Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

This right here bugs me more than anything else right now. It makes me think that they're hiding something or trying to scam you. Can anyone from other energy companies, particularly Octopus confirm you can see your balance as it stands?
Octopus here, and when my bill is generated I'll see something like -£72.50.
Then they take my direct debit and my account will show £0.00
 
This right here bugs me more than anything else right now. It makes me think that they're hiding something or trying to scam you. Can anyone from other energy companies, particularly Octopus confirm you can see your balance as it stands?
Yes for Octopus. It shows in my app and my account online. It’s the first thing I see when I log in.
 
It honestly makes no sense that they say on the one hand the direct debit is based on my moms estimated annual usage (£677 x 12 = £8124). But then on the same page say the estimated usage is (£330 gas & £2888 electric = £3218). Am I just being incredibly thick because I still don't believe it really :confused:

When did you last take any meter readings? On that bill, there will be calculations which use meter readings and it will tell you if the readings are from the customer (C), estimated (E) or from a meter reader etc. If the readings are estimated, take and submit readings to British Gas.

Based on that bill so far, I'd set the direct to £270/pcm. But I bet it's not accurate and will change if and when you submit meter readings. Make sure you try to take meter readings each month and consider getting a smart meter installed if one isn't already.
 
Hydrogen.
How on earth would we do it?

I'm not sure how our gas infrastructure works. But wouldn't every boiler in an area need to be hydrogen ready for any switch over?

Many boilers are actually already "hydrogen ready":


It seems their initial plan is to introduce ~ 20% hydrogen which almost all current boilers would happily work with
 
Many boilers are actually already "hydrogen ready":


It seems their initial plan is to introduce ~ 20% hydrogen which almost all current boilers would happily work with

But if even one isn't up to spec.. What happens? Hydrogen leak in your house?

Forced to buy a new one?

This is t something where you can even have one boiler out of alignment. I bet ours wouldn't work for example

Edit. articles seem to suggest "nearly" all boilers can cope with 20pc hydrogen
 
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Hydrogen.
How on earth would we do it?

I'm not sure how our gas infrastructure works. But wouldn't every boiler in an area need to be hydrogen ready for any switch over?
The only realistic plan I saw was where hydrogen was mixed into existing gas supply sort of like ethanol is mixed into E5 and E10 petrol.
100% hydrogen pipe is a nightmare engineering project, it just leaks through any material. But when it is mixed with natural gas, maybe 5-10%, it is much less leaky. And could be burned in existing boilers and hobs.
 
Hydrogen.
How on earth would we do it?

I'm not sure how our gas infrastructure works. But wouldn't every boiler in an area need to be hydrogen ready for any switch over?
We just replaced our boiler and came hydrogen ready. Didn’t know until someone asked and I had to check.
 
But if even one isn't up to spec.. What happens? Hydrogen leak in your house?

Forced to buy a new one?

This is t something where you can even have one boiler out of alignment. I bet ours wouldn't work for example

Edit. articles seem to suggest "nearly" all boilers can cope with 20pc hydrogen

Its not going to be a quick switch, eg WB say "There are some behind-the-scenes differences that an engineer will need to tweak to make your boiler hydrogen-blend ready, but you won’t notice any changes in your daily comfort."

So to my mind its going to be like the TV switch but larger and more risky, crossed with a census type door to door effort.
IE they will run ads over and over of the forthcoming switch and that you need to be aware of starting 3 years or so before. Having a central collection point for valid checked and valid switch ready properties.
Over time getting harder and harder on those not getting first and second stage of that ticked off.
Possibly allowing a sign up for many to have it CHECKED for free, but those on benefits maybe to have it altered for free (if possible).
Probably some grants to help switchers towards the end.

Then when actual roll out comes suspect initially a small area easiest to segregate from main supply, maybe something like Isle of White. Do the conversion, take lessons.
The one thing I think they will have to do is a forced disconnect on those that resist all efforts to check and get them to fix. Supposedly this can happen remotely with a SM but would need to be via an engineer for non SM. (probably fit a SM at the time is the simplest and most logical approach.)
Fitted and immediately disconnected in effect. With more direct action for those that this is rendered impossible for. (IE street level disconnection for those that resist all contact, havent got a SM that can be remotely "turned off")

...ish
 
Fairly sure a load of the local infrastructure would also need to be replaced as the hydrogen will react with all the old metal pipes.

That said hydrogen for heating is such another nonsense pipe dream sold by the fossil fuel industry anyway.

