Could today's Gas Price increases be the final tipping point for the housing market

WTF?_2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Is this a wind up?

Try switching to electric heaters & see how much you save.

I think close to 40% of the UK electricity currently is produced by gas - a product of the dim witted dash for gas by the power generation companies.

Using gas to heat a home will ALWAYS be more efficient than generating electricity using gas, then inefficently transmitting that electricty to homes.

On the other hand, electricity can be generated by diverse sources and I'm pretty sure they will be looking for other sources than gas in the future.

snoopy78

Olly_H wrote: »

Than what?

Building regs in this country are becoming progressively tighter in terms of energy usage (Part L). However they are nowhere near Scandinavian or German Passivhaus standards. You won't see triple glazing, super insulation, or super airtight homes with MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) on many new properties.

The scandinavians have amazing houses, my old girl friend was from Norway, and we visited to do a load of skiing every winter. Her parents house did not have a single draft, all doors and windows fitted amazingly and it was not cold anywhere near them once they shut. It had 7 foot of snow outside and on the side of a huge hill, with no other houses in sight and still they hardly needed to put the heating on.

I will never make fun out of a wooden house ever again!

They are in a league of there own, if all the fuel in the world was to run out the scandies would not notice the difference, well maybe they'll miss there snow-mobiles.

adr0ck

!!!!!!? wrote: »

On the other hand, electricity can be generated by diverse sources and I'm pretty sure they will be looking for other sources than gas in the future.

very true

but electricity is still very very very very expensive to heat your home with

unless of course you plan on installing a GSHP with underfloor heating - and then you will still be paying more for your heating than than with gas from british gas (including their 35% increase)

kennyboy66_2

!!!!!!? wrote: »

On the other hand, electricity can be generated by diverse sources and I'm pretty sure they will be looking for other sources than gas in the future.

Yes it can;

Nuclear - requires huge taxpayer subsidies against gas at current prices.
Wind Power - at the moment still requires subsidies against gas.
Oil - Gas price tracks the oil price in Europe in terms of calorifc value per unit cost.
Coal - yep, we could go back entirely to coal. Would require building additional new power stations.

I'm afraid however if you actually look at the unit price of electricty & gas per Kilowatt hour you will find that electricity is usually 3 time the price of gas. Of course it will depend on the efficiency of you boiler.

You go ahead & heat your house using electricty, I am sure you will find it cheaper somehow.

m00m00

these increases along with increasing economy of scale etc, will hopefully make domestic renewable energy (such as solar power) more viable going forward.

WTF?_2

m00m00 wrote: »

these increases along with increasing economy of scale etc, will hopefully make domestic renewable energy (such as solar power) more viable going forward.

Yes. Renewables look set to get cheaper, whereas the long term trend for fossil fuels is only up. Although we may be at a peak right now, I suspect, so we could see a falling back of prices in the near term.

I'd be looking at insulating any new property to the highest degree. Then using solar tubes for water heating and some sort of ground heat exchanger to supplement heating. Wood burning stove or fireplace for the main central heating source. (Can you get suitable coal/wood stoves? Still plenty of coal left.)

With more scope then electrical supplies could easily be supplemented with solar panels and wind turbines. Water turbine too if there was a stream running through the property. Maybe a combined heating and power system to make up the difference between the renewables and your demand.

Maybe not really viable at current energy prices but I'd be willing to bet that over the coming decade an investment now would show more and more sense.

adr0ck

!!!!!!? wrote: »

electrical supplies could easily be supplemented with solar panels .

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

m00m00

does anyone actually know of a good resource for information about things like solar panels etc ?

lostinrates

Snooze wrote: »

Yep!

19C is Baltic. Don't know how the hell you can comfortable in a temperature as low as that. My wireless thermo sits at 22C all year round and is just right for me, but then again I spend the majority of my time sat on my !!!! in front of a PC so never really do much to work up a sweat.

Rob

I'm less cmforatable in hot places now as a result -and muchof my childhood was in a hot climate!-

One of the helps is that I start the day at Btween 5-5-45am outside doing horses. Anything feels warm after that in January! Then when I get in i have a warm shower and turn the cuoputer on then unbetween page rfreshes etc I do bits and bobs. Most of my house work is early in the day, but there is alway something to do. In the evenings when we are at home we snuggle together..worth turning the temperature down for!

Just re-checked and the government guidelines (it kind of shocks me that we have government guidlines on heating!) are betwee 18-21 degrees. Looks like we can turn down a degree with friends in the house without feeling too guilty!

Gorgeous_George

m00m00 wrote: »

doesn't leave much room for rent increases too, so another squeeze on the plans of the BTL'ers

In your dreams.

Increased costs will be passed on to tenants via increased rents. A roof over your head is the first bill that you pay. Any savings will need to be found in other areas.

Of course, there may be more evictions for non-payment - increasing the costs to LLs (not just BTL LLs).

GG