Energy prices, what's your plan?

Well it's weird because I logged into my Eon Next account two days ago to provide an actual reading. I am too anxious to have their smart meter, and I have seen what it has done to my mother. Literally made her a walking bag of nerves. Given I am cut from the same cloth yeah, they can bugger off.

Any way.



Seems awfully low to me. Especially when I saw other "quotes" given to me at over 45p KWH.

I *think* I may be on a discounted plan because of where I live/my conditions, though. I've obviously blacked that bit out.

I know it's gone up, because I was paying £50 a month (I am only there half of the time) and I have noticed it eating at my credit, so I doubled my payment recently which seems to have balanced it out. I would imagine the standing charges go up for every one, yet my KWH are low? god knows. This stuff just confuses the bloody crap out of me.

 

It was due to go up about 80% on that rate as of October 1st

 

You could ignore what smart meter reads and live normally. It's currently only a monitoring tool. But it will be more important as we are more reliant on renewables, hence why they are being pushed.

28.45p/kWh is the current standard variable tariff (aka price cap) since March/April earlier this year.

45p/kWh quotes are due to prediction that it will go up by a lot. They will likely to be cut when energy companies work out the actual /kWh price we'll be paying.

 

Dude seriously try explaining that to her. She drives me up the bloody wall with it !

 

The unit rates we’ve all been waiting for:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022#:~:text=The average unit price for,on time for 1 October.
“The average unit price for dual fuel customers paying by direct debit will be limited to 34.0p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas, inclusive of VAT, from 1 October.”


Standing charge to remain what was going to be for October.

 

Thanks man. I appreciate that !

 

£270 a year now before you use any energy, about £22.50 a month.

Ooof.

 

Yikes!

 

After several years of shouting it at my mother it is finally entering her brain that they charge her something mad every morning before she even turns the kettle on.

She's such a technophobe ffs.

 

My parents house, they used to pay less than £100 per month for gas/electricity but last few months from June each month thereafter has been £321.70. A grand every three months! I think there must have been a fixed deal however since that finished it's gotten rediculous. They're with British Gas, they were with another company previously however they went bust and British Gas took over.

 

Firewood this fall and winter and Lots of it.

 

Yeah we stocked up a while back, lucky enough to have a wood burner.

Came in handy when we lost power for a couple of days during the storms. Can boil water for tea, make soup or whatever

Get the feeling there'll be times we may have to do the same this winter.

Reminds me, must get a few more candles in.

 

We get the warm home discount, so Bulb just told me today we qualify for https://help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360036940992-The-Energy-Company-Obligation-ECO-scheme - looks like all suppliers do this. Might be worth if you are cat d or lower to apply and see what help you can get, specifically @Vault-Tec you or your mother I am thinking here.

I'm thinking about contacting my landlord to see if we can get the boiler replaced for heat pump on the scheme, and gas hob changed to induction. Only dealing with one standing charge will help us out tons.

 

Induction hobs are amazing. However you need to be very realistic about heat pumps - they really only work if the house has a good level of insulation and air tightness already and if you can use large radiators (or underfloor) to dissipate "low grade" heat. Think warm to the touch rather than hot to the touch. Also factor in that whilst heat pump efficiency can be ~300% (magic I know) in terms of electric to heat conversion, electric is normally more than 3 times more expensive than gas so will still cost you more to run (even without standing charge for gas). Heat pumps are the future of decarbonising home heating but there is more to it than a simple direct replacement of gas boilers.

 

With the exception of a smaller one we already have large radiators and one room has two of them unnecessarily, so hopefully it wouldn't be much of a step up for us.

 

If you can set boiler central heating flow temperature, it's worth setting it down to below 50c. If you can survive the winter without rising it above 50c, your house is pretty much ready for heat pump. Though cost saving is still not guaranteed, need a detailed heat loss calculation.

 

Seriously though, spending £5-10k on say external insulation would be a better use of money vs a heat pump. My current plan (fooking expensive one) is to externally insulate our bungalow (now we've done nearly all the floors and roofs) and only then consider swapping the gas boiler for an air source heat pump. This is probably 5 years out so I hope that prices will have come down by then.

 

We did that last year, it was fine but we've not really had a properly cold winter for a while, maybe we won't with global warming....every cloud eh

 

I'll be trying it this year, currently set to 45c, wish me luck

 

Thanks matey. Yes, I get that thankfully. Really helps.

I don't use my heating, amazingly. In nearly four years I have only ever had it on for about two hours. What I do use all winter is the tumble dryer. I have nowhere outside to hang clothes, and because it's a condenser (and pumps all of the heat out of the front) it easily performs two jobs. Drying my clothes all winter, and heating the main room I spend all day in.

I like a freezing bedroom so it works well