Energy Bills

[Steve Bullman]

10 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

As a lot have said, we can all tighten our belts on energy use.

Trig, RC and Eggs (in another thread) have all mentioned the ‘put another jumper’ thing on, and they’re spot on.

 

Without going too Monty Python, my childhood was in a single glazed farmhouse in Northumberland, ice on the inside of bedroom windows etc.

No mains electricity, we had a shitty 3kV Lister diesel generator.

That packed in for a whole year when I was 14.

 

We survived.

Burnt tons of wood, like. Fucked the planet right up.

Best memories of my life, pretty much.

 

My big worry is the commercials.

Local pub landlord has a leccy bill of £4k/month.

Chillers/freezers/kitchen.

He can’t put another jumper on.

If it goes to £8k he’s bolloxed, no more pub.

 

It is very worrying in that respect.

 

Everyone saying ‘the government should step in’?

Have they really got any power? (No pun intended).

 

If the government tried to tell me how much I was allowed to charge I would give them a pretty short answer.

I’d totally forgotten till my parents mentioned it the other day but now remember it crystal clear. Who else had poor man’s double glazing? By that I mean plastic sheets gagged taped to the inside of the window frame 😂 

[Stephen Blair]

£60 a month DD here, that overpays through the summer and covers winter.  Log burner heats living room and oil does the rest of the house and hot water.  Maybe £500 a year on that.

  Sit in the dark with a jumper on, just pretend it’s the 80’s!  😀

[openspaceman]

35 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

I’d totally forgotten till my parents mentioned it the other day but now remember it crystal clear. Who else had poor man’s double glazing? By that I mean plastic sheets gagged taped to the inside of the window frame 😂 

Yes I had that on a few windows that never got opened, stuck with double sided tape on the frames and tightened with a warm hair dryer.

 

I can't say it had a fraction of the effect of replacing them all with proper double glazing.

[Steve Bullman]

17 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Yes I had that on a few windows that never got opened, stuck with double sided tape on the frames and tightened with a warm hair dryer.

 

I can't say it had a fraction of the effect of replacing them all with proper double glazing.

Windows we’re all wooden back then also. The condensation must have been a killer for rot 

[Bolt]

10 hours ago, Mark J said:

I have no idea, but they can find huge sums of money to fund wars etc., and have parliamentary privilege, so they could just make up their own laws if enough of them went along with it. 

Alternatively, would you have any idea of which of the ‘power supply companies’ could be nationalised to bring down the international wholesale energy price?

 

I have heard this idea banded about recently, but can’t for the life of me see how it could make any meaningful difference.

 

 

[Squaredy]

21 hours ago, Retired Climber said:

I'm quite happy with what we pay to be honest. I think being so free and easy with energy should be priced as a luxury.

I think you are so right - many people think cheap energy is a God given right!

Edited September 7, 2022 by Squaredy

[Squaredy]

17 hours ago, roboted said:

Pensions are fixed income

Of course it is difficult for most pensioners to get extra income by working. 

 

But very few pensions are fixed - they are even sometimes index linked - which means they are one of the very few groups who will get guaranteed pay rises matching inflation.  Not all I know, but certainly the state pensions will match inflation, and most public sector work pensions will as well - ie NHS, local government, education, civil service, etc, etc, etc.

[Puffingbilly413]

21 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Of course it is difficult for most pensioners to get extra income by working. 

 

But very few pensions are fixed - they are even sometimes index linked - which means they are one of the very few groups who will get guaranteed pay rises matching inflation.  Not all I know, but certainly the state pensions will match inflation, and most public sector work pensions will as well - ie NHS, local government, education, civil service, etc, etc, etc.

It's not quite true that they match true inflation. They will go up by whatever measure the government/ scheme administrators choose to use. RPI v CPI etc. Any rise could end up being less than inflation.

 

It's also being banded about that the triple lock might now be done away with as it's deemed unaffordable.

[Puffingbilly413]

33 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I think you are so right - many people think cheap energy is a god given right!

I don't disagree. But there is cheap energy and affordable energy. And then ridiculously priced energy which is what we have now.

 

See Mark B's point re businesses going under because they can't afford their utility bills. These companies aren't consuming energy for the fun of it but because they need to in order to function. They can't simply pass the cost onto the customer as such a rapid price rise would just meant their services won't be bought. Pubs, cafés, restaurants are the obvious ones here.

[GarethM]

A question comes to mind, practically every council house has solar panels especially in my neck of the woods. Does the tenant benefit in any way from these, as I've seen horror stories about they're bills being even worse after they were fitted.