Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

Devilman said:
So roughly the profits they made in Q1 this year, with the whole rest of the year to cream it in? Also.. Define "investment". What exactly are they "investing" in?
If you're talking about continued oil / gas exploration and drilling - That is a fundamental part of their business model and can in NO WAY be seen or represented as "investment".
If they did not do it, their wells would run dry, they would run out of product and cease to turn a profit. You make it sound like they're giving away £10bn every year for the betterment of humanity.
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Oil won’t be around forever - Shell themselves state their peak oil production was 2019 and is now declining year on year. A large part of Shell‘s investment is achieving carbon net zero and expanding support for electric vehicles, hydrogen, biofuels and electricity generated by wind and solar power.

So yes, their investment is for the greater benefit
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Sounds like we’re finally going to use our own resources again. About time, we’re sat on a bucket load of everything we need.

Hoping there’s some clarity today on those already fixed at higher than the proposed cap.
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I think if someone has fixed it will be between them and their supplier to sort it out. Hopefully they will be allowed to drop back to svr without cost, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
 
Azza said:
Ask them to change it to a variable direct debit. That way you'll only pay what your bill amount actually is.
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Not all company's do that, pretty sure the best of the bunch including Octopus don't do that?
I certainly would NOT do that and I will explain why in a moment Azza, Know you mean well mate.
Variable DD used to be a good idea, but with current dynamic fluctuating prices and ever higher bills projected, what you need is a stable DD a fixed amount, then provide accurate meter reads one a month ... on the first is handy for me and my income, submit your meter reads and after that there is a balance, pay the balance or collect the over payment if you are in credit .... No Unexpected Big Bills that way .... or if in Debit, pay whats owed ... do this monthly and you cant go wrong.
Still not sure about Smart meters, all the Energy company's are over eager to push them, cant Help but think there is something in it for them, they cant be cheap tp produce or install, so who really benefits? traditionally its them not us.
 
SDK^ said:
Oil won’t be around forever - Shell themselves state their peak oil production was 2019 and is now declining year on year. A large part of Shell‘s investment is achieving carbon net zero though expanding support for electric vehicles, hydrogen, biofuels and electricity generated by wind and solar power.

So yes, their investment is for the greater benefit
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You mean investing in other forms of revenue streams so that they can continue to earn obscene amounts of profit.
 
One 48 said:
Not all company's do that, pretty sure the best of the bunch including Octopus don't do that?
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Am with Octopus and it's the default for me to pay variable:

TnGNOTF.png

I disagree with estimated DD because after a year you've paid the same total anyway, if you have the money to handle ups and downs, it's better to be on variable.

Caveat that I know not everyone can do this, but if you can self-fund the more expensive months in winter, I find variable works better.
 
One 48 said:
Its getting crazy, am old and decrepit now at 63 and very, very physically disabled before my time but still of sound mind I hope :)

Submitted my monthly August readings to Octopus whom despite name are well regarded as a UK Energy company and still cant get my usage down, really made a conscious effort to reduce my electricity usage since July and becoming aware of this impending mess.
This new bill is still sky high and before new caps come in that is by far the highest, my gas seems almost affordable in comparison, but even using gas for my boiler uses electricity, you cant win :( My weekly Asda usual weekly shop rises every week now and its beyond crazy , have already sacrificed my BBC license, TV access and now on basic Sky broadband ,,, i cant lose anymore than that ... what else can I sacrifice to the Gods of Greed Profit and Energy? when will it all stop?

What are we going to do? Living alone and elderly with nobody to lean on I'm honestly sick with worry and fear just now.

Hope its a mild Winter? its almost upon us I fear.

Hard times ahead, take care all.
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Turn your heating down and pick up an electric blanket or 2 instead - Octopus may be giving them out to vulnerable customers again at some point, sadly there's not much else you can do to make any significant impact :(
 
HungryHippos said:
Am with Octopus and it's the default for me to pay variable:

TnGNOTF.png

I disagree with estimated DD because after a year you've paid the same total anyway, if you have the money to handle ups and downs, it's better to be on variable.

Caveat that I know not everyone can do this, but if you can self-fund the more expensive months in winter, I find variable works better.
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I agree, but for those that will struggle and its going to be millions this winter, most will or should know what their monthly bills are and cant afford variable DD surprises, we are all not as well off as you, I for one live on a well calculated budget the Pension allows ... know my Dementia is kicking in, but for now i wqant to be fiscally responsible, for most folk variable DD is a thing of the past, what energy company do you use mate?
 
