example of getting priorities right ?
( we just reviewed our media package, changed from Virgin to Sky, halved our monthly payment, as my phone comes up, i will move over to PAYG and halve that too. In timed of being stretched, you take a long look at whats important.
Now, if only i could encourage my wife to stop smoking

 

[rogerzilla]

I'm WFH, so my energy use is like it would be if I were retired, but worse, because I just sit in front of a laptop (if I am pottering about, I don't really need heat). £720/year gas and electric plus £700 in logs, which I don't think is too bad. I very rarely use the central heating; only if I'm getting up in the morning and going out for hours, in which case it's not worth lighting the stove. The 54% increase in the gas and electricity should just about be covered by the government subsidies (band C house), and the price of wood isn't going up at anything like the same rate.

What I really fear is air source heat pumps. They are crap. They cost about 50% more to run than a gas boiler for the same energy use (calculation available, if you want it) BUT your energy use is really a lot higher because you have to heat the house 24/7; they are virtually incapable of warming a house from cold, and hugely inefficient if you try it. I don't want heating at night! And you won't get hot hot water unless you use resistance heating at ruinous cost.

I'll make sure the next house is somewhere that wood burning is unlikely to be banned.

 

[Daninplymouth]

1. The feed in tariff is irrelevant, since that is only for people who had their systems installed before it was discontinued. It is now a different system called Smart Export Guarantee. And while different suppliers have different rates, they are mostly higher than the FiT rate. Octopus have both a fixed outgoing rate (at 7.5p/KWH) and an agile outgoing tariff which will vary between 4p and about 10p. The FiT rate would have been 5.24p/KWH.

2. Your concept is just plain wrong anyhow. It wouldn't matter if the export rate was 1p/KWH, you would still be better off taking that than "trying to use it all".

Obviously, if you have a use for it, then use it. But it is completely and utterly pointless just using electricity for the sake of it in order to avoid exporting it.

I still think your wrong as most suppliers I believe offer 2-4p for exporting, then if you have to buy it back you pay 20-30p. Iv been speaking to a lot of manufacturers regarding equipment and they all say the same, any excess electric you want to ideally put into a battery or electric car if available but if not the consensus is still to use the electric up for example heating your hot water tank or underfloor heating

 

[mjr]

What I really fear is air source heat pumps. They are crap. They cost about 50% more to run than a gas boiler for the same energy use (calculation available, if you want it) BUT your energy use is really a lot higher because you have to heat the house 24/7; they are virtually incapable of warming a house from cold, and hugely inefficient if you try it. I don't want heating at night! And you won't get hot hot water unless you use resistance heating at ruinous cost.

No, the one you used is crap. What was it? And yes, show how you arrive at 50% more expensive than gas, please: I reckon it's about equal give or take fluctuations but we do not have access to gas here so that was not an option.

Our Mitsubishi shuts down overnight (and most days as long as it's not too cold so the heat loss slows) and can do hot hot water although that's expensive if it's not warm out so why would you? Hot enough is good enough, plus no risk of visitors scalding themselves. Your house's heat loss is still its heat loss, so you still need the same amount of heat to keep it as warm as you would otherwise, and turning the pumps off overnight doesn't save much but it makes it easier to sleep while the larger lower-temperature radiators act as halfway between radiators and storage heaters.

I really don't want to go back to an oil burner: expensive, polluting and with radiators that you can't touch when on and go cold fast once off.

 

[gbb]

......

What I really fear is air source heat pumps. They are crap. They cost about 50% more to run than a gas boiler for the same energy use (calculation available, if you want it) BUT your energy use is really a lot higher because you have to heat the house 24/7; they are virtually incapable of warming a house from cold, and hugely inefficient if you try it. I don't want heating at night! And you won't get hot hot water unless you use resistance heating at ruinous cost.

I'll make sure the next house is somewhere that wood burning is unlikely to be banned.

As we face the probability if boiler replacement in the next few years (its over 25 years old) air source heat pumps are definately OFF the consideration list for several reasons .
We are fresh air lovers, its 6c outside, its been 9c generally today but our heating hasnt been on at all today , windows have been open as well. When we do heat the house, it starts from very cold (maybe 14 or 15c inside) air source has no chance in those circumstances. No way can i live in an airless stuffy, windows closed house.
My son (gas engineer) has studied them a fair but. A very very well insulated house is a pre requisite., we fail because we like fresh air. Supplementary heating (underfloor or similar) may well be needed?
Supplementary water heating may well be needed. As a bath lover, it would be a neccessity.

All these add ons cut deep into any cost savings an air source system might give you.

Unless you hyper spec the system, with all the cost involved, its simply not going to work for people like us....and perhaps many others

 

[Alex321]

I still think your wrong as most suppliers I believe offer 2-4p for exporting, then if you have to buy it back you pay 20-30p.

I don't care what "most" suppliers offer.

The minimum on the Agile tariff is 4p, it will usually be closer to 10 at peak hours. And with a battery, you can make sure you are exporting it mainly at peak hours.

Iv been speaking to a lot of manufacturers regarding equipment and they all say the same, any excess electric you want to ideally put into a battery or electric car if available but if not the consensus is still to use the electric up for example heating your hot water tank or underfloor heating

It is utterly pointless using it in order to avoid exporting it.

Any "consensus" which suggests you should do that is a consensus of stupidity.

When you fill the battery during the day, and don't come anywhere near emptying it overnight, then any of that surplus you don't export is just wasted.

 

[FishFright]

It's a pity that the UK doesn't tap into the plentiful gas reserves they have on hand. It would help keep prices down, help move away from coal and oil burning, and remove dependence on foreign sources for gas. Almost a win win transition energy source.

Also the rate of geothermal drilling activity is pathetic. My mum watched them take years to drill a single well down in Cornwall and it'll be years before she benefits from it, even with her being less than a couple miles from the drill site.

Maybe I'll buy her a few 100kWh solar panels for her roof, which seem to be a lot cheaper to buy in the UK compared to USA.

It all effectively belongs to the multinationals , the UK has next to no say in when it comes out nor where it goes too.