keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Aug 16, 2022 9:54:06 GMT
Just read this www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/households-massively-underestimating-how-much-energy-bills-will-rise-with-some-thinking-they-will-fall/ar-AA10HpIw?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3cdaa9d8d4d64c3ca3807eebd9957cb1What planet are the 1/8 (12%) of people that think energy bills will fall this winter living on More scary is only 1 in 13 think energy will go up by > £1,500 ( Which is the expert prediction ) and don't get me started on Labours idea not to permit a rise in the cap,  the cap only applies to people on standard variable tariff ie the one you fall onto by default at the end of contract. I renewed recently and my Cost will be up 70% compared to last year, But the comment that no-one will pay a penny more this year than last is patently nonsense. If the cap is say 40P for electric and 10p for gas then if you were on a 2 year fix say 10p and 3P that expires in October onwards your bills will go up massively. This also explains some of the moans about massive increases in direct debits ( Not all I would add but ... ) You were paying 10P for electric and 3P for gas, you drop onto the capped SVT at 30P and 10P of course your direct debit will treble,of course it gets worse if you are in arrears. |
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mrk
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Post by mrk on Aug 16, 2022 15:46:19 GMT
and don't get me started on Labours idea not to permit a rise in the cap, Even the Guardian slammed that proposal
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Post by crabbyoldgit on Aug 16, 2022 19:16:20 GMT
I thought the 6 monthly payments of £67 ish would be added to your energy payments directly and held by the energy company. No chance to misplace the extra money to other things, which i fully supported. But no my energy company informs me some days after my direct debit is recieved a credit of £67 will appear in my bank account. So its off to the pub, well it will be for some of my more interesting relations.
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corto
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one-syllabistic
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Post by corto on Aug 16, 2022 23:03:14 GMT
Interesting observation today:
I hadn't reported readings to bulb for 4 months in a row.
Checking today, their electricity estimates look basically ok, but not gas.
In previous years they quite significantly and consistently overestimated every month I did not report a reading.
However, the last three month they "estimated" that I used just a single unit per month - massive underestimate.
Even linear interpolation from the data they have would have been quite close to the actual usage ..
I wonder what game that is - could be they want to charge higher prices for anything not reported before the next price hike.
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corto
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Post by corto on Aug 16, 2022 23:09:44 GMT
Here's another silly thing: I have no gas supply, and my electricity is supposedly "100% renewables". Does that mean I'm less exposed to price hikes due to gas shortages? Of course not, because all the electricity comes from the same grid. What's the point of having competition then? Same situation. There are alternatives, eg Ripple, where you buy more directly / part-own a wind farm, eg rippleenergy.com/When I looked into that it seemed preliminary and potentially risky. There were/are also only few reviews available about the approach from customers.
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Aug 17, 2022 10:19:29 GMT
Ripple actually asked investors in the second farm ( Kirk Hill ) to rate them on trust pilot
I'd have had to say "Seems Ok, happy to take my money and plans in place for turbine to be erected but 18 months away from any form of return"
If anyone is interested in investing I can give a referral code and I will give 1/2 of anything I get to charity, At the 7p prediction I will get a return of 1/10 of my investment per year
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Post by crabbyoldgit on Aug 22, 2022 20:28:44 GMT
I would get a battery, but last time I looked into it, I found out they didn't last very long before wearing out, so I didn't persue it. I would be interested to hear what the latest thinking is on batteries for solar. I also recommend Aldis heated throw👍 I'm also wondering if a battery system is feasible. My panels produce very little excess power in winter and my electric bill for Mar-Oct is c.500 units. I could save all those units with batteries but the system cost doesn't justify it. If the unit price hits £1, I would reconsider. What does make sense is an Immersion heater diverter. My Solic 200 has repaid itself several times over. Any time soon £1 per kw/hr and a rebate for not using electricity in early evening , that will soon be a penalty rate with enforced time of day metering. Which of course all that smart metering was only every for. Thinking of pulling out of peer to peer and buying a solar battery.
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Aug 23, 2022 11:09:25 GMT
the best time to get a battery was last year the cost has almost doubled this year.
I'm very lucky I got onto GO with Octopus before they demanded proof you had an EV. If You renew you can just rollover, my rollover is it 7.5P 0:30 to 4:30 and 40.04 the rest of the time
in a winter I charge the battery and also run washing machine, dishwasher etc in the cheap bit
But as I've posted elsewhere I'm lucky my average usage is only about 6kWh a day so I can often avoid using much full price electricity.
If the idea of paying you not to use electric between 4&7PM comes in I will charge the battery before then and run from it.
