Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

silversurfer · 31 Dec 2022 at 12:39

kindai said:
My 3 year fix ends in a weeks time or so, how do I pre-purchase my next few years gas and electricity at current prices

Some of the money saved now has to go to other things. In these past 3 years I presume you now have a full forest of fast growing willow to harvest for free firewood

Theres all kinds of ideas, in Scotland they still give grants over 10 years no interest for solar and a few other things but the rest of us will have to figure it out.

I doubt theres any reasonable fix though prices have dropped from peak.

I might be completely wrong but get a EV install then rent out its usage, to subsidise your own costs. That could work I guess but the grant is for renters only :confused:

Electric vehicle chargepoint and infrastructure grant guidance for installers

Guidance for installers about the OZEV electric vehicle chargepoint and infrastructure grants

www.gov.uk

Drivers demand more electric car charging points in Britain

Electric car drivers have called for more charging points to be installed across the UK after some Tesla owners were left queuing for three hours.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Queues stretching for hours show what it's like to own a Tesla at Christmas

'You can always rely on the British public to make an orderly queue.'

metro.co.uk

McManicMan · 31 Dec 2022 at 12:45

Joys of living in the middle of a row of terraced houses right on the south coast in a 25yr old 3 bed house, I've only had heating on for 6 days this winter so far.

MrKnifey · 31 Dec 2022 at 16:20

£497 Bill this month, £171 Elec, £344 gas. In three days my bill is already £44 :/

robgmun · 31 Dec 2022 at 16:27

I haven't taken the readings yet but my Electric looks like it's going to be about £120 this month, up a bit from £93 last month. But my Gas is going to pinch a bit. I reckon even after the rebate i'm looking at a shade over £300 for this month. We had the heating on quite a bit. The upside is that I've been on annual leave for most of this month so I save £150 in travel expenses there. So i guess it sort of balances itself out really. We'll just have to be more careful going forward.

adidan · 31 Dec 2022 at 16:32

So with gas prices in Europe now lower than pre-Putin crazy times when do you all think we will see a price reduction?

Kelt · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:09

adidan said:
So with gas prices in Europe now lower than pre-Putin crazy times when do you all think we will see a price reduction?

I'm hoping before the beginning of September 2023, because that's when my current cheap deal with Octopus ends, and I'm dreading having to pay current rates.

Fire Wizard · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:17

I had an electric bill of nearly £350 over a period of 41 days. I live in a single bedroom flat which is very poorly insulated. I was using an oil heater to keep myself warm. Unfortunately, it appears using one of those is quite costly. I have now turned the storage heater on in my front room. I will just have to wait and see how much that costs over a monthly period. I am with Octopus Energy.

rumple9 · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:20

Fire Wizard said:
I had an electric bill of nearly £350 over a period of 41 days. I live in a single bedroom flat which is very poorly insulated. I was using an oil heater to keep myself warm. Unfortunately, it appears using one of those is quite costly. I have now turned the storage heater on in my front room. I will just have to wait and see how much that costs over a monthly period. I am with Octopus Energy.

If you're struggling mate just get an electric blanket / throw - cost £20 to buy and 2p per hour to run

LabR@t · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:22

MrKnifey said:
£497 Bill this month, £171 Elec, £344 gas. In three days my bill is already £44 :/

Ooh that's nasty

silversurfer · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:23

Get a cheap electric fleece which is 200w. Perfect insulation is the ideal factor over all others imo but definitely anyone can use a fleece and avoid all the fuss.

Also some old Granny advise, go get anything woollen, blankets big weave jumpers pillows, whatever that stuff retains heat so well. Even if you just for a night chuck it against the window which is blowing a draft, save you a small fortune by the sounds of it.

Curlyriff · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:36

Anyone expecting lower costs bills in next 12-18 months than we currently have are dreaming cause even when prices are back down and remain back down we still need to pay enough for all the monies borrowed to make cap work and so energy companies will be keeping it higher for longer at least till then and then by then it will be norm and we will all just get used to it like fuel that's not really significantly come back down yet.

