Gas and Electric up 8.2%

[unapalomablanca]

Its becoming more than alarming for many people now. I also don't believe the companies are doing it for some greedy spiteful reason. To me its simple, coal fired gas stations closing, no nuclear replacement, ludicrous windmills, 'green initiatives' pumping up everybodys bill, is it any wonder?

 

Can you imagine that there are people who have plotted this outcome in the name of propaganda? Great Britain cant even heat itself wihout worry, and yet we can save the world!

 

We need to start worrying about the old lady down the road this winter. All this happens when you let the weirdy beards have their twisted way.

[al4x]

Its a mix its the companies having to pay green taxes that is doing severe damage, as is paying ridiculous prices for feed in from peoples solar panels etc ultimately the best options if it hits you hard is to use less. Look at energy saving, loft insulation etc etc our bills are fairly small but we have done this house up with it in mind and also use the log burner as much as possible.

[delburt0]

Legalise windmills for back gardens, not the cheapest things to install ,don't look very nice, but one of the farm as I shoot as just had one installed it's running 3 farmhouses 12 outbuildings, livery, plus they get a certain amount of money for putting it back into the grid, they didn't talk pounds and pence as there farmers, but did say it has a 20 yr guarantee and it would have paid for itself in 7 yrs, so a smaller one for a house or houses surely is viable , or is it just the swampys that think there a eyesore

[Kes]

Its a mix its the companies having to pay green taxes that is doing severe damage, as is paying ridiculous prices for feed in from peoples solar panels etc ultimately the best options if it hits you hard is to use less. Look at energy saving, loft insulation etc etc our bills are fairly small but we have done this house up with it in mind and also use the log burner as much as possible.

This explanation cover my view too. We are insulated to the max and use fires to heat downstairs and leave the doors open in the winter to heat upstairs. Energy is a bit of nightmare for many - for us its a worry but we have cut back substantially. The question is where do we go from here as the population ages and pensions aren't the best and inflation rises. A new cheaper source of energy - coal but cleaned to prevent GW ?

[unapalomablanca]

This explanation cover my view too. We are insulated to the max and use fires to heat downstairs and leave the doors open in the winter to heat upstairs. Energy is a bit of nightmare for many - for us its a worry but we have cut back substantially. The question is where do we go from here as the population ages and pensions aren't the best and inflation rises. A new cheaper source of energy - coal but cleaned to prevent GW ?

you see what a grand job the propaganda has done, you mentioned at the end of your post GW, like its a given thing. There are thousands of opposing scientists who have had their views stifled at best and silenced in the majority of cases, who say there is no such thing.

[Mungler]

My conveyancing lot went of a course a few days ago concerning solar panels.

 

Wow, what a hole some people have dug for themselves.

 

So, you sign up for solar panels and think you are getting cheap 'leccy. Well, it turns out that those solar panels may have indefinite rights of occupation..... and the long story short is that a large number of mortgage companies won't lend to buy houses with existing solar panel installations where there are 3rd party contracts involved and so those houses are becoming unsalable... and because of the contracts the house holders entered into they can't remove the panels without fear of being sued up hill and down dale.

 

The more I look at it all, the green alternatives are interesting fluffy nonsense when stacked against nuclear. Granted, no one wants to live anywhere near the next Fukashima but hell, Wales is a big old place.

[unapalomablanca]

My conveyancing lot went of a course a few days ago concerning solar panels.

 

Wow, what a hole some people have dug for themselves.

 

So, you sign up for solar panels and think you are getting cheap 'leccy. Well, it turns out that those solar panels may have indefinite rights of occupation..... and the long story short is that a large number of mortgage companies won't lend to buy houses with existing solar panel installations where there are 3rd party contracts involved and so those houses are becoming unsalable... and because of the contracts the house holders entered into they can't remove the panels without fear of being sued up hill and down dale.

 

The more I look at it all, the green alternatives are interesting fluffy nonsense when stacked against nuclear. Granted, no one wants to live anywhere near the next Fukashima but hell, Wales is a big old place.

And a lot of the people that have signed up, are supposedly successfull savvy types with a few quid, seems that some people are easy to seduce. You are right about nuclear, we need it, trouble is, it should have been sorted 10 years ago, as they take donkeys years to build.

[Mungler]

You are right about nuclear, we need it, trouble is, it should have been sorted 10 years ago, as they take donkeys years to build.

 

Correct, the Frogs are laughing at us having monopolised an expertise in the industry and we have the ex labour government to thank (not just for the odd pointless but very expensive war and out of control immigration).

