Gagaryn

Guilty as charged! I’m better than that, I’m blaming the callout I received at 1450 on a Friday, 10 minutes before I’d usually finish!

My usage is much higher than the average; 3700kWh in 12 months (Sep 2021-Aug 2022) for electric and 7200kWh for the same time with gas. Gas usage is low because we have a wood burner which does the bulk of the heating in the evenings and our hot water use is low, only ever showering although this will sometimes be twice a day for 2 people.

Our problems are we both get through a lot of training kit with running 6 times a week, and that needs to be washed regularly unless we want it to become a smelly problem. Also, because of all the running we eat a lot! The oven and hob are usually required for most meals and they take 30+ minutes. I’m hoping the PV will help but we are also lucky with the cheap tariff until September 2024.

I’m sure the unit/average/standing charge cost confusion is to baffle customers. Supermarkets do it with produce too. If you want to compare prices of tea bags, some will be shown on the label per bag, others per 100g, others per KG. It seems “accept it and move on” is the only way of staying sane…

    Inspector How new are the windows and has the loft been done recently/ is it converted? Age is one thing but mid-terrace has decent advantages.

    We live in a drafty 1930s 3bed semi that needs new windows (uPVC but 20yrs old) and work done to the roof (200mm insulation though).

    YTD usage according to Octopus = E-2598.79kWh G-9742.07kWh

    Two adults, two young children. We overuse the tumble dryer, but other than that try to limit use where we can.

        figures coming out while better than worse, it means the average house will still be paying double what they were last year, when you think petrol has had a 40% increase, as well as every other bill in the house, were still goosed

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          Cuprajake Mortgages, energy, food, transport. It’s all gone up horrifically….. Ultimately a knock on effect of energy and fuel prices.

          What I felt was particularly annoying that with the future price rises planned for energy, it was going to be cheaper using a petrol generator and heating with paraffin.

          Plus all the shite advice about using LED bulbs…does anyone not use them?

          Typed in my house with 140W of phantom draw

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            Fuel seems to be starting to come down, once there is found a way to stop the profiteering on the forecourt retailers. Mortgages, despite protestations are not expensive, if you can remember the days when they really were. What has happened is the total irresponsibility of the millenials who despite being told, had no experience of life when interest rates were high and so could not actually imagine the effects of their reckless spending and borrowing habits fuelled by very low interest rates

            https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

              dfk41 That’s very true about mortgages, when I was younger we thought an interest rate of 5 or 6% was a bargain. The problem now is that borrowers have significantly overextended themselves in relation to salary.

              The one slight benefit to inflation, mortgages become much easier to pay over the long term. We always used to say, after 5 years it will be a much smaller proportion of your total salary. No inflation means it never gets easier to pay.

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                dfk41 irresponsibility of the millenials who despite being told, had no experience of life when interest rates were high and so could not actually imagine the effects of their reckless spending and borrowing habits fuelled by very low interest rates

                This is true - and as you said correctly, it was what they know/knew: cheap credit, low interest rates, low unemployment etc.

                Equally, they can also complain about what where those people thinking in the past…. Burning fuel like no tomorrow, making advances in medicine, in general standard of living, having a final salary pension and now we are living to an old age which was totally unexpected back when those things were in place. Where will this money come from? (You don’t need to tell me, I know - I’ll be paying for it). Although the generation before me (baby boomers) have it all, a comfortable retirement, property, I most likely will be working until the day I drop dead to pay for those, now, in hindsight, mistakes. But that was not known then. And I tell you something, I feel very sorry for my son’s generation who would potentially not even dream of the things even my generation had for granted.

                I’m not navigating a dig at you particularly. I just think it’s unfair to shift the blame and think that generation <insert name here> did all the good work and the subsequent generation did all wrong. After all, the future generation will have to deal with what’s set out for them… with policies and mistakes made by he current one.

                I lived my childhood through astronomical interest rates and hyper inflation. I know it too well.

                Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

                    MediumRoastSteam I don’t think you can blame any single generation for the mess that country is now in. It was a combination of factors, the various different governments we had over the last 40 years always thought of short termism, people themselves wanted easy attractive messages and really didn’t cut their suit according to their cloth. This is true of all the generations they all got themselves into different forms of trouble, and it was basically greed. I like it, I want it, I’m going to have it. People don’t think about their retirement, they don’t think about saving money, credit has been too easy for far too long. Yes there’s talk about my generation baby boomers having had all the luck but when I started work there were millions of unemployed people, interest rates were running absolutely riot, and the country was not in a great state. But I was brought up to spend what you’d saved and not spend what you didn’t have except if it was for a house. If I wanted a car I didn’t go and get a loan i bought what I could afford with the money I had in the bank at the time. When I was 25 or 28 the thought of a new car never entered my mind my cars were like £800. My furniture was taken from the local tip and cleaned up I didn’t have carpets for years because I couldn’t afford them I didn’t have a new kitchen, I had what someone else was throwing out when they replaced their kitchen. For the first 8 years of living in my flat I had a lodger, but nowadays people wouldn’t think of doing that they wouldn’t expect to do that.

                    Easy credit has been the scourge that got many people into trouble.

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                        DavecUK Easy credit has been the scourge that got many people into trouble.

                        That is really the point I was making, although perhaps not very clearly. The youth of the fifties wore cardigans (like their dads), went to the pub for half a bitter with him before returning to a home cooked meal. Then the 60’s came with hippies, peace, love, rock and roll and hamburgers and society has degraded ever since

                        https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

                          It all comes back to Mr Micawber, one pound income =nineteen shillings and sixpence expenditure =prosperity.

                                                                               one pound income= one pound and sixpence expenditure = ruination.

                          Good job we do not still have debtors prisons.

                          PortafilterProcrastinator

                          Loft been converted few years back, front of house has triple glazed windows, garden side has all double glazed windows. But no insulation on walls whatsoever.

                              There’s a really good comedian, Bill Burr, who did a bit where he suggests giving the oil companies the sun and letting them profit off of it as its the only way renewables will ever work.

                              dutchy101 Well they didn’t say who would benefit from those imagined savings!

                              I had a quick look at that paper and was reminded that trying to predict 30 years into the future is a fools errand - won’t stop me though! :-)

                              For there to be any saving at all, of course, there would need to be a change away from the current system where the price of all electricity is set by the market and that is almost always at the fossil cost - which is generally highest. Until all cleaner electricity including nuclear and renewables can be traded separately from fossil, there can be no savings.

                              Currently there is not much appetite for changing how the energy markets operate. But that will inevitably change at some point, probably around the time that storage for the ‘always on’ cleaner sources becomes more viable. That’s already starting to happen gradually but we won’t likely see big changes in the next decade.

                              As you allude to - we are at the mercy of those with vested interests in the status quo. Without a big shake-up which I’m not optimistic about, those existing vested interests will have diversified into renewables by the time they are the dominant generators in the market.

                                One thing is for sure - if it will save the world trillions at the expense / loss of the energy firms, it ain’t happening

                                  dutchy101 perhaps it’s all suspicion, but who do you think funded the anti nuclear industry, friends of the earth etc that protest against nuclear power. Those who lobby government Think about who really had the most to lose.

                                  Who do ee think of the largest suppliers of vaping products are, I think it’s the tobacco industry.

                                  When we eventually have lots and lots of renewables, they are not going to be giving it away, they will charge the market as much as they can and it will certainly never be back down to the electricity levels we used to pay. Guess which companies have the huge interest in renewables as well, it will be those companies with lots and lots of money nd those will be the current fossil fuel companies. I don’t know about anyone else but I have never seen cheaper prices from renewable energy sources such as windmills, for me the price of electricity has gone up and up and up despite the rise in renewable energy.

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                                        Cuprajake If they’re right, Sturgeon will be hoping the tip breaks off Britain, something like the tip of Bezos flying phallus the other day.

                                        Everyone will be wondering why Wales aren’t fraking? Aaaand the rich Southern nimbys will be thanking their lucky stars for a bit until they start fracking under Hastings (yes there really is oil under there) etc..

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