Energy Prices

[Clown Job]

11 hours ago, RiG said:

Maybe going into tinfoil hat territory here but given the Tories seem to despise people WFH maybe this is why they aren't wanting to offer much in the way of help as they'd rather get folk back into the office. To the benefit of many of their donors of course.

 

They do get seething at the thought of someone working from home instead of travelling go an office 

 

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Elixir said:

A mild winter would make Vladimir very sad.

[scottsdad]

13 hours ago, RH33 said:

Scottish Power have billed me for the three days they supplied my new house. Not sure how we got through £8.18 of electricity when nothing was plugged in! Add in standing charge and £10.75 for 3 days.

I hope this is a final bill and you are switching to a supplier who knows what they are doing. 

[Mark Connolly]

Got my first three emails from various people at the DWP offering to help with my rising "enegry" costs.

Good to see the scammers are keeping up to date with the news to help their own businesses.

[RH33]

32 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I hope this is a final bill and you are switching to a supplier who knows what they are doing. 

I've brought EDF with me, wouldn't touch SP with a barge pole.

[hk blues]

17 hours ago, Michael W said:

I've seen a fair bit of this and can't help but think it's a false economy in many cases. Are we just forgetting that commuting costs money? 

I see the attraction of using the company leccy and, if available, shower facilities to save money, but many people's commute will be more expensive than the saving. No doubt that WFH costs will increase, but in many cases not sufficiently so that going into the office will be financially beneficial. 

I'm not convinced by the maths - I doubt working from home will cost £30 itself.  

[Left Back]

17 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I'm not convinced by the maths - I doubt working from home will cost £30 itself.  

Some of the people I work with have always refused to put the heating on during the day since working from home due to Covid.  Even before the current mess you'd see them on Teams calls sat in their house with a coat and hat on.  They aren't doing anything for the stereotype as it was mostly people in Yorkshire.

[hk blues]

1 minute ago, Left Back said:

Some of the people I work with have always refused to put the heating on during the day since working from home due to Covid.  Even before the current mess you'd see them on Teams calls sat in their house with a coat and hat on.  They aren't doing anything for the stereotype as it was mostly people in Yorkshire.

Typical Yorkshire!

Joking apart, I'm not sure how much they're saving as presumably they put their heating on at night and it will take longer to hear from cold.  Regardless, F*** sitting in the cold.  

[bdu98196]

28 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Regardless, F*** sitting in the cold.  

Still might be preferable to an office with arseholes having to make 'polite smalltalk' and watching little cliques sit around doing f**k all other than interfering in matters that have no interest but are suitable excuses to divert from their tasks and arse-kiss managers by trying to look invaluable. Or maybe thats just my organisation(s)........

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Still might be preferable to an office with arseholes having to make 'polite smalltalk' and watching little cliques sit around doing f**k all other than interfering in matters that have no interest but are suitable excuses to divert from their tasks and arse-kiss managers by trying to look invaluable. Or maybe thats just my organisation(s)........

[eez-eh]

It’s all the right-wing “get back to the office lazy!” papers that are pushing that narrative.

[Self-raising Lazarus]

13 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

It’s all the right-wing “get back to the office lazy!” papers that are pushing that narrative.

And Likely their advertisers who rely on building/leasing office space. Working from home should be encouraged as part of the leveling up agenda, pulling workers back out of south eastern England and possibly lowering rent prices......Unless that's what they want to maintain.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

18 hours ago, Gordon EF said:

If your meter doesn't move, then there's no record of your usage anywhere. If lots of folk were in that situation, suppliers would be constantly underestimating how much energy was actually being used so wouldn't buy enough, so the system would constantly be short. National Grid would pay generators to make up the shortfall (at a premium) and since no supplier would be registered as short, the bill would just go to the taxpayer I suppose.

Both Scottish Power and Bulb were happy to just let me use free electricity rather than replace the meter (although, tbf, the thieving b*****ds both tried to just make me pay on estimated usage). I've heard this a few times with Scottish Power.

So they did try to charge you after saying they never? Estimated or not they tried to charge you. 

If a meter has stopped then the absolute first port of call for any supplier should be to have that meter rectified. I’m astounded by SP and Bulb just allowing it to remain broken. If this were the case then there would be a lot more “free” electricity in the UK. 

All depends on type of meter, maybe have been battery, maybe have been internal but almost certain the meter needs replaced. I don’t have figures on how many need replaced on a daily weekly or monthly basis but I’m am confident it’s not common places what your two supplies have allowed to happen. 
 

interested to know what the outcome of this was? Is it still broken and you are getting free electricity? 

[Gordon EF]

6 minutes ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

So they did try to charge you after saying they never? Estimated or not they tried to charge you. 

