Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

Martini1991 said:
Might be a bit hard with everyone wanting their pound of flesh ..
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It's also just a lazy sneer from I guess someone who either doesn't pay the bill or can easily afford it.

The most stupid bit is for example my bill has over doubled, out of the blue. Thankfully I can afford it which I guess ironically is also the reason I have savings.

If you're on or close to the breadline which does seem to be the aim of the current government how pray tell are you supposed to save when your wages only stretch as far as the basics?

If you can't afford much of anything beyond rent and transport and sustenance you also can't afford to save much so a doubling/tripling of your bill would rapidly wipe out anything you can save.
 
matt100 said:
It's also just a lazy sneer from I guess someone who either doesn't pay the bill or can easily afford it.

The most stupid bit is for example my bill has over doubled, out of the blue. Thankfully I can afford it which I guess ironically is also the reason I have savings.

If you're on or close to the breadline which does seem to be the aim of the current government how pray tell are you supposed to save when your wages only stretch as far as the basics?

If you can't afford much of anything beyond rent and transport and sustenance you also can't afford to save much so a doubling/tripling of your bill would rapidly wipe out anything you can save.
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(fence sitting warning) I think both sides can be correct. It is absolutely true that having money allows you to save money and if you are living hand to mouth it must be brutally hard for people now.
OTOH (and I know people like this) I know some with no money and yet they still manage to have a more expensive life style than me ( have a flutter at the bookies / do the lottery, go to the pub more than I do have multiple pets and in one case smoke 20 a day (I am comfortably off and the notion of how much they spend on fags and booze scares me!.)

so yes some people I have no idea how they are gonna cope and my heart goes out to them... but it is also true that some people often those least able to afford it, spend a lot of money on luxuries that really they should not be.
 
bigmike20vt said:
(fence sitting warning) I think both sides can be correct. It is absolutely true that having money allows you to save money and if you are living hand to mouth it must be brutally hard for people now.
OTOH (and I know people like this) I know some with no money and yet they still manage to have a more expensive life style than me ( have a flutter at the bookies / do the lottery, go to the pub more than I do have multiple pets and in one case smoke 20 a day (I am comfortably off and the notion of how much they spend on fags and booze scares me!.)

so yes some people I have no idea how they are gonna cope and my heart goes out to them... but it is also true that some people often those least able to afford it, spend a lot of money on luxuries that really they should not be.
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You shouldn't have to change your life to pay a utility bill!
 
Chris Wilson said:
Be careful, there's a reason cavities have air bricks! In my rentals if the carpets don't lift in a strong wind I am concerned, static air breeds damp. It's in the tenancy agreements that no air bricks or inbuilt ventilation panels are to be blocked or restricted.
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This wasn't an air brick. Some **** rewired the house by knocking out bricks or half bricks and dropping cables down the cavity. The next rewire drilled an inch diameter hole next to the knocked out brick and dropped the cable through that :rolleyes:
 
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GIBURROWS said:
You shouldn't have to change your life to pay a utility bill!
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1000% this.

In a generation or so we've basically become brainwashed into forgetting that a "bog standard" job used to afford you the basics.

Those basics however are often seen as luxuries now, like owning a house, having a holiday, having some kids and maybe a parent staying at home, having a pension and a car and whatnot.. Jesus even having a pint and smoking and a flutter were all utterly mundane working class activities in the 80s/90s all without benefits.

We've been slowly conditioned into thinking the basics are now some food, a shared roof and in work benefits. It's so totally obvious and so many just lap it up because they've been told to think they're strivers if they struggle and there's something noble in it.

Turkeys voting for Christmas if you ever saw it.
 
There's not like you can do anything about it though, everything costs more money than it did decades ago and your money doesn't get you as much as it did.

Its all well and good whining about it, but its only going to get worse and theres no nothing you can do.
 
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GIBURROWS said:
You shouldn't have to change your life to pay a utility bill!
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While I do agree with this statement there is also a large subset of people who live beyond their means to the point that they have to make lifestyle changes to pay for bill increases because they are living on the edge.

If anything the current energy situation has pushed this to the forefront however its already pushed people who are truely hardup completely over the edge. Janurary is going to be an interesting month with the energy bills coming in for the cold snap in December and people putting christmas on the plastic fantastic because "cant cut back on christmas for the little ones"
 
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Usage for December 2022 with 2021 in brackets:
Gas 2311kWh (2236kWh)
Elec 316kWh (340kWh)

Bill yet to arrive but looks like £350 + standing charge.

For the first month since September the Octopus forecast was right.

Fingers crossed for a warm January
 
Subzero85 said:
First bill of 2023 will be a killer
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The December usage will be worse then Jan I think or hope it will as weather appears not to drop too far from 10c for Jan. When it starts getting to -5 outside the amount of heat lost via poor insulation or even just normal quality makes it very expensive.


I managed to reduce a log without branches into wafers of wood so thin it dried out in a day, with just a normal axe. Hoping a Fiskars x27 splitting axe will help me with the knotty logs I have too many of, if it can split this stuff then its very cheap fuel just requires a fair amount of time/effort, saves going to a gym I guess :p

 
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Uther said:
I should think the days of walking about the house in a t shirt in the middle of winter have gone for a lot of people.
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I would argue those days never should have been a thing. I have always been a fan of jumper 1st heating 2nd, (admittedly I took off the jumper an HR ago because it's too damn hot in the house. am 2 degrees above the thermostat level on the heating
 
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Disagree with the above two posts, it's prehistoric thinking. We should all be increasing our energy demands and innovation should see us through, just a shame we've had constant systematic failure by governments and energy corps.

Way before the time we've squeezed the earth dry of fossil resources we should be firmly switched to nuclear then wind/solar/tide... We should then innovate further towards better harvesting of the sun's energy, and hopefully we're then more space faring and can look further than that.

This whole depressing mantra of forcing people to reduce usage is just a depressing side effect of crap leadership.
 
My cheap deal expired in November and I've just calculated how much I've spent so far :(

Good god. My monthly directly debit will have to go from £100 to £300 a month, plus the incoming 20% rise.

I had to look a few of my tax returns earlier today. Spent a good couple of hours working things out. I might have a change of mindset this year.

Hard work does not pay!
 
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jam pie said:
Disagree with the above two posts, it's prehistoric thinking. We should all be increasing our energy demands and innovation should see us through, just a shame we've had constant systematic failure by governments and energy corps.

Way before the time we've squeezed the earth dry of fossil resources we should be firmly switched to nuclear then wind/solar/tide... We should then innovate further towards better harvesting of the sun's energy, and hopefully we're then more space faring and can look further than that.

This whole depressing mantra of forcing people to reduce usage is just a depressing side effect of crap leadership.
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I’m sorry, but no. We should be doing both. Reducing demand through sensible choices (like wearing a jumper) and improving insulation, and increasing our own generation abilities. The current situation is not sustainable.
 
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