[figgy]

I cannot understand why we sold our power stations off. Now we are paying profits to the French, government should build more and keep them British government owned.

 

Plenty of gas comes from the North Sea, yet we are dependent on the Russians.

 

You couldn't make it up.

 

Figgy

[Kes]

you see what a grand job the propaganda has done, you mentioned at the end of your post GW, like its a given thing. There are thousands of opposing scientists who have had their views stifled at best and silenced in the majority of cases, who say there is no such thing.

If we accept energy generally is running out, and the evidence for GW has again been confirmed (people said Darwin was heretical) then the ONLY sensible way forward is use existing technology (nuclear) and look for new (hydrogen, geothermal etc.) It makes good sense to control energy consumption when you dont own the source Figgys post is right, why dont we construct a new generation of nuclear - surely we have the capability ?

[unapalomablanca]

If we accept energy generally is running out, and the evidence for GW has again been confirmed (people said Darwin was heretical) then the ONLY sensible way forward is use existing technology (nuclear) and look for new (hydrogen, geothermal etc.) It makes good sense to control energy consumption when you dont own the source Figgys post is right, why dont we construct a new generation of nuclear - surely we have the capability ?

how can you accept energy is running out, when oil is being discovered more and more, 300 years worth of coal under the ground and gas reserves at bursting point (fracking). We should be burning coal until we have enough nuclear power stations.

[dead eye alan]

how can you accept energy is running out, when oil is being discovered more and more, 300 years worth of coal under the ground and gas reserves at bursting point (fracking). We should be burning coal until we have enough nuclear power stations.

 

 

Spot on.

[CZ550Kevlar]

Swapped mine away from SSE yesterday to a new company first utility fixed until April 2015 they must have seen a massive flood of customers request a transfer yesterday.

[88b]

I think 99% of this green BS is another hidden tax. I'm all for reducing emissions but I'm all for the average person being able to keep themselves warm

[FalconFN]

how can you accept energy is running out, when oil is being discovered more and more, 300 years worth of coal under the ground and gas reserves at bursting point (fracking). We should be burning coal until we have enough nuclear power stations.

There are 2 points; supply/demand and climate change. Fossil fuels are running out, the clue is in their name, and oil, even if we are willing to plunder the arctic and antarctic regions ruthlessly, is too valuable a product to burn in power stations. Granted new technologies such as fracking have made a massive difference to some, notably the US, but we are in a slightly different position and it is not yet known whether fracking in the UK will be as economically viable as shipping gas wholesale from the US. The companies that build power stations need to have assurances that their investment will pay off and nuclear power requires a massive investment and an workable plan to deal with the waste - something we don't have currently. If we can get round those problems we should be building and developing new nuclear as well as gas turbine plants. I don't think coal is much of an option as the cost of 'cleaning' it up negate any benefit of having a ready supply.

 

The economics of power generation are in direct conflict with future climate change so do we pay a little more now or massively later? Wind, tidal, solar are really just ways of satisfying some of our energy demands without increasing out CO₂ emmissions and not meant as the backbone of our power industry.

[Katzenjammer]

Agree with a lot of what is written above but something not often mentioned, including in a BBC article on how to save fuel and that is wearing more clothes indoors? I come from an era when central heating was not the norm, when powercuts and coal strikes were rife. We managed as kids, our parents wrapped us up, we all huddled in one room around a common fire rather than now as unsociable individuals crookbacked before a glowing screen and a keyboard in separate rooms.

 

I'm with SSE. My gas is £13 per month, my electric £26. That reflects the proliferation of electrical gadgetry? I'm insulated, my house is insulated, my freezer is full of mammoth steaks!!

[FalconFN]

Agree with a lot of what is written above but something not often mentioned, including in a BBC article on how to save fuel and that is wearing more clothes indoors? I come from an era when central heating was not the norm, when powercuts and coal strikes were rife. We managed as kids, our parents wrapped us up, we all huddled in one room around a common fire rather than now as unsociable individuals crookbacked before a glowing screen and a keyboard in separate rooms.

 

I'm with SSE. My gas is £13 per month, my electric £26. That reflects the proliferation of electrical gadgetry? I'm insulated, my house is insulated, my freezer is full of mammoth steaks!!

You're not wrong, since we discovered North Sea gas we have been used to cheap power but that is now changing.

 

What does irk me a bit is the power companies blaming politicians, for forcing them to increase prices due to extra levies, when their profits are actually up, amazing really considering we all use less energy than we did a few years ago.

[FalconFN]

I think 99% of this green BS is another hidden tax. I'm all for reducing emissions but I'm all for the average person being able to keep themselves warm

How do you reduce emissions without it costing money? They are run for profit so the only way is by using financial 'incentives'.

