Energy Prices

Did not realise the tracker now had a list - been using it for the last 18 months I think… worked out a good choice. Interesting how the wholesale rate does dip randomly….

MattH 18 months? i thought it was quite a new thing. Shame, i didnt know about it earlier.

Oh well.

[unknown] Same as mine but with different suppliers for each fuel Eon, keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April. Decisions Decisions

[unknown] Same as mine but with different suppliers for each fuel Eon, keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April. Decisions Decisions

Inspector Same as mine but with different suppliers for each fuel Eon, keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April. Decisions Decisions

Nightrider_1uk keep telling me that my electricity meter has reached the end of its life and have just offered me £50 to have a smart meter fitted before the end of April

So the meter has reached the end. It needs to be replaced therefore. Are you saying that, if you decline the offer to receive £50, they will fit a dumb meter instead? The cynical in me thinks that, if smart meters were great, they wouldn’t be offering you money. 🍭

MediumRoastSteam No, they are no longer fitting Dumb meters. If you need a new meter it has to be Smart, same as in new builds. It’s smart fitting by default. Any meter over 10 years old can probably be deemed too have reached the end of its life, but there are many of these happily chugging along. However by sending you a letter saying the meter is now obsolete they are pressuring people to change to smart who might otherwise might not have. Of course it also covers the’re backside should a fault occurs in you old meter. (Hate to think what the insurance company might make of such an occurrence).

Of course, should i choose to take up the offer, I fully expect them to give a date before the end of April for fitting then push the date out at the last minute and get out of paying

Can you have a dumb meter fitted yourself

I hate the push for these smart meters, they can remote in and turn of, change to prepay at the flick or press of a button.

That’s actually on the ofgem website

Cuprajake I doubt that you would get a supplier to change to a dumb meter, they own the meter and the government push to have smart meters fitted and fine the suppliers if they do not meet targets

If you could persuade them to change then it could cost you a lot to do so

No as in get a gas man to fit one for you

Legal cartel

Would love to live off grid

Costs a couple grand to be taken off mains power supply I believe

@“DavecUK”
I have the $ in my superannuation to pay for the panels and batteries plus a back up diesel generator (rural setting).
Every time I check, the money makes me more in my super than my power costs me from the grid.

Can I ask a really stupid question….as usual?

Since the introduction of solar specifically, I hear people talk about when installing any sort of heating system other than a gas boiler about payback etc and ‘ooh it costs so much you would never get your money back or it would take years’.

Maybe I’m just dumb (leave comments below) but over the tears (sorry years) whenever I have had a new boiler or heating system installed, not once has it crossed my mind about payback. I have to have heating so I go with what I can afford, trying to get the best value for my money knowing that if for example I go for a combi boiler, I will hopefully get a good ten years out of it before it needs replacing. It costs me what it costs. I never think about payback, so why would I think about that if installing solar or an air source heat pump? If that is the type of heating I go for and it costs 5, 8 or 15 grand it is what it is, and as long as it does its job and lasts long enough then great. The only return I expect is for it to work for a number of years

Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick and simply not understanding it right?…as usual.

I guess we dont “need” solar so there is always the comparison of cost of system against how much electric that same money could buy you over time.

I had mine installed 12 odd years back.. so the outlay was a lot more than today but it was balanced by the FIT tarif - so there was a lot of expense versus time to recover the money along with the “free” electric. Of course as the prices have rocketed then whatever amount of power I get is a bonus.. and it can help reduce the expenditure across the spring and summer months.. but come Winter I am as reliant as anyone else on the grid.

Pompeyexile Because the lifetime cost profile totally changes. Upfront capital costs are much higher with things like solar and heat pumps. The “payback” isn’t really about recovering your sunk costs because as you say there is a cost to any form of heating. But the promise of the expensive solutions like solar and heat pumps is cheaper running costs. So the “payback” calculation is really a cost of service calculation over the lifetime of the system. An artificial calculation might be

Gas Boiler - £2000 install plus £1500 a year bills and maintenance for 15 years - £24,500

Solar - £20,000 install plus £200 a year bills and maintenance for 15 years - £23,000