Energy Suppliers

chrcoluk · 20 Sep 2021 at 07:14

I found the per unit caps set by ofgem in April 2021.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publicatio...ease-april-consumers-should-switch-save-money

19p for electric and 3p for gas, added 12% for October 2021, this suggests to me the variable deals cant go up much in price because of the cap. So I went with variable on Octopus, their fixed is circa 25% higher for me way above the cap, and for a heavy gas user would be nearer 50%.

Vanquish-Storm · 20 Sep 2021 at 07:43

Not to turn this political but had labour won and nationalised energy would we be in better stead? Or would it be more of the same a government can’t organised a very good drinking session in a brewery.

chrcoluk · 20 Sep 2021 at 07:45

Vanquish-Storm said:
Not to turn this political but had labour won and nationalised energy would we be in better stead? Or would it be more of the same a government can’t organised a very good drinking session in a brewery.

We will never know if they would have nationalised, and even if this quick.

But if they did then likely it would have been subsidised by general taxation increases or gov borrowing, a win for the poor, evened out for the higher earners.

But with the current situation the gov is surely going to have to step in, either ditching the cap or bailing out companies, I think the latter is far more likely with Boris, a tory leader not afraid to spend and a populist.

Vanquish-Storm · 20 Sep 2021 at 07:52

chrcoluk said:
We will never know if they would have nationalised, and even if this quick.

But if they did then likely it would have been subsidised by general taxation increases or gov borrowing, a win for the poor, evened out for the higher earners.

But with the current situation the gov is surely going to have to step in, either ditching the cap or bailing out companies, I think the latter is far more likely with Boris, a tory leader not afraid to spend and a populist.

Not sure why it would need taxation, the big energy companies have made profit for years surely. It if was nationalised and run as not for profit it would cover itself, or am I way off the mark?

I don’t think bail outs are much cop, taxpayers money plugging a hole because someone made a mistake.

I am with Bulb myself have been for a while now been through 3 prices increases this year. Eon Next (or Sainsbury’s but definitely thing) are my cheapest tariff at the moment.

robj20 · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:03

Hyburnate said:
Our tarrif ends this December, currently paying around £100 p/m for gas only, not looking forward to new tarrif!

(Property type, large 1800s built, no insulation in walls as it's stone built)

£100/pm now, hate to see your bill in winter. Im paid £7.28 last month.

ChrisD. · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:18

DB_SamX said:
Working from home is gonna make some people's bills soar.

Offset by no commuting costs.

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:20

ChrisD. said:
Offset by no commuting costs.

Yup, it’s going to take a lot of utility increases to offset my train season ticket at near £7k/year.

Journey · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:20

ChrisD. said:
Offset by no commuting costs.

How much energy do you actually need to run a laptop/PC/monitor, I'd say soar was an exaggeration anyhow, go up slightly would be a better way to put it.

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:22

Journey said:
How much energy do you actually need to run a laptop/PC/monitor, I'd say soar was an exaggeration anyhow, go up slightly would be a better way to put it.

We are using 1-2 units extra a day in summer. It’s more the winter heating costs which rose quite a lot. Heating is on from 7am until 9pm instead of just 45 mins in the morning and from 5-9 in the evening.

robj20 · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:24

ChrisD. said:
Offset by no commuting costs.

What if you walk to work?

I wonder if you can claim something for the extra heating and power, after all your using it for work.

ChrisD. · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:28

robj20 said:
What if you walk to work?

True but I'd wager the average cost of commuting for those who now work from home are insignificant compared to the energy price rises.

SPG · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:39

Just switched to AVRO 10days before all this kicked off.

Just a another nail in the coffin for a broken system that should be nationalised into two areas, Business and home users.

Thatcher is clapping even more now.

GR63 · 20 Sep 2021 at 09:52

Energize said:
To what extent do you think the EPR reactors we are building are reliant on the Chinese? It's a French-German design.

isnt it funded or built by chinese?

Nasher · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:03

The cap they brought in screwed everyone over. All that happened is everyone has ended up on **** tariffs, instead of just the sheep.

ozaudio · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:10

and all the energy hippys cry wind and solar alone will solve the energy problem LOL. thank god when spark energy merged to SSE i got locked into a 1 year deal

Zenduri · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:16

Phone lines at work are blowing up this morning due to all the stories over the weekend even though we arent a supplier which is in the news or at risk. Seems people have really twitchy bums.

Part of the problem with the price cap at the moment is it's too low to cover costs for suppliers and since the price cap is locked until April it has the potential to force a lot of suppliers to go under this winter

uncle_rufus · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:25

Trying to decide whether to try and jump ship from Bulb asap or wait and see...

Sainsbury's seem to have a reasonable fixed tariff - about 20p elec + 4p gas fixed for 2 years with 12,000 Nectar points as a signing bonus, and also no early cancellation/switching fees. Somehow it still seems to work out cheaper than Bulb were following a recent price hike

SPG · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:32

Abraxaz1 said:
The problem is that the North sea is shutting down, are own gas is getting harder and harder to produce.

33% of all gas into the UK last year came from Qatar via West Wales and what is happening at the moment is the ships are getting diverted mid journey to the countries willing to pay the bill.

We should have invested in shale gas or nuclear but that was NIMBY"d out of existence.
Wait until everyone has electric cars, black and brown outs for everyone when a couple of million electric cars are plugged in over night when we have the same situations.
Also those quoting using heat pumps, they don't work with existing radiators as the maximum temperature you can get is 45 degrees out of them, so you will need to either do underfloor heating or install air conditioning style units. The air only units become steadily less efficient as it gets colder to the point of it gets too cold they will switch off. The ground source heaters need a big garden or bore holes both of which are out of the reach of the poor population without government intervention.

SHALE gas is nothing but stupid, apart from the board of directors who run the company... Get real.

el_dazza · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:34

uncle_rufus said:
Trying to decide whether to try and jump ship from Bulb asap or wait and see...

Sainsbury's seem to have a reasonable fixed tariff - about 20p elec + 4p gas fixed for 2 years with 12,000 Nectar points as a signing bonus, and also no early cancellation/switching fees. Somehow it still seems to work out cheaper than Bulb were following a recent price hike

Sainsbury's are actually just British Gas in disguise, so be sure to compare the two.

SPG · 20 Sep 2021 at 10:35

Uther said:
Bulb is looking for a bailout apparently...

Let them look, The entire energy market is nothing but a SCAM, so many Tarrifs, suppliers its utter ******** everyone knows it apart from the Tory voting owners on a get rich scheme.