Energy Suppliers

[Buckster]

What happens if super cold winter and therefore everyone uses tonnes of gas and electricity and are still on lower prices than wholesale price to companies ?

Could maybe require full nationalisation ? Or have the big companies bought enough in advance ?

 

[Troop]

We have a boiler with hot water tank on an Economy 7 tariff (14.6p per kWh). Would it be more efficient to heat our water overnight using the immersion heater, or stick with gas at 4p per kwh?

All on how you have it set up, electric emersion heater full tank of hot water per day, under 10P on econ7 rate "go tariff". that's £35 a year for a full emersion tank of hot water daily....dirt cheap.
We have ours timed to come on for an hour only(3-4AM), it takes 40min to heat up before the thermostat shuts it off.

 

[413x]

What happens if super cold winter and therefore everyone uses tonnes of gas and electricity and are still on lower prices than wholesale price to companies ?

Could maybe require full nationalisation ? Or have the big companies bought enough in advance ?

Someone has to pay. Even nationalised. And that means tax increases or pay for what you use. No alternative

 

[Skillmister]

Not looking forward to this winter in my terribly inefficient house working from home full time. Last winter was bad enough.

Going to have to do some tests on heating my office (tiny box room) with an electric heater vs the office with central heating (manually turn off other TRVs during the day) vs the whole house with central heating all day.

Only got an electric smart meter, couldn't get a gas one installed as the electric is an old type which won't communicate with the new type according to the installer who came round and they don't install 2 different ones. So manual gas meter readings for tests it is

 

[b0rn2sk8]

What’s your commute like? Heating your house is likely cheaper than going to the office for most.

Don’t forget you can get tax back if you are required (not choose to) to work from home. I think it’s the tax on £6/week as a flat rate.

 

[413x]

What’s your commute like? Heating your house is likely cheaper than going to the office for most.

Don’t forget you can get tax back if you are required (not choose to) to work from home. I think it’s the tax on £6/week as a flat rate.

Yeah for us definitely.
It helps we both work at home.
We both work about 30 miles away so savings are a no brainer. If you walk to the office that's different. But any sort of milage in car it's gonna be worth working from home.
Also dropped to one car


Tado is working much better now. Turned off a few of the dumb smart features like early start. It's cut the heating time considerably. Boiler isn't actually on many hours of the day now. (it isn't that cold yet though)

 

[dlockers]

Don’t forget you can get tax back if you are required (not choose to) to work from home. I think it’s the tax on £6/week as a flat rate.

HMRC will give you this year and last 'for free'. I.e. full credit for the full 24months no need to faff around proving you 'had' to work from home.

 

[Skillmister]

What’s your commute like? Heating your house is likely cheaper than going to the office for most.

Don’t forget you can get tax back if you are required (not choose to) to work from home. I think it’s the tax on £6/week as a flat rate.

Comute would be about 2 hours each way to nearest office it's a work from home job. I was WFH pre COVID so the comparison isn't to commute costs, it's to previous winter costs

 

[the shadow]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58840537

 

[chrcoluk]

Ok now I am a little concerned with the ofgem statement. Boris wants to be everyone's best friend though and we have another 10 weeks before the next review for a chance of wholesale prices to drop more, so hopefully it wont be that bad.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58840537

EU govt's are basically subsidising the cost of gas to its citizens wouldn't be surprised if Boris does the same he/they won't like like the bad publicity it's not a vote winner borrow now (we) pay later

Had my prices in from Shell

Gas 4.04p and 26.11p SC
Elec 20.14 and 24.38 SC

About 30% more that i was paying with Green. Still it's better than a lot of tariffs around at the moment i guess.

Seems Utility Warehouse might be £5 a month cheaper but not sure that's worth the hassle incase they go bust again!

Ah right my mother got the email from Shell as well she can't get her head around reading the meter she was already £500 in credit with Green I can't get there to read it

Anyone got an email from Eon yet for ex-Igloo customers?
Nevermind found it in the junk mail folder

 

[PiKe]

Just wow.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...nprofitable-customers-without-express-consent

 

[413x]

Ok now I am a little concerned with the ofgem statement. Boris wants to be everyone's best friend though and we have another 10 weeks before the next review for a chance of wholesale prices to drop more, so hopefully it wont be that bad.

Without intervention it'll be 100s more. Wait and see I guess

Even if wholesale gas prices were to drop significantly from now, the extra costs that suppliers have had to shoulder in the last couple of months means a steep rise in household bills in April is inevitable.

 

[GinG]

So I came across a 'green' mortgage that nationwide are offering customers. 0.75% APR as long as you use 50% of the money for making your house more 'green'.

What are people's thoughts on the tarriffs such as Octopus Go...are they here to stay? As in the off peak price staying fairly low or is this all likely to rise?

Reason I ask is I'm looking into solar plus battery, thoughts are to stay on Go and not really export any electric but to store the excess and top up the batteries if needed overnight.

Obviously if these tarriffs will likely end it somewhat skews the calculations.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Someone has to pay. Even nationalised. And that means tax increases or pay for what you use. No alternative

I can remember from before it was privatised. You only paid for what you used no emptying your bank account on what they think you might use. Also someone used to come and read the meter for you.

Someone remind me why that was the bad old days?

 

[MissChief]

Just wow.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...nprofitable-customers-without-express-consent

OFGEM will likely fine them into insolvency anyway if this is true.

 

[robj20]

Whats annoying is that we could be building tons of solar parks to handle the electricity we need.

But ofgem is so inept it makes it ridiculously difficult to do so. Not to mention the people who own the grid... the connections cost millions, to then have the connection handed over to the large companies in control to only be rented back to the person who paid for the connection in the first place.

It's mental, handing millions of £ connections to foreign companies for free.. no wonder not many people are wanting to gamble on building solar parks.

I know a guy who could get 500Megawatt of solar built within a year, but can't due to the moronic limitations put in front of them.

Have one near my house, had no idea they were so expensive.

 

[Diagro]

Have one near my house, had no idea they were so expensive.

Might cost around 5-10mill for a standard size park.
To build.

To buy.. multiply that by 2.

 

[robj20]

Might cost around 5-10mill for a standard size park.
To build.

To buy.. multiply that by 2.

Here. Looks a fair few panels.

Dropped pin
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QyvRLwCNrvapcwA36

 

[b0rn2sk8]

The issue with solar is that it produces energy when we don’t really need it. Peek demand is first thing in the morning and in the evening when solar isn’t generating. It’s really expensive to fire up fossil plants for a few hours but it’s also expensive to build storage to shift the solar into later hours. There is no perfect solution really.