Energy Bills

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Puffingbilly413 said:

Energy?

Yeah I guess that's true depending on the means of production of that energy eg if it's genuinely renewable  and low emissions etc.

 

But if you're digging up your own peat bogs so you can sit in your eddie grundies and flipflops to watch the telly in January then less so.

I was more thinking along the lines of Solar Panels, Ground Source Heat Pumps, firewood and wind etc. 

 

Although I have a fairly new Oil Boiler (less than 2 years old) we've hardly used it in the last 8 months, I only fire it up these days to keep it running. We use the Kitchen Range to do 90% of our cooking and it heats a new 280 liter dual coil DHW cylinder. We mostly feed it with Scabwood from my wee Sawmill. But also go through a lot of virtually free firewood. Its on basically 24 hours a day and heats a portion of the downstairs area of our farmhouse. The plan this year is to install the 26kw Boiler Stove in the Dining Room with a smallish (300 litres) Thermal Store to run the Central Heating so the house will be permanently at the temp the rest of the family likes. Im hoping the Thermal Store, small as it is will be enough to give us enough hot water to heat the house first thing in the morning til we get the Boiler Stove back up and running, if not then the Oil Boiler will kick in. 

 

I really need to start looking into Solar Power and Ive a friend in Norway who runs a company that can get me panels at cost price. My for electricity is fairly low though. Including the standing charge Im under £120 a month. 

[Mark Bolam]

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.

[devon TWiG]

my gas a leccy combined are just under £100 a month now ,( 3 bed semi ) I use a woodburner mostly for heating and most of my hot water in winter ....a great deal will depend on the weather this winter ...also it makes a big difference where in the country you live as I am sure an old farm house on a hill up north will cost loads more than a  modern flat in Penzance !!

[Puffingbilly413]

31 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

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.

Mark I couldn't agree more.  Was just on the phone to my dad and he was telling me of a local to him small hotel that has seen it's heating bill go up over £100k and is now shutting.  If you have those unavoidable fixed costs what can you do?  Over time, yes maybe you can claw back through increased room rates etc but not overnight - and that's what these energy price rices represent in effect.

Re government intervention - well that is part of any government's remit to intervene when there is a need.  The problem is with such sticking plaster forms of intervention is that they're just trying to alleviate a problem rather than attempting to create a better system in the first place.

That's the challenge for governent - make the system(s) work better in the first place rather than react to crises.

[Mark Bolam]

They can’t though mate.

It will take longer than their term in office so they don’t think long term.

 

It’s a huge problem.

[Puffingbilly413]

9 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

They can’t though mate.

It will take longer than their term in office so they don’t think long term.

 

It’s a huge problem.

That is also true.  We don't have a written constitution in the UK but mayble we should - or introduce one of some sorts to cater for this kind of issue.  Make it a formal legal requirement to have all-party continuity through changes of government or better still, have cabinet posts for opposition party members to give balance. And mechanisms to police it.

This all supposes some kind of maturity of approach on the part of MPs to work in a non-partisan fashion.  Could we do that in this country?  I know Churchill managed it but then was then booted out immediately post war.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Puffingbilly413

[coppice cutter]

1 hour ago, Puffingbilly413 said:

I even have a lovely japanese cast iron tea kettle that sits on the stove but my mrs can't be arsed to wait for it so boils the electric kettle from full each time anyway and then forgets to drink her tea.

 

Oh man, that's a catalogue of events there that would utterly do my head in.

 

There'd be divorce proceedings.

[Puffingbilly413]

12 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

Oh man, that's a catalogue of events there that would utterly do my head in.

 

There'd be divorce proceedings.

She has a weird habit of just clicking on the kettle when she comes into the kitchen and then just does nothing with it.  Mind numbingly irritating.

Her mother comes into our house and takes partially dry washing off the line to take back to her house to tumble dry.  I really don't have any words to describe how annoyed that makes me.

[coppice cutter]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

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

Was it one of those big thumping 5hp jobs?

[Mark J]

40 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

They can’t though mate.

It will take longer than their term in office so they don’t think long term.

 

It’s a huge problem.

I'm not advocating nationalisation of our power supply in order to use those mega profits for good, but it sounds to me like a better plan than what is currently on offer. The numbers in the article suggest that we could do significantly more with the money we're going to 'lend' the power companies. 

 

Energy Nationalisation In The Spotlight As UK Power Prices Soar

WWW.FORBES.COM

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Battered by towering energy costs, the United Kingdom is in an economic crisis. Soon, it will be in a humanitarian crisis too.

 

Liz Truss 'to freeze gas and electricity bills' for households with £130bn loan package - Daily Record

WWW.DAILYRECORD.CO.UK

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The new Prime Minister is set to reveal a plan for the government to set a “price guarantee” for bills as early as Wednesday, after being formally appointed by the Queen today.

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by Mark J