One 48 said:
Its getting crazy, am old and decrepit now at 63 and very, very physically disabled before my time but still of sound mind I hope :)

Submitted my monthly August readings to Octopus whom despite name are well regarded as a UK Energy company and still cant get my usage down, really made a conscious effort to reduce my electricity usage since July and becoming aware of this impending mess.
This new bill is still sky high and before new caps come in that is by far the highest, my gas seems almost affordable in comparison, but even using gas for my boiler uses electricity, you cant win :( My weekly Asda usual weekly shop rises every week now and its beyond crazy , have already sacrificed my BBC license, TV access and now on basic Sky broadband ,,, i cant lose anymore than that ... what else can I sacrifice to the Gods of Greed Profit and Energy? when will it all stop?

What are we going to do? Living alone and elderly with nobody to lean on I'm honestly sick with worry and fear just now.

Hope its a mild Winter? its almost upon us I fear.

Hard times ahead, take care all.
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sorry to hear you are struggling. you are right everything sucks at the moment. our family is generally quite fortunate but we have bought hotwaterbottles and electric blankets all round along with extra thick douvets. I think the heating will get a lot less use this year. not much we can do about the crashing £ and the huge increase in the weekly shop :(

like you I am hoping for a mild but breezy winter because if not it's going to be rough for a lot of folk.
 
I still maintain to the group here, the absolute best way to control our future energy bills is just to self monitor our own usage, not keen on smart meters yet, but that is probably what we will all end up doing :)

My recent house move meant ... after lots of hassle ... New Gas and Electric calibrated meters, pretty much tried them all in my life, card meters ETC, economy 7 blabethy bla ... I worked in the energy sector most my life building oil rigs, and near retirement did 5 years at a local call center with training advising folk on energy and as an advisor with some energy companys long extinct now :)
Its totally up to you, but with variable DD comes variable energy bills and I can assure you, they are going to get very sky high as winter energy consumption goes up later this month.

Good luck with your confident variable DD, glad you can afford to do that with confidence, but we all cant and need a more stable DD budget to adjust to on a monthly basis.

Best of luck mate.
 
One 48 said:
what energy company do you use mate
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Octopus.

One 48 said:
not keen on smart meters yet
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You need smart meters for smart tariffs so unavoidable for a lot of us. The house I bought came with one, so even if I didn't want it, I'd have to live with it.

May as well embrace it :)

One 48 said:
with variable DD comes variable energy bills and I can assure you, they are going to get very sky high as winter energy consumption goes up later this month.
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I have just had solar installed should be alright by my calculations.
 
bigmike20vt said:
sorry to hear you are struggling. you are right everything sucks at the moment. our family is generally quite fortunate but we have bought hotwaterbottles and electric blankets all round along with extra thick douvets. I think the heating will get a lot less use this year. not much we can do about the crashing £ and the huge increase in the weekly shop :(

like you I am hoping for a mild but breezy winter because if not it's going to be rough for a lot of folk.
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Thanks Mike but Hot water bottles need energy to fill too, not very efficient :)

Thinking back to my old job, building oil rigs in NE Scotland, we'd sometimes request thermal boiler suits in winter and oh WOW they were good, out in the winter elements, you felt cozy for a bit, its drastic measures in drastic times, am not proud at all and will do all it takes to stay warm this winter. Probably wil go to order up a couple of similar Thermal boiler suits very soon ... wish it were all a joke, but we're into September already and before we know it the cold nights will be upon us and the newer dreaded high bill tariffs too.

Take care all.
 
Richie said:
Well, if you go by some on here, it's your choice to live alone so suck it up buttercup or take on a lodger or 2 to spread the bills.

Not my opinion BTW.
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taking on a lodger whilst not a solution for all is certainly something a lot of folk can do.

I did it for 5 years after splitting with my Ex so I could afford my home.
was a win win. I earned £4000pa tax free (excluding bills) (not sure if that has gone up now). and the company, whilst I didn't think I wanted or needed it at the time was good for my mental well-being, well most of the time. one housemate did drive me a bit bonkers with her energy wastage. would probably need to keep on top of that in the current times.
 
One 48 said:
Thanks Mike but Hot water bottles need energy to fill too, not very efficient :)

Thinking back to my old job, building oil rigs in NE Scotland, we'd sometimes request thermal boiler suits in winter and oh WOW they were good, out in the winter elements, you felt cozy for a bit, its drastic measures in drastic times, am not proud at all and will do all it takes to stay warm this winter. Probably wil go to order up a couple of similar Thermal boiler suits very soon ... wish it were all a joke, but we're into September already and before we know it the cold nights will be upon us and the newer dreaded high bill tariffs too.

Take care all.
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true hot water bottles and electric blankets do need energy.... but a lot less than heating your whole house imo

I still have my old fishing thermal suit somewhere (basically a man sized onesie ) but I dont think my better half would appreciate me wearing that in the house.
 
