Energy to go up 64% in October

[ToastedWaffle]

And 4% in January.

Fuck sake!
I dont even have an AIBU, this is just fucking ridiculous.

£15k for ground source heating to be added to one house already built, £2k for rain water harvesting & £5k for solar

so builders purchasing and installing as new on mass would be greater buying power and cheaper to install

its approximately 7% of an average house cost

but will reduce bills by way more than 50%, which are rising this year by 54% and again by 64%

so looking at £1500+ yearly savings on energy, and savings on water, especially if a sump was installed

I don't know any of those things. But I do know that simply being alive is becoming too expensive. I take it you're not in a position of financial hardship and therefore not having to "grin and bear it".

Now I work in this field. People struggle to operate a basic thermostat 0-30c. Have you seen how complex the interfaces are on the GSU units?
We don't have either the basic infrastructure eg land etc or the manpower.
It's still very niche at the moment.

The short-term answer is for people to realize having a home the same temp as the Caribbean is not sustainable. Then the government needs to launch a countrywide eco scheme for all citizens and incentivize the upgrade of the UK housing stock.
It's a big project, however gaining traction and making people pay attention, and getting the population to cooperate is another issue altogether.

One thing that isn’t commonly known is that most lenders are now offering eco mortgages. So if you want to borrow money to make eco improvements (windows/solar panels/new boiler) to upgrade the efficiency of your home, you can actually get better rates.

also, If you buy a home that is rated A or B on the epc you can get cash back.

my personal view is that if they really want people to upgrade their homes to improve efficiency (and therefore the environment and also the value of the property), all eco-related home improvements should be subject to 0% financing.

I’ve got another thread where im asking for opinions about solar panels. I’ve been quoted £11.5k upfront to have a solar system installed. Through negotiations I’ve pulled it down to £9.5k but that would still wipe out all my savings completely. But with an interest rate on a loan, it would negate the point of any financial savings from the electricity bill. so I’m seriously struggling to decide what to do.
it’s literally an eco improvement only available to the rich…

It's a big project, however gaining traction and making people pay attention, and getting the population to cooperate is another issue altogether.

the price of fuel will get most peoples attention

Just seen this.

www.itv.com/news/2022-07-20/masses-may-stop-paying-energy-bills-in-poll-tax-moment-martin-lewis-warns

If we all stopped paying on mass, we arent all gonna get cut off. Something is brewing.

It was much costlier and more time consuming to take people to court and convict them for withholding poll tax than it is to shift indebted people onto prepayment meters for energy -especially in those cases when that can be achieved remotely via your smart meter.

I don't think the masses hold the same cards this time around.

I do think we may see civil unrest though, I just
don't think ignoring the energy bill demands will be practical or fruitful.

The energy firms deserve to have people revolting.

British Gas don't take a fucking blind bit of notice of my smart meter.

They've just whacked my DD up to £135pm for gas and £135 for electric starting from next week. My smart meter says that in July to date (so 21 days usage, with one week left to go), my electricity spend has been £50.34. My gas spend has been £11.31.

Yet it won't let me reduce the bills because of it's fucking estimated bullshit. It's basing it on the previous people who lived in this house, using a 50 year old boiler. At the start of the year we replaced the boiler so its brand new and more efficient.

If they base bills on what they are ACTUALLY spending rather than seeing me as a cash cow and essentially helping themselves to my money then they may be better postioned.

Why do I need to be paying so much gas in August? My heating wont be on till late October/November at the earliest, so why should I be building up such huge sums of credit?

@thebellagio what happens when you try to change it? Their website claims you can

It says you cannot change it below their recommended levels.

I'm currently on a live chat with them. Our smart meter had broken at the start of the year so everything was reset to 0 at the start of June. They've just admitted to me that they didn't look at the smart meter usage because "there wasn't enough data" so they literally just picked a figure out of thin air.

I actually want to come off the DD entirely. I'd rather just make a weekly payment based on what I owe according to the smart meter. At least that way they can't rip me off or help themselves to my money which is what they seem to be doing

It's criminal really.

That's awful @thebellagio. You could always cancel your dd and pay for what you use.

Its utterly disgraceful isn't it? I've had no end of problems with British Gas since being forced to have them as a supplier. They are literal thieves. They duplicate their billing dates, they don't pay attention to what you're actually using - they seem to view my account as a way of just taking whatever money they feel like.

I've managed to convince them to manually keep my DD as it is, which is £85pm each, so £160 in total, which according to my smart meter usage is still above what I'm using. Then as winter approaches, I'll just make top up payments as it's needed.

But it's fucking criminal that I have to constantly be on top of it and constantly questioning what they are doing. What about those who aren't as savvy? British Gas are literally stealing from people and making them pay more than they need.

Based on their "suggested" direct debit of £135pm for Gas, based on my actual usage, I would be almost £350 in credit before Winter even starts - that's obscene.

@thebellagio that's pretty shocking.