Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[LabR@t]

What happens if you cant afford the fix but can afford the cap? A lot are attacking Martin, but I seem to remember he dither and dithered, waited till the last moment to tell people to go SVR, and by the time he said it, I dont remember there been decent fix deals around, if anything he said it too late.

At the time people were posting the last good 2 year deal on here, Martin was yet to make that recommendation.

But I do agree, people will prefer to be ripped of on a fix, than save money on a SVR. As most people seem extremely risk averse.

"
£200 per month difference for me! I will stick with the SVR this time around

 

[Mysterae_]

Here's a plot from the Hive app of the downstairs heating.

At first I thought the boiler was on for the 6 hours 32 minutes as shown, but that's just the demand for heat. If there is sufficient heat in the system already then it's just the pumps running. But still, when there isn't heat stored then the boiler does of course run. I think there's some scope here to reduce the boiler runtime and thus how much heating oil is being used!

 

[Energize]

No, because I asked you what the government should be cutting from the services it currently provides, your response doesn’t actually answer that question. It answers a different question which wasn’t asked.

Of course it answers the question, if I say the government should only be providing x and y, then that means scrapping everything else, put 2 and 2 together.

 

[haaammit]

Yar, we're on economy 7 with night storage heaters. They are brutal to run, but what ya gonna do?

 

[jpaul]

A lot are attacking Martin,

who listens to this guy it's just a money making venture - sanctioned by the likes of ITV, who for god know what reason, gave him a mansplaining tv show blessing him further

It covers a range of things, things like the £140 warm homes grant (lots of eligible people this winter on UC), green levys (should be on gas and oil IMO) and the biggest addition is the credit balances of customers from the companies that went bust due to the cap being lower than the cost of electric.

ofgen documents don't define a standing charge just the maximum price if you have zero consumption,
beyond that it is down to the energy company to morally provide some equity in net price per unit between high and low consumption households.
cap is a maximum price and they seem to be exploiting it such that low consumption household (with high standing charge) end up subsidising customers who are on pre-existing fixed rates.
see earlier post -

@chrcoluk - yes - working an example
Nil kWh m (3,100kWh)
North West £146.84 £974.11

so if you use 3100, the 8.5 units a day are, everything included, costing 31.4p each
if you only use 4 units a day the cost should be 4*31.4 = 125.6
but if you are being charged - ripped off at (146.84/365) 40p/day standing and (974.11-146.84 / 3100) 26.6p/unit the daily cost with 4 units will be 147

so the supplier should be charging a low use tarif of (125.6-40)/4 = 21.25p unit, with 40p standing which would give you same overall cost/unit.

 

[Simon0001]

Yar, we're on economy 7 with night storage heaters. They are brutal to run, but what ya gonna do?

Wear a jumper?

 

[Retro6]

If you have a garden or some land just build a camp fire, there are all kinds of things you can build to keep warm that don't require any electricity.

 

[Simon0001]

If you have a garden or some land just build a camp fire, there are all kinds of things you can build to keep warm that don't require any electricity.

I know lol. It doesn't get cold enough in england to need heating lol

 

[Delvis]

I know lol. It doesn't get cold enough in england to need heating lol

Depends entirely on people's tolerances

 

[Puzzled]

I know lol. It doesn't get cold enough in england to need heating lol

What utter tosh.

I hope you are just being glib with your responses rather than actually believing that because people do die in this country due to fuel poverty.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...nter-deaths-europe-polar-vortex-a8224276.html

 

[Tephnos]

Guy must be having a laugh. He might be right, in a very well insulated modern home, but the majority of housing in the UK is Victorian era draughty crap.

It will get near freezing very quickly without heating.

 

[SDK^]

£40 gas and £40 electricity per month - £960 a year for our energy needs. (4 people house)

How are people spending 1500-2000 a year

Monthly cost isn’t a great comparison .
Post your annual gas and electricity use in kWh please.

 

[delta0]

I know lol. It doesn't get cold enough in england to need heating lol

That must be highly dependent on where you live. In the south east maybe. I run my heating only a few weeks of the year. When I lived up north it was on for considerably longer.

 

[theone8181]

How much differences are there in thermostat readings? I ask as ours is set to 18 degrees for a few hours each day and that's warm enough for a t-shirt, so we'd be saving a bit by not setting it to 21 (not to mention it would then be too hot).

 

[200sols]

Depends entirely on people's tolerances

Not really unless your tolerance is freezing cold.

 

[LabR@t]

I know lol. It doesn't get cold enough in england to need heating lol

Lol, ok tough guy.
I let the old pensioners dying in cold home to man up .

 

[NickK]

Looks like Russia is finally deciding to cut supplies to Europe.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Do we realistically expect the prices to return to 2021 levels?

The energy companies are some of the worst for what feels like price fixing … if they see these massive profits I just don’t see it going back down.

Getting pumped with massive standing charges feels like a nice little way for shafting those who don’t use much.

 

[NickK]

Here's a plot from the Hive app of the downstairs heating.

At first I thought the boiler was on for the 6 hours 32 minutes as shown, but that's just the demand for heat. If there is sufficient heat in the system already then it's just the pumps running. But still, when there isn't heat stored then the boiler does of course run. I think there's some scope here to reduce the boiler runtime and thus how much heating oil is being used!

We run ours in a similar fashion except the living room is normally shut off - the temp in the living room follows that pattern but the rest of the house is colder depending of the doors are closed. The result is we save gas.

I would like the government, for the duration of the crisis, to put limits on the profits.

I know that HMRC investigate and fine companies that put their prices up during the pandemic for example, the same would be true here. However the fines don't help the population (unless it is recycled back in benefits.. which are subject to the administration overheads so very little is returned).

 

[PlacidCasual]

As of 2021 your leccy bill was
29.28% wholesale costs (buying leccy from the generators)
23.37% network costs (local and national grid operator costs)
16.34% operating costs (costs for your supplier like metering staff an backend bill stuff inc pre tax margin)
25.48% environmental and social obligations
4.76% VAT
2.09% other direct costs

Source

In 2016 it was
38% wholesale costs (buying leccy from the generators)
26% network costs (local and national grid operator costs)
17% operating costs (costs for your supplier like metering staff an backend bill stuff not inc pre tax margin)
8% environmental and social obligations
5% VAT
5% Supplier pre-tax margin
1% other direct costs

Source

edit: I'm stuggling to find the breakdown of wholesale costs I have been told that it is about 80% fuel costs and about 10% operating costs like wages and maintenance.