If a meter has stopped then the absolute first port of call for any supplier should be to have that meter rectified. I’m astounded by SP and Bulb just allowing it to remain broken. If this were the case then there would be a lot more “free” electricity in the UK. 

All depends on type of meter, maybe have been battery, maybe have been internal but almost certain the meter needs replaced. I don’t have figures on how many need replaced on a daily weekly or monthly basis but I’m am confident it’s not common places what your two supplies have allowed to happen. 
 

interested to know what the outcome of this was? Is it still broken and you are getting free electricity? 

I don't think it's "common". I just think it happens more than people would think because it really shouldn't be happening at all. I know someone who moved into a house where the meter hasn't been working since the house was built, so that property has never paid for electricity. The supplier (Scottish Power) has been aware of this for years and hasn't done anything about it.

I got two years worth of free electricity at that flat. I moved out a year ago but I'd bet decent money it's still not fixed.

It's the supplier's responsibility to fix but they don't bother because they system's built so that nobody is incentivised to fix the problem.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Gordon EF

[Loonytoons]

I don't think it's "common". I just think it happens more than people would think because it really shouldn't be happening at all. I know someone who moved into a house where the meter hasn't been working since the house was built, so that property has never paid for electricity. The supplier (Scottish Power) has been aware of this for years and hasn't done anything about it.
I got two years worth of free electricity at that flat. I moved out a year ago but I'd bet decent money it's still not fixed.
It's the supplier's responsibility to fix but they don't bother because they system's built so that nobody is incentivised to fix the problem.

Something similar when I moved into a flat in Edinburgh.
I couldn't find who'd been supplying the electricity to the previous homeowner. All companies stated it wasn't them.
I got free power for a couple of months before one of them took it on.
Can't really remember the specifics, it was near 25 years ago.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

1 hour ago, Loonytoons said:

Something similar when I moved into a flat in Edinburgh.
I couldn't find who'd been supplying the electricity to the previous homeowner. All companies stated it wasn't them.
I got free power for a couple of months before one of them took it on.
Can't really remember the specifics, it was near 25 years ago.

National database - ECOES for electricity would have had the supplier of the property. Problem with they bliddy Edinburgh flats is that the flat 1/1 0/1LR 1/2TFL are very tricky and easily mixed up. So potentially unless the MsN is read out then it’s tricky to determine. 
Anyway, I agree with Gordon EF on it not being common, it’s very few n far between but SP should be fixing that asap. Maybe that’s the standards between that company and the one I work for.

 

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/01/ovo-energy-chief-calls-for-progressive-scheme-for-bills-similar-to-tax-system

Doesn't seem an unreasonable idea in the fucking ridiculous context. 

Quote

Speaking to Sky News about energy prices during a visit to the US, the chancellor, Nadim Zahawi, said he was working with energy firms and non-governmental organisations to ensure that struggling households get financial help.

[...]

“One of my concerns is the scarring effect on the economy if perfectly viable businesses in hospitality, in leisure, in high-energy use businesses would actually suffer or no longer exist because of Putin’s use of energy as a weapon,” he said.

Yep, how dare big, bad, Putin!!!!1111!!!! use an economic resource as a weapon: says the UK government that declared economic warfare on Putin's country six months ago. 

Actions = consequences. 

[vikingTON]

On 23/08/2022 at 19:35, welshbairn said:

In the medium to long term Russia will be massively hit by Europe trying to diversify its energy supplies away from them as much as possible. Their export infrastructure is nearly all focused on the West and they're hugely dependent on oil and gas exports, along with other raw materials. The price bubble won't last forever and European countries will make every effort to avoid future dependence on Russia even after their Ukraine adventures come to an end.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/31/gazprom-to-pay-kremlin-86bn-after-record-profits

Seems legit. 

[welshbairn]

14 minutes ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/31/gazprom-to-pay-kremlin-86bn-after-record-profits

Seems legit. 

Short term gain in exchange for a massive medium to long term loss as Europe moves away from dependency.

[scottsdad]

Last month I went a bit extreme on cutting down dishwasher and tumble dryer usage. 

Pots, pans and baking trays I did by hand. Everything got hung out where possible. I only used it maybe twice in all of August. I was a bit zealous in switching stuff off, and of course I am in the office more. I managed to cut almost 50 kWh off my electricity use last month, which I am pleased about.

I have bought extra clothes horse, more pegs, lines for outside and so on. Every dry day, I will hang washing out. The tumble dryer I am starting to see as a money pit. One hour of the tumble dryer uses between 4 and 5 kWh. Or, to put it another way, costs between £1.20 and £1.50 at my new electricity rate.