This is getting ridiculous (energy prices - Strictly NO referrals!)

[jpaul]

Smart meters were sold as a way to give consumers more control over their usage and bills

ah the dream, like brexit ?, recipients have just saved a few minutes a month submitting readings, they're ability to control and see appliance consumption pretty limited with an IHD
with the few time of use tarifs, much like the question of payment in arrears, you will only know a day in advance how much cooking next days dinner, or heating will cost - taking back control.

whether National grid is yet benefiting from granular smart meter data, to help in load planning and energy transmission. ?

 

[Gypo]

PC has been on 12 hours a day in April, bill is only £30 more than March which is far less than I expected.

 

[d_brennen]

PC has been on 12 hours a day in April, bill is only £30 more than March which is far less than I expected.

Shame you aren't cooking, heating your house and cleaning your clothes with your PC

 

[TheVoice]

The size is entirely determined by bitrate and time, it's not further increasing the size as you said. 4K is exactly 4 times the resolution of 1080p, however the bitrate isn't typically increased by 4 times as they tend to use newer more efficient codecs on 4K content. Storage and bandwidth costs to deliver it are increased but per person we're talking a few pennies not pounds.

Plus a huge part of Netflix's catalogue isn't UHD anyway, especially the stuff that isn't "Netflix Original". I dropped back to the HD package the other week and despite losing UHD and HDR, I can't honestly say there's a massive difference in image quality on what I've watched so far. Certainly not enough to compel me to pay an extra fiver again any time soon.

 

[chrcoluk]

Sorry if already mentioned, Ofgem has finally caught on to the inflated DD's been set, and a minister has threatened fines if the practice isnt stopped.

Still a shame Ofgem is refusing to promote variable DD's.

 

[Energize]

Washing machine down from 8 washes to 5 a week / reusing bath towels a few times etc.

Who uses towels only once before washing?

 

[V F]

When I hear people do washing machine washes 8 times a week I understand why people are in trouble.
I think we do 2-3 at most?

I assume a lot of tumbles result from so many washes too?

Sunday washes, yeah?

I have to tumble dry. Too many birds crapping outside near the washing line for it. More so Starlings.

 

[413x]

Sunday washes, yeah?

I have to tumble dry. Too many birds crapping outside near the washing line for it. More so Starlings.

Birds are great until they poo on your washing

 

[purplesky]

I bet the cost of electricty will never return to previous levels, it will remain this high or at the very least only retract a minor amount.

It certainly won't be returning to previous levels. It will however keep going up.

Unfortunately most people are going to be affected by this. The golden days are well over. We left the 90's in a pretty ok shape, although by 1997, culture, behaviours, and attitude started to change, and not for the best. We knew where things were headed longer term though come the start of the century. September 11th 2001 sealed our fate here in the western world. The next few years will see less freedoms, less choice, more government dependence, and a heavy levelling up regime that will seek to displace western ideologies and enforce a more communist regime. Levelling up really means the rich getting back the 1% of the wealth they lost due to the pandemic, which means everyone else losing everything.

 

[moon man]

well my £150 ct rebate landed today ,pretty much neutralises my electric rise until the winter ,just have to see how heating oil prices go ,plenty in the tank pretty much done with CH apart from a maintenance run and maybe the odd cold morning

 

[V F]

Birds are great until they poo on your washing

...and it's usually always polyester or a nice white towel.

 

[chrcoluk]

Really regretting not going for the British Gas Exclusive Fix May 2023 they offered me back in early December now.

Stupid Russia.

Pretty poor advice from MSE....:

British Gas customers should DO NOTHING and ignore messages to one click switch that could cost them £100s a year more

British Gas customers should ignore emails they have received from the UK's biggest energy supplier encouraging them to switch to fixed-price deals as it could make them £100s a year worse off.

www.moneysavingexpert.com

To be fair the vast majority of fixed deals I have seen posted are horrible, including ones offered to myself.

A few do seem to get good offers, but this seems to require very specific timing. So I agree with the MSE advice. But with the note that there will be exceptions.

e.g. if I signed up with Octopus fixed back in mid sept 2021 I would be laughing now, but everything offered to me since Oct 2021 has been a joke.

 

[chrcoluk]

I think people are going to be surprised how well the conservatives do on Thursday. Boris has been chest beating about Russia in Ukraine to try and distract from his frankly criminal running of the country over the past few years. Plenty will love that hes "sticking it to Russia" and that we have a strong leader unlike those weak European leaders. Boris is teflon and the fact he is still in power speaks volumes. The rich will continue to get richer and the poor will keep suffering until hes gone.

While other countries are protecting their people from these energy prices, ours is protecting companies profits. Its astounding that we put up with this.

We have put up with it for decades if not centuries. Its the British way.

Note as well historically we have been dominated by right wing governments, and I honestly think we are a greedy uncaring country reflected by election results.

We are a banking, shareholder, land owner, landlord country first and foremost. Never forget that.

 

[chrcoluk]

Damn the price of natural gas is still going up. Unbelievable.

What app is that?

 

[413x]

What app is that?

Trading 212

 

[kona786]

British Gas are rubbish, I can't make any sense of my account with them. None of my bills are available to view, they don't offer a simple option to just pay for the energy you've used via DD (I don't care about fixed payments or "peace of mind"), and despite my current monthly DD amount exceeding my current monthly energy cost and my account apparently being in credit somehow, they're desperate to triple the DD amount anyway.

Unfortunately it seems like changing providers is largely impossible unless you're going onto an even more expensive fixed rate tariff.

I'm with BG and pay BY DD. Only for the amount I use.

 

[kinetic747]

Heating use this time last year was 94 hours in March and 59 hours in April. This year 34 in March and 15 in April, information from Netatmo. We've made a conscious effort to leave the heating off if possible, but I've no idea what the weather was like this time last year.

 

[the shadow]

BG ignored my refund so i asked for more back and variable/whole amount direct debit on it's way

 

[ci_newman]

I'm with BG and pay BY DD. Only for the amount I use.

BG ignored my refund so i asked for more back and variable/whole amount direct debit on it's way

Likewise I'm now on "Monthly variable direct debit" with British Gas. Gas bill this month was £10 including standing charges I'm well aware that the monthly bill will go up in Winter but that's now under my control and not British Gas.

 

[DXP55]

As I said in earlier post my fixed with E.on is finishing at end of June so we have been working on cutting our leccy usage - I pay £62 a month and I was just about using that - some months in credit by a few quid -I have just recieved this weeks cost for reading the meter (do it every Monday) and looks like I am about £37 in credit.
I just hope my 62 quid doesn't double.