[aris]

You're not wrong, since we discovered North Sea gas we have been used to cheap power but that is now changing.

 

What does irk me a bit is the power companies blaming politicians, for forcing them to increase prices due to extra levies, when their profits are actually up, amazing really considering we all use less energy than we did a few years ago.

 

The problem is that all that gas isn't 'ours' - it goes into the global commodity pool, and everyone pays market rates based on supply and demand.

 

Note how the US has such cheap gas now because of fracking. Traditionally, the US has not been a gas exporting nation - so they have minimal infrastructure for gas exports (it is considerable what you need turn gas into LPG and put it on a tanker). Since they can't export it all, the local price for gas has plummeted. This is actually against WTO rules - and there is a fair bit of tension on it. US industry wants to keep cheap gas as you can imagine. As soon as the gas is open for the export market, they will have to pay world market rates

 

Fortunately this is changing:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23317370

[Gimlet]

Its becoming more than alarming for many people now. I also don't believe the companies are doing it for some greedy spiteful reason. To me its simple, coal fired gas stations closing, no nuclear replacement, ludicrous windmills, 'green initiatives' pumping up everybodys bill, is it any wonder?

 

Can you imagine that there are people who have plotted this outcome in the name of propaganda? Great Britain cant even heat itself wihout worry, and yet we can save the world!

 

We need to start worrying about the old lady down the road this winter. All this happens when you let the weirdy beards have their twisted way.

 

The market has been rigged, by one Ed Milliband who, as Energy and Climate change Secretary - yes Climate Change secretary: it must be official if the Left have created an entire government office at public expense to promote the issue - levvied "green" taxes to make fossil fuelled power generation appear artificially expensive and "green power" gesturing appear falsely cost effective. The result has been uncertainty in the power generation industry and almost zero investment in future power generation plant and technology together with sky high prices as companies claw back their losses from the end consumer.

This grand fraud has been eagerly continued by the present government at the insistance of the Lib/Dems. Remember them? They're the party who came last in the general election and now run the country. That is why you can't afford to keep the lights on and why there won't be enough power generated do it even if you could.

Now Milliband wants to rig the market further with a round of good old soviet price fixing. And so stupid and stultified has the population become with their sit-down, in-door, logged-on, plugged-in lives, that they actually think this idiocy might be a good idea. The result wil be that the tiny quantity of sporadic infrastructure investment that currently exists (like research to develope clean fossil-fuel generation to supply back-up power for all those stationary wind turbines) will dry up altogether and prices will soar in anticipation of the price-fixing start date, and will soar again when it ends.

Even if global warming as a man-made phenomenum exists and even if the the "green" technologies actually reduced carbon emmission rather than making them worse, the benefit to the planet of bankrupting the UK and sending tens of millions into fuel poverty will be a net reduction in global carbon emissions of about 0.001%. Bargain.

[JustJon]

My electric costs £40/month. I have the tv, laptop, phone charger and lights in constantly.

 

I don't feel hard done to?

 

Equally, I live in an old house with poor insulation and bottled gas for heating. Not been on yet this year as it's not been needed.

 

Cost per unit is going up, but controlling the units we use is far easier and do-able?

 

The only bit that bugs me is if I buy electric and gas I get it cheaper - but I don't have gas therefore am not allowed the best electric price. That sucks.

[mickyh]

I do feel hard done to, I pay £140 for Gas & Electric per month,same supplier, the bill is the same now as when the kids were at home,yet we are both at work all day ?

Two baths instead of Four a night,heating only on for 2 or 3 hours an evening now.

Something stinks within these companys !

[phaedra1106]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is how much more the rises will affect those most vulnerable like the elderly who are at home most of the time. After being medically retired I was shocked to see how much my gas & electric bills went up, not being out of the house 8 or 9 hours a day at work made a huge increase in our usage.

 

Now being almost housebound and with an Autistic son here full time we're paying around £126 a month for gas & electric and that's for a 2 bed bungalow!.

[al4x]

Swapped mine away from SSE yesterday to a new company first utility fixed until April 2015 they must have seen a massive flood of customers request a transfer yesterday.

I'd lay money on the rate you are now paying being higher than the SSE after their recent increase

[welsh1]

 

 

The more I look at it all, the green alternatives are interesting fluffy nonsense when stacked against nuclear. Granted, no one wants to live anywhere near the next Fukashima but hell, Wales is a big old place.

I'm all for nuclear, but always thought Essex would be the best place to put a station,after all no one would miss it if it went glow in the dark