Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

Werewolf said:
And IIRC many others have effectively had pay cuts, due to wage rises that never met inflation, or that didn't meet inflation for several years then got a slightly above inflation rise one year that didn't quite bring them to the level a consistent inflation neutral rise would have.
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Absolutely. Its a pay cut in real terms.

We struggle to recruit and have a high turn over of staff. The IT second liners are on 22k where they can go across the road to the Uni and earn 28k.

Obviously a lot do.
 
SPG said:
Well now i have a justifiable use to get rid of the 15 year old plasma TV :( Only just replaced one of the fans in the back of it (we wont talk about the dust inside EVER)

This is getting scary as hell now, I earn enough to cover it but i would sooner not be spending £320 a month on energy compared to the previous £110. That's £210 every month down the drain and the goverment (what goverment) are doing jack **** I work in the private sector wages are dead in the water and I hope the unions actually strike and something gets done.
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This isn't a "cost of living crisis" it's a corporate looting crisis

And virtually every politician in Westminster is on the side of the corporate looters
 
Werewolf said:
And IIRC many others have effectively had pay cuts, due to wage rises that never met inflation, or that didn't meet inflation for several years then got a slightly above inflation rise one year that didn't quite bring them to the level a consistent inflation neutral rise would have.
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I'm in the highway maintenance side and are being told, since 2010 we are 25% worse off.

I'm part of the £1925 payrise they offered.
 
Foghorn Leghorn said:
45kWh per day averaged over the year is fairly typical use. Your 11kWh per day isn't, that's very low use, you're either very lucky or very cold :D
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It's about right for me, my highest ever usage was 1382kwh in a month so 44.6 a day that month. But averaged out over the year is less than 11 per day as through Warner months my average is 1.4kwh per day.
 
200sols said:
You live in a tiny insulated box surrounded by other insulated boxes. No surprise your heating is cheaper than a house. I use about 15000kWh of gas in year in a 4 bed detached.
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No need to be salty - to be blunt, it's your choice to live in an (I assume) uninsulated energy inefficient 4 bed detached. You could move or improve it. As someone pointed out above, a new 4 bed detached would consume about half that.

The fact that prices have increased recently is almost irrelevant to you consuming more per capita.
 
I haven't used the electric oven for a the last week as I bought a air fryer and also using the slow cooker. We have used 66 kwh of electric the last 6 days and the gas meter hasn't moved, I have cut the hot water from 1hr to 1/2 in the morning and from 2hrs to 1 hour in the evening as well as turning the boiler down from 70c to ,66c. She hasn't noticed any difference so that's working.




The slow cooker is currently drawing 271w according to the power meter when set to high.

The lamb hot pot smells amazing and it's 8hrs X 271w or 59p on the current cap.



the average electric oven in the UK would cost £0.59, or 59p to run for one hour.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
No need to be salty - to be blunt, it's your choice to live in an (I assume) uninsulated energy inefficient 4 bed detached. You could move or improve it. As someone pointed out above, a new 4 bed detached would consume about half that.

The fact that prices have increased recently is almost irrelevant to you consuming more per capita.
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Lol salty. Grow up. Just people coming on here like 'I use 1kWh' thinking most of the countries housing stock is like that. Note that poster didn't use a gas hob either so his use isnt that low for a modern insulated house. My house is insulated but not the cavities as they weren't designed for it and the drawbacks outweigh any gain in that department.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
That’s not how it works, it only benefited business because they didn’t pass it onto the consumer which they should have done if they didn’t raise their prices at the same time. What actually happened is they raised their prices (effectively a stealth price rise because it wasn’t visible to the end user) and ‘pocketed’ the difference. When the reduction ended they passed it on. As such it enables lots of business to raise their prices by the back door.

VAT does not impact the profitability of a business, it’s a tax in consumption which is born by the end consumer. Any input VAT suffered by the business is offset against any they collect their customer.

Note I use the term collect, they collect it on behalf of the government and pay it to HMRC. It’s not ever the business money.