My battery cost approximately £2,000
If I charge from mains for 5 Months ( 150 days )
Then I can save £ as follows
Assuming I lose 10% in conversion loses in and out to battery ( It's less but makes maths easier )
I store 5.5kWh this costs me 8.25p per unit 46P
I don't use 5kWh from mains this saves me 42p per unit 210p
total saving £1.64 per day multiply by 150 £247.5 over the winter it pays for itself in 8 winters, if I take the summer savings into account < 4 years at current rates
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mogish
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Post by mogish on Aug 23, 2022 15:26:53 GMT
I'm also wondering if a battery system is feasible. My panels produce very little excess power in winter and my electric bill for Mar-Oct is c.500 units. I could save all those units with batteries but the system cost doesn't justify it. If the unit price hits £1, I would reconsider. What does make sense is an Immersion heater diverter. My Solic 200 has repaid itself several times over. Any time soon £1 per kw/hr and a rebate for not using electricity in early evening , that will soon be a penalty rate with enforced time of day metering. Which of course all that smart metering was only every for. Thinking of pulling out of peer to peer and buying a solar battery. It's on my negotiations list with solar farm developers or if I need to go it alone. Self sufficiency is the future if we are to avoid being robbed by energy companies. Prob only suits rural properties. Let's see what insurance companies add to clauses for storing battery arrays under your floor in future.
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Aug 24, 2022 12:05:25 GMT
I thought the 6 monthly payments of £67 ish would be added to your energy payments directly and held by the energy company. No chance to misplace the extra money to other things, which i fully supported. But no my energy company informs me some days after my direct debit is received a credit of £67 will appear in my bank account. So its off to the pub, well it will be for some of my more interesting relations. In reality this won't matter to the likes of you and I but as you say some will spend it down the pub, in the bookies etc, I think it should be a credit against the bill. as I've posted before one of my friends has moaned that it's not a £400 single payment as he was intent on withdrawing it to pay for Christmas.
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mrk
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Post by mrk on Aug 25, 2022 9:38:30 GMT
I thought the 6 monthly payments of £67 ish would be added to your energy payments directly and held by the energy company. No chance to misplace the extra money to other things, which i fully supported. But no my energy company informs me some days after my direct debit is received a credit of £67 will appear in my bank account. So its off to the pub, well it will be for some of my more interesting relations. In reality this won't matter to the likes of you and I but as you say some will spend it down the pub, in the bookies etc, I think it should be a credit against the bill. as I've posted before one of my friends has moaned that it's not a £400 single payment as he was intent on withdrawing it to pay for Christmas. From Which?:
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Aug 25, 2022 16:08:20 GMT
In reality this won't matter to the likes of you and I but as you say some will spend it down the pub, in the bookies etc, I think it should be a credit against the bill. as I've posted before one of my friends has moaned that it's not a £400 single payment as he was intent on withdrawing it to pay for Christmas. From Which?: from the official guidance Direct Debit customers will receive the Energy Bill discount automatically as a deduction to the monthly Direct Debit amount collected, or as a refund to the customer’s bank account following Direct Debit collection during each month of delivery standard credit customers and payment card customers will see the Energy Bill discount automatically applied as a credit to standard credit customers’ accounts in the first week of each month of EBSS delivery, with the credit appearing as it would if the customer had made a payment smart prepayment meter customers will see the Energy Bill discount credited directly to their smart prepayment meters in the first week of each month of delivery traditional prepayment meter customers will be provided with redeemable EBSS Energy Bill discount vouchers or Special Action Messages (SAMs) from the first week of each month, issued via SMS text, email or post. Customers will need to redeem these at their usual top-up point
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Post by bernythedolt on Aug 27, 2022 0:19:46 GMT
Given today's announcement of the October price cap rising a staggering 80% to £3,549, and well above the 42% rise anticipated by Martin Lewis and MSE, has anybody else been tempted to sign up to a fixed tariff? His prediction for the January cap is now £5,387 - already a full £1,000 higher than the title of this thread - and for April it's now £6,616. On that basis, the £5,147 one year fixed tariff Octopus were offering me today seemed a bitter pill, but worth grabbing. Our usage is ~15% above the 'average' cap. At today's tariff, our annual bill would be £4,068, but that's predicted to rise to well over £7k by April, so I've gambled and taken the 1yr fix for £5,147. Given that we were on a fix paying £1,000 per annum until last month(!), this stings like hell and I hope I've done the right thing. Comments invited please! There is a 14 day cooling off period... and no exit fees for the year. If your company has a fix available, MSE offers a bang up to date calculator here to help you decide. Mine came out as "strongly advised" to take the fix. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2022 6:55:27 GMT
I cannot comment on whether this is the right time to grab that deal, it seems so very strange and luckily it will not affect me so I just don't have the understanding that you do.
What I would say is, if we are now talking about £5k as part of the annual budget for energy then INSULATE like crazy, seal off drafts and review vampire equipment.
Vampire equipment includes the microwave clock, the breadmaker clock, the toaster LED, the kettle LED, the cloud backups, the wifi, the trickle feed to security lights etc etc
Turn off most things at the wall whenever they are not in use (avoid turning off the fridge) :-)
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Aug 27, 2022 8:44:57 GMT
And that's exactly what it is. A gamble. A bet that the "area under the curve" across the year is going to be higher than the electricity supplier think it is - in other words, that prices stay higher for longer than they expect. It's not the peak price, it's how long that peak lasts.
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the cap only applies to people on standard variable tariff ie the one you fall onto by default at the end of contract. I renewed recently and my Cost will be up 70% compared to last year, But the comment that no-one will pay a penny more this year than last is patently nonsense. If the cap is say 40P for electric and 10p for gas then if you were on a 2 year fix say 10p and 3P that expires in October onwards your bills will go up massively.
