Energy Bills

[coppice cutter]

11 minutes ago, Puffingbilly413 said:

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.

Stop, stop, no more!

[Mark Bolam]

18 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

Was it one of those big thumping 5hp jobs?

 

Not sure tbh, but it was a big old lump.

4 man lift when unbolted from the floor.

Crank handle at the end for when the battery start invariably failed.

That was some job for a youth.

[Mesterh]

17 minutes ago, Mark J said:

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.

 

I'll have a read of those as I've heard talk about nationalisation but wondered how the fook they could do it!

[Puffingbilly413]

11 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

Stop, stop, no more!

There's loads but I won't hurt you any more...

 

Apart from the fact that en route to burgling my washing she will leave the front door open, then the back and disappear without closing them.  And we might not even be in.

[coppice cutter]

15 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

 

Not sure tbh, but it was a big old lump.

4 man lift when unbolted from the floor.

Crank handle at the end for when the battery start invariably failed.

That was some job for a youth.

That sounds like a start-o-matic.

 

The generator acted as a starter to get it going and then flicked over* to generating again when it was up to speed.

 

Ours was grand until the batteries got knackered and we couldn't afford new ones so it was back to swing start.

 

There was a lever beside one of the pushrods to stop the valve closing while you swung like buggery to get it up to speed with no compression, then you swung the lever back, closed the valve, and away it went.

 

I remember starting it for the first time when I was about twelve. My old fella said that if I chickened out when the valve was shut, and not swing it through the compression, it would break my arm so I better be ready for it.

 

It was a tough education!

 

* - when I say "flicked", it was really a loud clonk from the three big contactors in the control box, no electronics.

Edited September 6, 2022 by coppice cutter

[Mark J]

7 minutes ago, Mesterh said:

I'll have a read of those as I've heard talk about nationalisation but wondered how the fook they could do it!

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. 

[Puffingbilly413]

21 minutes ago, Mark J said:

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

---

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

---

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.

 

I think nationalisation in principle for a situatiuon like this is the ideal solutiuon.  However, I don't think we have a system of government, civil service, public service or willing private enterprises that are willing or more importantly capable of implementing it.  We don't have that and I can't see it getting there.

There needs to be a balance between public service and profitability that seems to escape those doing things currently.  For example, I'm all in favour of public transport being free at the point of use (or a notional flat fee / season ticket) and not to be a profit-making exercise - but it must be well managed to avoid being a money pit.  And that is where most nationalised industries have failed in the past (here).

Gorbachev might well be lying in his grave thinking oh shit what did I do.

[Mesterh]

19 minutes 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. 

Having a quick read it says that the majority of Tories are in favour of nationalisation and that labours manifesto back in 2017 estimated the cost at around £56 billion. I presume that that will have increase a fair bit but it still sounds cheaper than £130 billion that Truss might be about to spunk.

 

Anyhow I haven't a clue as to how it all works so I'll just have to pay whatever Big Energy tells me to pay and maybe keep the freezer door closed in the summer. Although I dunno about popping a jumper on to keep warm while watching the Christmas lectures but I might stretch to wearing some undies like.

 

[Mark Bolam]

7 hours ago, coppice cutter said:

That sounds like a start-o-matic.

 

The generator acted as a starter to get it going and then flicked over* to generating again when it was up to speed.

 

Ours was grand until the batteries got knackered and we couldn't afford new ones so it was back to swing start.

 

There was a lever beside one of the pushrods to stop the valve closing while you swung like buggery to get it up to speed with no compression, then you swung the lever back, closed the valve, and away it went.

 

I remember starting it for the first time when I was about twelve. My old fella said that if I chickened out when the valve was shut, and not swing it through the compression, it would break my arm so I better be ready for it.

 

It was a tough education!

 

* - when I say "flicked", it was really a loud clonk from the three big contactors in the control box, no electronics.

 

That’s all sounding horribly familiar!

[Sutton]

13 hours ago, openspaceman said:

... and how subsidies as a means of market intervention are unfair.

Off the top of my head, I could think of North Sea Oil & Gas, aviation fuel for tourism and farming as getting subsidies. Famously the steel industry didn't get anything for the electric costs when it mattered a few years ago. It turns out every sector gets them:

 

/assets/static/govuk-opengraph-image-dade2dad5775023b0568381c4c074b86318194edb36d3d68df721eea7deeac4b.png

View subsidies awarded by UK government - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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Search for UK subsidies awarded since 1 January 2021.