SDK^ · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:37

adidan said:
So with gas prices in Europe now lower than pre-Putin crazy times when do you all think we will see a price reduction?

Normal gas prices are between 60-80p Therm (pre October 2021), it’s still 200p Therm, approx 3.5x above the normal, so some way to go before wholesale prices normalise.

Also, a couple of points to manage expectations

We still haven’t paid fully for the huge price spike in August - this carries into the April 23 price cap update.
The Government are currently subsidising energy prices to the tune of ~6p kWh for Gas and 20p+ kWh for electricity. As prices come down the governemnt will remove this subsidy, so customer energy prices are more likely to go up a little before they decrease. (e.g. The current price everyone is paying isn’t actually the real cost of energy)

This chart shows the historic gas price. The ‘normal‘ price is pre October 2021 at about 80p. People keep getting excited about the recent drop, but this is still 3x the normal price.

Wizzkidy · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:39

I doubt we will ever see cheap prices again, once people are use to the prices we are paying they will just keep them high

snowdog · 31 Dec 2022 at 17:58

Last year in Nov I installed 2 solarpanels myself on my shed with a micro inverter.

I did lose some power at peak hours because panels are 395Wp while inverter is just a 600w one. Because of gas prices I've used significantly less gas.

In 2021 I used 3175kWh.
In 2022 (until and including yesterday) 2343 kWh.

I used 730m³ Gas in 2021.
And now in 2022, just 413m³.

1950's terraced house (I do have neighbors attached on both sides)

I did take some more measures regarding isolation, cheap things, stuff like reflective foil on the back of radiators, I've isolated my single layered glass of my front door with plastic insulating foil, and I tried to solve all draughts at all windows and even under some doors. I failed a little bit as I noticed this week bathroom window is really leaky...

ci_newman · 31 Dec 2022 at 18:52

Bit the bullet and did my gas readings today.

Approx. £140 for the month of December for gas (equal to 1300kWh). Electric will be around £100 for the month, minus the Gov. credit.

kona786 · 31 Dec 2022 at 19:28

MrKnifey said:
£497 Bill this month, £171 Elec, £344 gas. In three days my bill is already £44 :/

Savage

kona786 · 31 Dec 2022 at 19:30

Fire Wizard said:
I had an electric bill of nearly £350 over a period of 41 days. I live in a single bedroom flat which is very poorly insulated. I was using an oil heater to keep myself warm. Unfortunately, it appears using one of those is quite costly. I have now turned the storage heater on in my front room. I will just have to wait and see how much that costs over a monthly period. I am with Octopus Energy.

Wow is that pre GOV discount?

Fire Wizard · 31 Dec 2022 at 20:18

rumple9 said:
If you're struggling mate just get an electric blanket / throw - cost £20 to buy and 2p per hour to run

Okay, great. That's a good suggestion. Thank you.

kona786 said:
Wow is that pre GOV discount?

Oh yes, the £66 discount. So really, at the moment, I am paying around £285. I am hoping the storage heater is going to be cheaper. It is certainly a concern though.

BigT · 1 Jan 2023 at 07:55

Fire Wizard said:
I have now turned the storage heater on in my front room. I will just have to wait and see how much that costs over a monthly period. I am with Octopus Energy.

If money is tight then that might not help much. They vary in power consumption but can be up to 2KW depending on model. At say 25p per KWh on economy 7 then 7hours x 30 days x 2KW x £0.25 means a heating bill of over £100 per month for that heater alone before other usage and standing charge - it may not be that much cheaper. If you need to make substantial savings and you’re on your own then electric fleeces and blankets and such like might be a better option.

jpaul · 1 Jan 2023 at 08:50

At last, DM apparently have an article today lambasting unfairness of standing charge(vat, bulb+other pay-off, consumption component) for poorer folks, and OFGEN ineffectiveness - that means you too, bystander Martin

govt update on upcoming business rates wasn't deivered by today/new year , so expect the writing is on the wall for businesses like local chippy, high energy small businesses.

If EDF are planning to now switch off 2 of their older reactors/2024 due to windfall tax on legacy(non cfd) generators ominous for UK, off-peak surpluses.