Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[chrcoluk]

Next winter. Its a 50:50 for me whether we get a fall or rise. So many factors. Russia is a big one.

For me I cant see a significant fall other than dailies until there has been a huge change of us isolating our energy supply from the international markets, which is going to take years.

The good news is, the government has accepted its the way out, it was mentioned in the budget that the government strategy is now to make ourselves independent on energy supply. (Labour also agree, so its the way we going now regardless of next GE).

 

[Minusorange]

Next winter. Its a 50:50 for me whether we get a fall or rise. So many factors. Russia is a big one.

Next winter China invades Taiwan or Aliens invade, nailed on

 

[HungryHippos]

Get better torches, we have a good thread on this forum. 1 torch pointed at the ceiling will light up the entire room if its a decent one even a cheapy one off amazon can do that for a while. If the torch is put on recharge on a cheap off peak rate, use a battery bank or whatever then I guess its a 'saving'. However LED bulbs really dont use much, it'll be somewhere else thats adding on their bill.

I realise prices are going up but are we really so hard up that having a light on costs too much?

LED bulbs shouldn't use more than 5-10w each.

 

[Gammawolf]

How are your YoY consumption figures looking? I've got figures back to 2020 and my usage for this autumn are a month later than 2020 and 2021.

E.g. the kWh I used in October 2022 matches my consumption in September 2021 and 2020; the November 2022 consumption is on track to be less than October 2021 or 2020.

Not sure how much of this is energy savings I've managed and how much is how warm its been. Anyone else seeing the same?

Similar, its so far equated to 50% less usage. For me its a combination of warmer weather plus optimising my hot water tank usage/charge times, replacing an old none condensing boiler with a new one, and setting the stat to 18c 24/7 from a previous 21c for 18 hours a day. (my readings go from the 14th of every month). I'm hoping to get down from 15,500kwh of gas per year to around 9000kwh

 

[413x]

I've used about half of what I did in 2021.but that's due to weather Vs anything else.
That's what tado says anyway

 

[robj20]

So with this new Tory budget energy rates are going up another 20% in April (so 39.8p/kWh, elec 12p gas) but the £66 pm stops unless you get benefits

Is that if someone in the house is on benefits or the bill payer?

 

[TNA]

I realise prices are going up but are we really so hard up that having a light on costs too much?

LED bulbs shouldn't use more than 5-10w each.

Yea. I think most do not understand how it all works. LED lights are fine, just turn it off when not in use. Avoid using the kettle would make a much bigger impact. For example a kettle uses around 500-600 times more electricity than a led light bulb.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I realise prices are going up but are we really so hard up that having a light on costs too much?

LED bulbs shouldn't use more than 5-10w each.

I've got 11x 4w that light up my garden on a time and light level sensor.
Apart from around 11pm - 5am they will come on if its very gloomy/dark

I wonder if some neighbours look on in disbelief now
Our new neighbours commented on them.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

We have switched quite a lot.

Its not an affordability thing fully, mainly just becoming eyes wide open on how the "normal" timer etc its darn wasteful.
I was fully just set the thermostat and leave it on 24/7/365 previously.

But in Autumn (and I guess next spring) we found it comes on a lot unnecessarily. So more climate focus on not using it unnecessarily.
Now we just use the boost on our phones. It adds 2 degrees to target temp based on current temp, and can be selected for 1+ hours.

Scary to think the timer that came with our house was basically always on by default at something like 19 degrees.

BTW still no savings session data on Octopus and my usage is updated for yesterday.

 

[Curlyriff]

I've got 11x 4w that light up my garden on a time and light level sensor.
Apart from around 11pm - 5am they will come on if its very gloomy/dark

I wonder if some neighbours look on in disbelief now
Our new neighbours commented on them.

In fairness if you assumed 4hrs a day with them (likely longer based on what you've said at moment) then that is about 5% of my monthly use alone. Might only be like £1.78 but yeah still 5% of my bill approx. Add all those things up that could be similar with spot lights in Kitchen on for few hours and such forth and lamps/lights otherwise then suddenly you get to say £10 a month, when you are only paying £35 for your electric usage (ignoring the standard charge) then it is a relatively high amount to add.

 

[the shadow]

No Heating on so far this year i did feel the temp drop in the middle of the night

 

[jpaul]

Seriously where do the gutter press find these numpties?

moreover, coincidental that the guy is Asian - an intentionally racist article by the Daily Mail .. but that's their/DM right wing remit., wasn't Mrs Trellis from Wales, in similar BBC report.

Moldy flat tragedy - guy from management company resigned .. still no engineer report.

 

[Ahleckz]

I had it on for two hours last night, all that heat vanished within an hour of it being turned off.

Really need to get the loft sorted I think! Half isn’t boarded and has tiny amounts of insulation. Other is boarded with around 8cm Old insulation but no way to lift boards easily so going to just lay insulation on top. Not ideal but has to be better than what it is now!

 

[Uther]

I had it on for two hours last night, all that heat vanished within an hour of it being turned off.

