Price Cap - Just announced

[swifttwist]

From £1971 to £3549. 80% rise. I have no words.

New figures:

Electricity
£0.52 per kWh
Daily standing charge: £0.46

Gas:
£0.15 per kWh
Daily standing charge: £0.28

You really gave that one a lot of thought didn't you? Seasonal illnesses and a very probably increase in Covid and/or a new variant.

So yes Gran, come to the parish hall to keep warm and the back of an ambulance when you are ill, the crematorium when things get really tough.

..and yes they would be judged, just as foodbank users are or kids on free school meals.

It certainly seems like it.

Sorry not read the whole thread.

So, I have looked at my last winter bill (actually 5 months worth: Nov - Apr) and calculated the kwh (& standing charge) by the prices in my current tariff (fixed in Jan 21 for 2 years - EDF) and it works out to £48 more a month than my current dd.

This helped me to see what to expect come winter. I'm unsure if I'm in credit or debt (I suspect debt as I was in April) as it stands but without factoring that in it means I need to slightly cut down my usage in winter (or possibly not, with the £66/mth gov help). If I'm in debt then I will have to pay some of that off obviously.

If you're worried about winter I would recommend doing the above to try to get a clearer picture. Also if EDF try to put my dd up by more than I have worked out the bills then I can happily say no!

@Alexandra2001
So yes Gran, come to the parish hall to keep warm and the back of an ambulance when you are ill, the crematorium when things get really tough.

Old people have congregated in church halls for years. It’s a social thing and prior to covid old folk didn’t all drop from flu as a result of mixing.

There's lots of talk of doing this and I don't think it the worst idea out there, especially for hot weather as few hours in air condition is enough to reduce health issues, but it is at best a partial solution.

It won't help house bound disabled/elderly people - plus travel you can get over hot or wet and cold traveling to such locations and may cost - and rural population may not have any such places.

Plus a lot of traditional places like this community centers and libraries have had funding slashed and and open less or aren't there any more. Plus they are already worried about funding their own heating bills - there was on Radio 4 an school academy group leader saying they were struggling to see how they could pay the predicted energy costs - though they were still trying to work out how to offer warm spaces after hours to their families as well.

Plus communal places with covid and flu at peaks times may run risk of getting closed not being popular with vulnerable populations like the elderly.

It would be better to do something about energy prices - not least so currently viable bussies don't go to the wall raising unemployment and reducing tax revenue. So you don't get vulnerable people trying to do without heating as they can't get to a heating center or center has to close at some point leaving them cold again so end up in hospital or needing extra medication ( happened to me with asthma) adding to NHS burden. You also don't want people turning to open flames for heating and lighting because that will lead to fires adding to work load of other services like fire brigade and ambulances.

It's fucking insulting.

People are bloody scared to put their ovens on, and will be scared to put the sodding heating on come the autumn.

I really fear for some of my clients, all of whom are on low incomes, and many of whom are in poorly insulated privately rented properties.

@incognitopurple

be wary! There was a whole thread about it the other day. It REALLY does depend on your personal circumstances.

how much YOUR oven uses in say an hour
how much you can cook in that time
what the wattage is if the Air Fryer & comparatively what you could cook.

I'm on the fence. I have an old oven, which put about as much heat into the room as it does inside the oven! So it's very inefficient BUT It heats the house nicely (so no heating required) It's OLD so I don't actually know what kwh it runs at, but the smart meter has a hernia when it's on and I think it's about 75p per hour. So at most I can save 75p per hour, but in winter, I need to factor in the heating cost (to get to the same point) plus I really hate clutter & gadgets!!!

everyone's situation will be different.

Bedroom tax was designed to get people in overbig properties to downsize. Pensioners are exempt. Pensioners also get extra heating allowances to allow them to remain in oversize properties.

LHA means people in private rented have to have the right number of rooms (Shared only rate until they're 35)

So what's society going to do? Keep paying to keep older people in big houses they can't afford to heat?

Without building properly insulated, energy efficient housing for older people to move into, then it's pointless just bitching about them clinging on to their social housing.

Should we ensure every new build (Whether social or not) meets very high insulation levels, and is a net contributor to the grid?

London has already had to say no to more houses in some areas.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/grid-has-no-power-for-new-homes-in-west-london-until-2035-qnrn065cb#:~:text=Developers%20may%20be%20prevented%20from,capacity%20to%20power%20new%20homes.

I agree. This 'average' annual use is just meaningless.

Thanks ours seems high on the estimate

If this was happening in France, they'd be out in their hi-vis jackets setting fire to piles of old tyres and ripping up the cobbles.

Iirc, the French revolution started with riots over the price of bread. We should start taking a leaf out of their book, imo, although maybe not go as far as chopping off their heads.

@Goggin

HAVE you submitted readings? Can you prove it?

how does your reading compare to the estimate?