We are not even remotely close to decarbonising the existing sources of hydrogen which are used in the production of essential fertilisers etc.

‘Brown’ hydrogen as it’s now coined made from reformed natural gas. That process is horrifically carbon intensive. They take gas, blast it with steam to extract the carbon which is released as CO2 and leaving behind the hydrogen.

The amount of electricity needed just to decarbonise brown hydrogen is already significant. To replace all gas usage with it is unrealistic.

Feeding anything that isn’t ‘green’ zero carbon hydrogen into the gas grid is worse for the environment than just burning gas.

That’s also before you consider the economics of it. Green hydrogen will cost about 6x of electricity. You need at least 3 units of electricity to make one unit of hydrogen. Then you add on the pressurisation, distribution and combustion losses.

Then factor in that you can make 4 units of heat with 1 unit of electricity with a heat pump.
 
Fairly sure a load of the local infrastructure would also need to be replaced as the hydrogen will react with all the old metal pipes.

That said hydrogen for heating is such another nonsense pipe dream sold by the fossil fuel industry anyway.

We are not even remotely close to decarbonising the existing sources of hydrogen which are used in the production of essential fertilisers etc.

‘Brown’ hydrogen as it’s now coined made from reformed natural gas. That process is horrifically carbon intensive. They take gas, blast it with steam to extract the carbon which is released as CO2 and leaving behind the hydrogen.

The amount of electricity needed just to decarbonise brown hydrogen is already significant. To replace all gas usage with it is unrealistic.

Feeding anything that isn’t ‘green’ zero carbon hydrogen into the gas grid is worse for the environment than just burning gas.

That’s also before you consider the economics of it. Green hydrogen will cost about 6x of electricity. You need at least 3 units of electricity to make one unit of hydrogen. Then you add on the pressurisation, distribution and combustion losses.

Then factor in that you can make 4 units of heat with 1 unit of electricity with a heat pump.

Totally agree, IMO its a dead end, but as ever some will see gain from it and try to make it accepted as the best alternative in the publics conscience.

All that cost to check and tweak and adapt and replace would be best diverted to taking the same approach with heat pumps and where eg rights to source heat exchanges etc need updating as a result.
IE right now you can make fairly serious changes to your property without planning and yet god forbid you would want multiple heat exchangers!
 
From a gas engineers perspective.

I don't see hydrogen coming to domestic customers.

The number of things that will need to be upgraded will probably be problematic for most customers. I can see electric boilers/heat pumps becoming the norm for most customers.

From reading all the documentation put out and internal, the hydrogen will be for industrial purposes only.
 
I don't see it either.
Better to improve homes for electrical solutions.
If you don't have a suitable home for electrical solutions it gets colder/bigger bill.
If you don't have a suitable home for hydrogen... No home Left?

Even a handful of issues around safety would scupper the project

As a noob I have no idea how bad things could go if you supplied hydrogen, even at 20pc, to a property not able to handle it.
 
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I don't see it either.
Better to improve homes for electrical solutions.
If you don't have a suitable home for electrical solutions it gets colder/bigger bill.
If you don't have a suitable home for hydrogen... No home Left?

Even a handful of issues around safety would scupper the project

As a noob I have no idea how bad things could go if you supplied hydrogen, even at 20pc, to a property not able to handle it.

Looking at the build quality of some modern houses they might float off into the sky...
 
Well ofgem and nationalgrid or whatever they will be called want 10gw of power per day from hydrogen by 2030..
at current running conditions of the GT thats less than 10% of daily demand during the winter and wouldn't even cover all the usage by the CCGTs.
 
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Hydrogen is a red herring, you can't just start shoving Hydrogen down existing pipes and hope for the best. The gas network infrastructure will need major overhauling to accomodate mixing hydrogen in. Hydrogen can cause a serious safety impact on metal based infrastructure leading to mechanical failure if it is not suitable / designed specifically for the purposes of accomdating Hydrogen transportation.
 
Isn't hydrogen supplied at significantly higher pressures than that of natural gas so pretty much everything would need to change in order to accomodate that.

Dont think so, where hydrogen is used in portable uses it has to be as its not very energy dense compared to eg petrol

I believe its actually the opposite in regards pipes, in that its actually 2-3 times more energy dense than gas so less pressure needed, but domestic gas is actually low pressure anyway, as such i expect the changes needed would be smaller jets, reduced pressure etc in end devices
 
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