Really need to get the loft sorted I think! Half isn’t boarded and has tiny amounts of insulation. Other is boarded with around 8cm Old insulation but no way to lift boards easily so going to just lay insulation on top. Not ideal but has to be better than what it is now!

Did mine a couple of months ago, might be imagining it but I think it's made a huge difference sticking another layer on top of what was already there.

 

[squerble]

I had it on for two hours last night, all that heat vanished within an hour of it being turned off.

Really need to get the loft sorted I think! Half isn’t boarded and has tiny amounts of insulation. Other is boarded with around 8cm Old insulation but no way to lift boards easily so going to just lay insulation on top. Not ideal but has to be better than what it is now!

Insulation is definitely worth it. I'm in a 5 year old house with plenty of insulation - the heating clicked off this morning at about 0640, thermostat showed 20.0ºC as I got up at 0700. Just checked and it's still showing 19.5ºC even with an outside temperature of 9ºC with wind. Downstairs has dropped a bit faster, showing 18.5ºC now after clicking off at 19.5ºC at about 0720.

Our thermostats are both set to target 19ºC. I've found that the heating will only run for an hour or two (with upstairs running shorter than that) to get us up to temperature of an afternoon/evening, and it generally stays warm enough to not need to click on again before the evening program ends at 2130.

 

[jpaul]

with the 45% windfall tax on the (non-cfd) electricity generators , I'm expecting some feedthrough onto prices for contracts that aren't on the EPG rates/economy 7;
if they are paying more tax on the electricity they sell at peak rate, they'll increase price for cheap rate (<epg) kwh's. .. eg octopus go and TOU tarifs.

Industry players have criticised the UK government's decision to impose a 45% windfall tax on renewables generators effective from the new year.

Elsewhere, Scottish Renewables chief executive Claire Mack said Hunt's announcement "damages this country’s reputation as a leader in renewable energy, chiefly by continuing to offer investment allowances to oil and gas extraction while failing to do the same for this industry".
She explained that many renewable energy generators on older contracts have sold their power in advance and are therefore not benefitting from "excess profits from wholesale price rises caused by the cost of gas".
"We would therefore urge the government to ensure that the 45% windfall tax announced today does not unfairly impact these generators which have not been earning increased profits," Mack added.

so if you sold your renewable energy to octopus in advance can the govt restrospectively take increased tax from your profit ?
you would have sold it for more had you known a higher tax might be applied , so like VAT increases don't see why the generators can't pass on the pain.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Ah my octopus saving session data is up

So far you've earned 680 OctoPoints (or £0.85) over 1 Saving Session​

Seeing as I basically didnt do anything I can't complain, 2 free units in effect

 

[fez]

Insulation is definitely worth it. I'm in a 5 year old house with plenty of insulation

Unfortunately its not that simple. Like most things, if you do it when you are building, its quite cost effective and pays for itself quite quickly. If you put the cost of even doing something simple like putting proper loft insulation down it takes years to recoup the cost.

Our house is over 100 years old, has single skin walls I believe and leaks heat rather well. To do anything substantial would cost thousands and thousands, reduce the value of the house and either the internal dimensions of the rooms or require the external walls to be clad. There is the risk of poor installation and the horrible issues that can cause (along with the cost) and then you get less light as well because the walls have been thickened making either internal or external frames of the windows thicker.

I have boarded the loft and increased the insulation to 280mm which cost me a fair chunk of money as I had to raise the floor or we would have lost all the space a loft gives you to store stuff. If I got someone in to do it then I would have paid about triple what it cost me.

New, purpose built house? 100%. Old house that needs retrospective action? Not so simple.

 

[bigmike20vt]

moreover, coincidental that the guy is Asian - an intentionally racist article by the Daily Mail .. but that's their/DM right wing remit., wasn't Mrs Trellis from Wales, in similar BBC report.

Moldy flat tragedy - guy from management company resigned .. still no engineer report.

that mouldy flat thing was an utter tragedy..... but as someone who is (I like to think) a good landlord we had trouble with black mould with our Tennant's too. we paid to have it professionally looked at a few times then got a very threatening letter from the council as the tenants complained.

the thing is, and what no one was prepared to listen to our side we were treated terribly by the council and accused of being bad landlords...... it turned out they had disconnected the electric storage heaters in the flat and blocked off all the air vents.

the flat had never had black mould before, and hasn't had it since we got new Tennant's.
not saying this is the case with that tragic example ..... but knowing how blindly we were sided against by everyone involved with black mould I am reticent to just assume landlord from hell.
black mould is awful stuff. it's a pig to get rid of and impossible if you don't have decent heating and airflow. as energy costs go up this could become far more common.

 

[GIBURROWS]

Seriously where do the gutter press find these numpties?

Head torches at £8.48 each, which need to be charged using electric.
One 12 Watt led will last over 83 hours for 1 kWh so 35p.
The cost of the 2 torches would have paid for 4,021 hours of light bulb usage or 670, 6 hour winter nights. And that's just for the parents, the sprogs have 2 as well.

If your electric bill is £320 a month, it's not the lights that are the problem unless you still have a ton of old incandescent bulbs. Some people just aren't fit to "Adult".

Sometimes it's a set up for a story/agenda