One 48 said:
Its getting crazy, am old and decrepit now at 63 and very, very physically disabled before my time but still of sound mind I hope :)

Submitted my monthly August readings to Octopus whom despite name are well regarded as a UK Energy company and still cant get my usage down, really made a conscious effort to reduce my electricity usage since July and becoming aware of this impending mess.
This new bill is still sky high and before new caps come in that is by far the highest, my gas seems almost affordable in comparison, but even using gas for my boiler uses electricity, you cant win :( My weekly Asda usual weekly shop rises every week now and its beyond crazy , have already sacrificed my BBC license, TV access and now on basic Sky broadband ,,, i cant lose anymore than that ... what else can I sacrifice to the Gods of Greed Profit and Energy? when will it all stop?

What are we going to do? Living alone and elderly with nobody to lean on I'm honestly sick with worry and fear just now.

Hope its a mild Winter? its almost upon us I fear.

Hard times ahead, take care all.
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Sorry to hear you're struggling mate :(

If your electricity bill is sky high still there must be something driving it up there.

I managed to get my bill from ~£120 a month in April (due to being very blasé about energy consumption) down to £50-£70 over the last few months.

It's worth doing a full energy "audit" on your home, just sit and think about everything which uses electricity and think about how often it is left switched on at the plug.

The thing that changed mine the most (which won't affect you if you've got gas probably) was my hot water heater. I believe my flat has a unvented cylinder system, and I had it sent to heat hot water between 12am-7am because that's just what it was when I moved in. It's not set to heat water for only one hour a night and this is more than enough for two long showers a day and washing up etc etc.

Everything other than my router, 1 x smart plug, 3 x WiZ smart bulbs and my wireless phone charger get switched off at the plug before I go to sleep and then i'm out of the house 7am-6pm nearly every weekday so nothing comes back on till i'm home and usually only a few hours.

It really is the little things that make a big difference when the unit rate of electricity is so high as they all add up across a month!

EDIT: Reading this back I can see it could come across as quite patronising, this wasn't my intention and just trying to share some information which has helped me reduce my bills
 
Megahurtz400 said:
Sorry to hear you're struggling mate :(

If your electricity bill is sky high still there must be something driving it up there.

I managed to get my bill from ~£120 a month in April (due to being very blasé about energy consumption) down to £50-£70 over the last few months.

It's worth doing a full energy "audit" on your home, just sit and think about everything which uses electricity and think about how often it is left switched on at the plug.

The thing that changed mine the most (which won't affect you if you've got gas probably) was my hot water heater. I believe my flat has a unvented cylinder system, and I had it sent to heat hot water between 12am-7am because that's just what it was when I moved in. It's not set to heat water for only one hour a night and this is more than enough for two long showers a day and washing up etc etc.

Everything other than my router, 1 x smart plug, 3 x WiZ smart bulbs and my wireless phone charger get switched off at the plug before I go to sleep and then i'm out of the house 7am-6pm nearly every weekday so nothing comes back on till i'm home and usually only a few hours.

It really is the little things that make a big difference when the unit rate of electricity is so high as they all add up across a month!

EDIT: Reading this back I can see it could come across as quite patronising, this wasn't my intention and just trying to share some information which has helped me reduce my bills
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Good advice and thanks, will go audit my electricity usage from today ... one more reason for me to go Smart meter i suppose :)
 
One 48 said:
Good advice and thanks, will go audit my electricity usage from today ... one more reason for me to go Smart meter i suppose :)
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i am probably being naive so do not take this as fact. But i have no problem at all with smart meters. logically they make sense to me. Where we have a product whos costs change every hr then it seems sensible to have monitoring equipement which can tell at what time points we are using the energy.

glass half empty means those using a lot in peak times may pay more
glass half full means those using a lot off peak may pay less.

over all that cancels out, BUT most people can change what they use when to a certain degree, so it puts the ball in our court to a point if we use a smart tariff. also even if not.... it just seems fair to me to be billed correctly.

on top of that, whilst it creates jobs so there is that........ i can imagine having to send people out to double check meter readings must cost a lot of money, where as a smart meter does it automatically.

smart meters will become more and more useful as we go forward, once peoples cars can help power our home etc.
 
One 48 said:
How come we have so many Armchair Energy experts here who google to debate their friends statements, Ad_Infinitum, over and and over again.

We all know its a big problem, but surely instead of winning a futile argument that nobody here is ever going to succeed to ... a ground Dog Day thing, cant we stray away from this constant bickering and one up man ship? during this very important UK energy crisis, or is it all about I'm right and he is wrong Ego's here.

Is that the way of it?
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Can't do that here unfortunately.

There are some very highly opinionated people around these days who likely don't have much of a life in the real world if their post count is anything to go by. It's their way or the highway, and anyone who doesn't agree with their view is a troll.

Personally, I think some people have had things too easy in life, but once the SHTF for real, they'll soon be put in their place
 
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