DavecUK I always wonder why because it’s the most regressive tax there is!

It’s also one of those that is most difficult to evade, escape and generally monkey about with on a grand scale, as most of the transactions including VAT are small, and the tax burden falls largely on the end consumer.

DavecUK All the sustainable green energy from windmills, tidal, sauna, I don’t see that being any cheaper and you would think that the energy there would be so, so cheap but it’s not?

Part of that is the completely screwed up way of setting wholesale prices, where every kWh is paid for at the marginal price of the most expensive source (i.e. at this moment, gas).

        DavecUK Magic, innit?

        As Colbert (finance minister to Louis XIV, the Sun King) was fond of saying: “the art of taxation is plucking the most feathers out of the goose with the minimum of hiss”, or something to that effect.

          CoyoteOldMan Someone - like the average premier league footballer - making £3.5 million is going to be £210k better off. Neither of them needed the money.

          This of course assumes they are paying tax through a system like PAYE, which none of them will be. The liklihood is they won’t ne any better off as they’re avoiding the tax through clever accountingin the first place

            So logged on to octopus energy and they had lowered my DD

            Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

              Ovo is a bit checky here!

              The DD remains unchanged. Once the DD payments are cleared, the monthly discount will be refunded shortly after that. This is done over 6 months.

              Yeah, I’ve put mine back up to £180, and I’m £300 in credit atm

              But heating was on last night at the house was 16.5degrees

              Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

              • LMSC replied to this.

                Cuprajake I don’t understand the in credit business. It never earns any interest; it’s a free run for these super rich companies in the name of building up for winter. It’s another rip off, IMO. Our account is in credit by about £635.

                Our house temp is about 17.5C. My 83 MIL feeling very cold. Think the heater will have to come up tomorrow, which is at least 5-6 weeks sooner. It is only Sep!

                    LMSC it never earns any interest; it’s a free run for these super rich companies in the name of building up for winter

                    If you want to bother to change DD payments twice a year or even more often, there is nothing to stop you doing it - or at least, I can change my DD whenever I want. When I was with PurePlanet (until it went belly up), they automatically set the payments to be 25% lower than average during the 6 “summer months”, and 25% higher during winter - this meant I was closer to zero net balance through the year.

                    However, considering the best savings account are around 4% AER (but overdrafts are usually >35% APR), running an average credit of say £500 (+1000 in summer, 0 in winter) doesn’t lose me much in terms of interest, and it may just save me some overdraft charges (all I’d need is 11 days of overdraft on my monthly £500 energy bill, and I’m ‘net zero’ against the lost interest).

                    As usual in these things, YMMV…

                        CoyoteOldMan Of course, I am aware of those choices. It’s just the options the general pop may not be aware of. The natural or a logical thing, IMO, is charge for the actual. I am an Economist by training and understand risks and money by profession. One do not have to work like a credit card company, but they could charge the actuals. That’s my view anyway.

                            LMSC They definitely could, particularly since they “insist” that you install smart meters or provide them with very regular readings… 😁

                              Cuprajake

                              i already lowered my DD 2 days ago from £150 to £100 and today i receved email from them saying they lowered it to £33. haha

                              i think i will manually bring it up to £100 again. So £166 a month might just cover us.

                                It always irritates me they can’t render a bill and then take the correct amount by dd on payment day. What they euphemistically call direct debit, is what BT called in the olden days, a budget account. Usually enforced on customers who were bad payers.

                                I also find it odd that with all their modern computers they can’t work out the right amount. I am £760 in credit, I never heard of people even 100 in debit.

                                Contact me

                                  DavecUK FWIW, for my first 18 months with PurePlanet I was ‘under’ - at most by £1800. They also went bust… which may or may not be correlated.

                                      Update re-boiler

                                      The engineer dropped in last week and found the valve holding the zone-valve actuator was a little sticky. A bit of oil was all required. He said the boiler is ok and so are the settings. It no longer runs continuously.

                                      But, the hot water is playing up for the last few days. My daughter said on the week end the water wasn’t hot enough, despite it ran for an hour. My MIL said the same yesterday and my wife this morning.

                                      Any idea what the issue could be? I am thinking if the gas engineer did his job properly, though we ended up paying £70 for the call out/service.

                                      It’s a medium-sized tank.

                                      Thx

                                        LMSC If the boiler is heating the supply water to the tank correctly then I would be looking at the thermostat on the tank. Is the thermostat switching off to early. If you check what temperature the tank thermostat is set at and you can adjust the thermostat a bit higher and see if that helps. It would help if you had a thermometer to check the actual water temperature coming out of the taps before and after adjusting the thermostat. Hope this helps

                                        • LMSC replied to this.

                                            I agree with @ Meldrew, either the boiler DHW stat or the cylinder stat.

                                            The boiler DHW stat is inside the boiler lower L/H side= cost about £12. I think the boiler needs to be partially drained.

                                            Check the cylinder stat first as Meldrew said.

                                            • LMSC replied to this.

                                              Elcarajillo Meldrew

                                              Thanks folks. I will check as advised starting with the thermostat of the tank. We never changed the setting. It’s set at 55C and the engineer said the other day this is perfect for hot water. It does heat the tank as the water is neither cold nor luke warm. Normally, the water from the tap is hot 15-20 mins after the boiler comes alive. After 30 mins, it is very hot and good for 3 × 4 mins shower.

                                              I will do the before and after test as Meldrew advised and go from there. Will call out the engineer otherwise.

                                                    .LMSC it’s also worth checking timings, if you changed HW to come on with heating (more efficient, but will take a bit longer. Applies to heat only system or system boiler, with single flow temp for HW and CH. Not sure what you have from looking at boiler. Looks like a system boiler where you can set independent flow temps.

                                                    Contact me