70% gas price rise

IvanOpinion

A bit more info here

Ivan

penrhyn

Tony's adventure into Iraq is costing us around £1,000,000,000 a year. Probably came from the offence budget.

MORPH3US

All this stuff about wholesale prices of gas and electricity going up got me thinking....

If people are a lot more conscious of energy efficiency and using less gas / elec, could it not be the case that the prices are going up only because the companies have to make more money per unit of gas/elec to maintain their high profits....

I.e. (example, not reality)

If gas costs 15p per unit and BG make 2p per unit on that then BG make £200 profit on 10,000 units sold....

However if people are using only 6000 units because they are trying to help the environment etc then they only make £120 profit... their shareholders and bosses obviously wouldn't be happy about that and so they have to put the prices up to make a bigger margin on the lower levels of consumption to make the same huge profits...???

And this "wholesale prices are increasing" stuff (whilst partly true) is just a front to maintain their profits and fat wages / dividends...?

dixie_dean_2

It's an odd ballgame. I remember hearing quite often in the news that stuff like "Shells profits are boosted to £27.5 gazillion in the first quarter due to rising oil prices" and it never made sense to me. In any other business when costs rise profitability goes down whereas in this sector it seems like a licence to print the stuff.

1carminestocky

I'm seriously thinking about having a wood burning stove with back boiler installed. Only problem being I live in a smokeless area and the only ones approved are relatively expensive (approx £1400 just to buy then the cost of installation). Even at those prices they are becoming more economically viable by the second.

moonrakerz

John_3:16 wrote: »

Just seen on TV Ch4 news Centrica are predicting a 70% rise.

You should have watched BBC1, the rise on there was only 40%; on Radio 4 it was 60% - take your pick !!

Farway

Oh how short some memories are

A long time ago when North Sea gas & oil first arrived, there was one only supplier, The local Gas Board owned by us all, and the North Sea gas & oil was owned by us all under a Labour Government [Tony Benn], electricity [owned by us all] was generated using coal, owned by us all [National Coal Board]

Due to politics, and strikes, the Tories sold the lot off to privatised companies, and closed the coal mines, encouraged the "dash for gas" to generate electricity, and finally used the proceeeds to give tax cuts to city spivs

We are now all sufering from the unintended consequences

Poppycat

I have a wood burning stove, I am due to order soem logs soon, no doubt prices will have gone up as there is only so much wood and demand will be higher as more people get logs. The stove does that coal too I didnt want to have all my eggs in one basket so I can switch to coal which I find gives off more heat but is more messy

I paid last year £110 for a large pickup, that lasted me and being careful as I sued other wood I gathered from various places (legally) from end of October until mid Feb.

Then you have to factor is cost of burner, possibly lining on chimney with can add over 2k for it all.

I also still used central heating on a evening when it started it getting cold and kept it on low as possibly and the log burner whilst does kick out a lot of heat does heat the whole 3 bedroom semi, it may take the chill off

1carminestocky wrote: »

I'm seriously thinking about having a wood burning stove with back boiler installed. Only problem being I live in a smokeless area and the only ones approved are relatively expensive (approx £1400 just to buy then the cost of installation). Even at those prices they are becoming more economically viable by the second.

1carminestocky

Poppycat wrote: »

I have a wood burning stove, I am due to order soem logs soon, no doubt prices will have gone up as there is only so much wood and demand will be higher as more people get logs. The stove does that coal too I didnt want to have all my eggs in one basket so I can switch to coal which I find gives off more heat but is more messy

I paid last year £110 for a large pickup, that lasted me and being careful as I sued other wood I gathered from various places (legally) from end of October until mid Feb.

Then you have to factor is cost of burner, possibly lining on chimney with can add over 2k for it all.

I also still used central heating on a evening when it started it getting cold and kept it on low as possibly and the log burner whilst does kick out a lot of heat does heat the whole 3 bedroom semi, it may take the chill off

Thanks for the info, Poppycat, much appreciated! If I got one it would have to be filled with 'scrap' wood as I don't want to be paying anything out for fuel Especially as my council insists on me buying one of the most expensive models (Dunsley Yorkshire, smokeless approved) so it really would have to cost me nowt to run (almost). I was actually siding towards a multi-fuel version (£1550! :eek: ) as I realise it gives us far more options and I've always wanted to have a go at recycling old newspapers into 'logs' to burn . You can pick up 'log makers' for £20 on Amazon. I'm assuming 'burner' is some start of Firestarter, as The Prodigy once sang about? TIA!

1carminestocky

Farway wrote: »

Oh how short some memories are

A long time ago when North Sea gas & oil first arrived, there was one only supplier, The local Gas Board owned by us all, and the North Sea gas & oil was owned by us all under a Labour Government [Tony Benn], electricity [owned by us all] was generated using coal, owned by us all [National Coal Board]

Due to politics, and strikes, the Tories sold the lot off to privatised companies, and closed the coal mines, encouraged the "dash for gas" to generate electricity, and finally used the proceeeds to give tax cuts to city spivs

We are now all sufering from the unintended consequences

Arthur Scargill was much-derided during the miner's strike for predicting that one day we would be importing coal into this country. His prediction turned out to be correct. This country really is going to the dogs.