To think that very few people can manage £4200 energy bills

[Butterflyfluff]

news.sky.com/story/energy-bills-forecast-to-rise-even-higher-than-previously-thought-12668906

This simply isn’t manageable for the majority of people.

Where’s this going to end?

Whist I agree we can use less, isn’t it almost pointless? The energy companies won’t allow a drop In profit so surely will put their prices up to keep profits stable.

Obviously we will all have to use less, but at some point using less won’t work.

@Anotherusernamethisweek then suppliers wouldn’t be able to pass on the cost of the wholesale energy to consumers. They’d be selling it at a loss. They’d go bust - as over 20 did last year because they’d not hedged properly. Then who would take on the customers of the failed suppliers? Nobody else would, because it would be already making a loss to provide energy to their existing customers, why would they want more customers and an even bigger loss?

What's your annual usage like?

@1dayatatime How does that explain the record profits of, say, the company formerly known as British Gas?

I can’t listen to the news anymore. I heard that this morning and honestly nearly hyperventilated.

We’re in a relatively good financial position, but no, we can’t afford that.

I am on a plan that shouldn’t increase before December 2023, but our bills went up from about £180 usage to £400 usage just before Xmas. We’ve just finished paying off the deficit. Our bills won’t be going down at all as I imagine the provider wants us to build up a surplus.

We had our loft insulation done for free earlier this year because of a grant through our local council. We are homeowners but qualified simply because we have a child under 5. I am very glad we did it now. Always worth people seeing if their council offer something similar. They would have done cavity wall insulation too if it was needed.

Everything has gone up
My food shop is more £60 now than £40
Gas and electric
Petrol

I don't have any more money! My wages haven't increased except for min wage small amount
I physically can't get extra money from my wage because there's nothing to spare

With all these figures flying around I’m finding it hard to know whether to fix

Is double the rate for KW good?

We’ll lower our usage so maybe fixing not so great

@SpindleInTheWinddo you mean Centrica? The producers are making massive profits. The supplier are not. They’re different - I think Centrica is the parent company - not the company that’s supplying peoples homes.

This is interesting on what the government could do to help
www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/07/cost-of-living-crisis-four-things-the-government-could-do-to-help

@ChilliPB but the energy companies are making more profit than ever before, billions of pounds. Why can't the government get involved there?

Because Centrica, who own British Gas, also extract oil and gas and made a profit selling on the international market.

Their residential British Gas wing made a loss. Think about that for a second.

Fixing just fixes your unit rate Marsha. You can benefit from fixing (if you can find a decent rate) and then reduce your usage.

I am so sorry. It makes me cry with fury when i hear abut this. I work in advice and we are unindated with desperate people which is only going to get worse

We cant afford an increase. Literally. There is no money to spare.

Hypothetically what happens if lots of people go into severe debt/debit with the energy supplier?

There are plenty of other places needing and ready to pay for that energy. If we don't want to pay for LNG exports from the US of ME, then Asia and the rest of Europe most certainly will. This happened last winter before the New Year when there was a bidding war between Asian and European nations for what exports were on the market. Some ships got turned around as they passed the Horn of Africa as a new higher bid was put in by someone in the opposite direction to where they were originally sailing.

Germany is adamant to fill its gas storage up to 80% before winter hits. South Korea has just said it wants to hit 90% from 34% presently. Everyone is scrambling for gas in a supremely tight market.

The gov't may have to intervene, but that could also cause a currency crisis if the gov't is just seen to be printing debt without any recourse. The BoE is raising rates to try and make the sterling not tank against everything else, but especially the dollar, which denotes all prices on the market.

anyone stuck on a pre payment meter will be paying a LOT more than that

I just wanted to add this link for anyone who is concerned about not being able to pay their bills. There are circumstances where your energy provider cannot cut you off and they should try to support you. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-supply/if-youve-been-told-your-energy-supply-will-be-disconnected/

Please stay safe and don't bring BBQs indoors or light candles near curtains.

That would be I think around £230 more than our current usage. We've got it, but I'd infinitely rather be spending the money on things that would allow other people to keep their jobs and feed their families.

We’ve been low energy usage for years but there’s not much else we can do to reduce it further without investing in solar panels.
Putin has really tightened the thumbscrews on Europe. I know we were warned that the cost of living/inflation etc would rise after the lockdowns but Putin’s actions have added a huge extra layer of poverty and misery.

We did most of that last winter. As for buying energy efficient appliances, we replaced our fridge freezer last year, we couldn't afford the most energy efficient models - or fit them in our kitchen as we were very restricted on the size we could buy and had very few to choose from.

We have insulation in the cavity walls and loft, but we need to replace the 35+ year old double glazing (aluminium frames, many of the panes are blown and have condensation between the layers of glass) and boiler (that apparently costs £8/month just for the pilot light, but I don't dare turn it off in case it won't turn on again) and can't afford that.

We've cut down on showers, use the immersion as little as possible (DS won't have showers), we halved the amount of heating we used last winter, if we halve it again we might as well not have it on. I spent last winter working in a jacket, fleece lined leggings and with a duvet & a hot water bottle.

Question if anyone knows - is it cheaper to have the boiler on lower for longer or less time on higher? I keep reading the former is cheaper, but the pump on the boiler seems to cost an extortionate amount to run.

Those sanctions worked wonders didnt they? Looks like the only people who were sanctioned were us. Indirectly sanctioned from eating and being warm.

Of course it isn't all about Russia, but energy wholesalers and their shareholders being extremely greedy and lacking in compassion.

In the words of Ricky Wilson, I predict a riot. Which would mean they could conveniently bring in a new system that benefits the 1% even more. I despair.

Spain has kept energy bills lower partly through a windfall tax on energy companies

So Centrica will have to subsidise their loss making domestic arm to avoid killing people off this winter. It's not acceptable to say 'nah, our overall profit is what's important so if people freeze, too bad'