They charge you for the units you use, if you read your meter to supply them a reading, and they charge you for the correct number if units, how exactly do you think they're trying to con you?

if you cancel your DD you may find yourself paying more for each unit of electricity as being in DD usually means you're in a better rate.

you can submit readings & pay for what you use each month with most companies.

aset DD amount monthly just helps people budget and it gets sorted at the end if a billing period.

Yes I think so and building storage again

With the current cap being extremely accurate from the predictions, does everyone think the predicted January and April cap rises will be also as accurate as that’s more scary?

As of yesterday they were predicting

Forecasting January 2023 will be
Electricity 70.42 p/kwh
Gas 19.48 p/kwh

and then April 2023
Electricity 75.7p/kwh
Gas 23.96 p/kwh

Yes social NOT to stop themselves from freezing plus they did indeed catch flu and die.
Number of Church halls has fallen sharply in recent years and where do councils etc get the money to heat halls? their energy isn't capped.

BUT Covid changes all that, even vaccinated, CV can make an elderly person extremely ill & its more contagious than flu'

No my tariff is higher than quoted ten days ago

My dad is retired but thankfully well and no existing conditions
He plans to use Wetherspoons - unlimited coffee, warm, free WiFi. He takes his tablet and headphones and watches Netflix and meets up with friends

I actually like Martin Lewis as it goes, my comment was just that he’s on shaky ground as a ‘peoples champion’ now. A little like Rishi Sunak trying to convince us he understands the plight of the average person in the UK.

Yeah, our energy bills are manageable now. But we actually paid 50-60% more than we pay now in our previous homes - 4 bed house and 3 bed house. We now have a 3 bed cottage. It's quite small and well insulated and has a new-ish heating system (radiators and boiler less than 10 years old.) Our old homes had heating systems and boilers that were 30+ years old, and they had very little insulation. The one house was a 4 bed ex council house built in the 1940s, and the energy bills were around 65% more than what we pay now, and this was 10 years ago. Huge house but a nightmare to heat.

As I said though, our DD moved out within several months of us moving into this cottage (to go to uni) and never came back, and she was only here May June July and August. (Summer months!) So the figures are a bit skewed because of that.

If she had remained at home we would very likely have higher bills, coz when she came home from uni, the electric shot up by about 15-20% as she had her laptop, tablet, mobile phone, playstation, hair straighteners, electric toothbrush, lamp, fairy lights, ipod, and all sorts, using up extra electric. (And she always seemed to having SOMEthing on charge!!!) Me and DH are far more frugal than she ever was. (Though she is a bit more frugal now that she has her own home with her fiancé, and pays her own bills!!!)

@54isanopendoor

im very sorry you're in this position, it's going to be shit for so many! As DD is at school today, can I assume you're in Scotland? Not exactly known for its warm winters!

I think you did the right thing reassuring her, even if you're not that sure yourself!!

the cold ER, is 🥲.

this is just a TINY suggestion, but would she be both able & interested in you making (knitting or crocheting a blanket together? Would she enjoy sharing that project with you? It doesn't need to be expensive 'wool' to be warm. Stylecraft DK isn't expensive but it is warm and great for blankets as it's washable.

just a wee thought

To be fair, the predictions only meet the reality with any real accuracy as the time approaches. Back in April, Cornwall Insight was predicting a mere 20% increase for the October figures.

I don't think it's fair to compare him to rishi. His entire career has been focused on getting people the best deal. If he's made millions of that, bloody good for him. He's also donated a lot of that money to charity.

He doesn't need to be in the public eye shouting about this, and yet he is. Rishi in comparison doesn't seem to give a shit.

While "If she had remained at home we would very likely have higher bills, coz when she came home from uni, the electric shot up by about 15-20% as she had her laptop, tablet, mobile phone, playstation, hair straighteners, electric toothbrush, lamp, fairy lights, ipod, and all sorts, using up extra electric."

this is why I think business will put huge pressure on govt to do something about electric at least. Their business models fall down if people can't afford to run stuff.

also, hospitality will close due to heating bills, they are already campaigning I think?

I have just taken the plunge and bought heating oil, at double what it was a year ago. It is going to have to last.
By the tank gets low I suspect the price will have doubled again .

That sounds very wrong to me @NC4TPost.

I live alone, my heating, hot water and cooking are all gas, and I don't use a tumble drier. My electricity consumption is less than 1300kWh a year. And I work from home, so have lights on in at least one room for most of the winter.

The noise you hear when you run hot water could be the gas boiler starting up, or it could just be the cold tank putting cold water into the hot tank to replace what you're using, it's hard to say.

Are you in social housing? If so, it would be worth asking your housing officer to explain it to you, or support worker if you have one. The switch being all taped up sounds decidedly unsatisfactory.