If they made business energy VAT 0%, they still need to charge 20% on their outputs so the net effect is the same. You could argue it could benefit cash flow but that’s not really the issue at hand.
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You start your reply with "that's not how it works" and then describe how it has worked in practice almost every time there's been a change in VAT...

Businesses, particularly SMEs, did not have the luxury during COVID of ignoring a chance to temporarily increase their margins. I can't remember prices falling back in 2008 either when VAT was cut. Why would you cut your prices when the market has already shown it can bear the prices you're charging already, and your competitors won't either?

Considering the obviousness of the above, VAT absolutely does impact the profitability of a business as it's often not a simple case of standard rate out less standard rate in to HMRC. Hospitality won't be reclaiming a lot of input tax generally because it's reduced or zero rated, but they may be making wholly standard rate supplies (particularly coffee and hot food).

Particularly in the arts and leisure sectors, charity status and irrecoverable VAT is also very common. You can argue they benefit in other ways through that status of course but in many cases it's not like they'd otherwise be paying over large amounts of corporation tax either.

You're correct that VAT is never the business' money but small business owners very rarely treat it that way, since they don't have the luxury of leaving it to one side until it's due.
 
My average daily electricity usage is around 20kWh. While we were on holiday the idle consumption of the house was 7kWh per day. I think I need to go around and see what's using so much.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Another reason why we should stop building so many housing estates full of semi and detached identical housing and start increasing density of existing stock and on brownfield sites instead then. Combined with better public transport and cycle infrastructure, it'll allow for a much better quality of life at lower cost for many people when mixed with commercial development and public amenities, parks, etc and leave vast swathes of countryside to enjoy as they are.

But our planning laws are madness and wouldn't allow that.
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Many people don't want to live in flats though, even more so when starting a family.

A modern detached house can be very energy efficient if the developer chooses to put the effort / money in. Plus you don't have to deal with noise coming through the walls and you have some private outdoor space.
 
Puzzled said:
Many people don't want to live in flats though, even more so when starting a family.

A modern detached house can be very energy efficient if the developer chooses to put the effort / money in. Plus you don't have to deal with noise coming through the walls and have some private outdoor space.
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That's a very UK thing though - even in parts of the urban US it's common for families to live in 3/4 bedroom flats, and obviously much more common the world over. In our medium density block of flats there's 3 families and they seem to manage fine. There's a playground and park literally next door so no need for private outdoor space really.

Noise can sometimes be an issue, sure, but I wouldn't say it's any worse than when I've lived in terrace/semi detached houses in the past. It's all in the quality of the construction ultimately.
 
Puzzled said:
Many people don't want to live in flats though, even more so when starting a family.
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Living in an apartment block European style isn't that bad if they have a lot of space outside and big rooms inside.
We build cramp crappy flats only though....

In Europe they build apartment blocks that have a massive carpark underground then generous sized apartments with fairly big rooms and a good sized balcony that you could fit a 4-6 seater couch on.
Usually it's a bunch of blocks dotted around with small fields in between and each block will have its own playground area with swings, a slide etc and they are properly maintained.

they are for the poorer people to live in or small families 2 adults 2 kids etc.

over here they build the minimum possible in the smallest place possible and let them get rundown and dirty to save on costs.


muon said:
Is Christmas the only celebratory occasion that exists?
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The only one where people put lights on their house yes, the ones in my photo are perma lighting that has been on since months
 
MichaelAwkward said:
That's a very UK thing though - even in parts of the urban US it's common for families to live in 3/4 bedroom flats, and obviously much more common the world over. In our medium density block of flats there's 3 families and they seem to manage fine. There's a playground and park literally next door so no need for private outdoor space really.

Noise can sometimes be an issue, sure, but I wouldn't say it's any worse than when I've lived in terrace/semi detached houses in the past. It's all in the quality of the construction ultimately.
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Well this is the UK and we are a private bunch.
I'd say most people would rather have the neighbours further away rather than having to share community spaces with them :p

I'll stick to relaxing in my nice private garden thanks and not having to hear the neighbours through the walls.
 
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