Energy news in general

dealyboy

What about the case of Mrs McCracken who gives regular readings but is still overcharged, making her very stressed.

ArbitraryRandom

dealyboy said:

What about the case of Mrs McCracken who gives regular readings but is still overcharged, making her very stressed.

Which is the same as the people we get regularly on here who have a traditional meter, give readings and are overcharged due to supplier incompetence... no surprise that both 'problem' stories in the article are EDF. 

A problem, agreed - but not one that's caused by the smart meter. 

TheElectricCow

dealyboy said:

What about the case of Mrs McCracken who gives regular readings but is still overcharged, making her very stressed.

The article really doesn’t go into enough depth to come to any strong conclusions as to whether the smart meter was the sole cause of the problem.

Taken at face value, all we know about her situation is she has a non-communicating meter, she says she takes regular readings, and that for whatever reason she didn’t invoke the protections of the Direct Debit guarantee which would have seen her money returned immediately and in full.

Far too many unknowns involved to give a conclusive view of exactly what had happened, and while unfortunate, the experience of this one person cannot be used to represent 2.7 million others (especially when the only connection is the network status of their energy meters).

MultiFuelBurner

Straws, clutching at springs to mind

70sbudgie

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

The nagging question with TOU is once the majority is using it will it still save money?

If we all move our peak usage about doesn't it just level out and even with those who can use at anti-social hours like 3am will demand increase at night as more people purchase electric cars? Not to mention this drive towards heat pumps all using electric to heat homes. 

I appreciate if usage levels out that may avoid a high peak at one point (say dinner time) and there may be overall savings to be had but I can't see everyone is going to save hundreds off their bill if everyone ends up using such tariffs. 

I'm not suggesting people shouldn't get a smart meter and I do agree people can save now with TOU (I'd use such a tariff if I could), I just wonder where it will end up in terms of unit pricing. 

MultiFuelBurner said:

The paper you have linked is 4 years 

I don't think the gov. have drafted another such paper and it's pretty hard to find in depth, neutral information (on most topics not just energy), it is of course true things have changed for the reasons you mention and it is fair to say there are benefits. 

We all learned the phrase "flattening the curve" from COVID. It also applies to electricity use. The system has to be designed to work with the maximum peak demand, kW. With all the additional uses for electricity also linked in the conversation, the total energy, kWh is going to increase. If smart meters and TOU tariffs stop that peak increasing at the same rate, by flattening the curve, it will help to reduce the increase to standing charges - as that is the mechanism for paying for the system expansion (all the wires and other metal components of the system). 

markin

For entertainment only.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-12850441/Is-cheaper-use-electric-heater-instead-putting-central-heating-on.html 

dealyboy

@markin ... from that article ...



I've got my bottle, I think I'll go for 3p's worth.

Gerry1

markin said:

For entertainment only.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-12850441/Is-cheaper-use-electric-heater-instead-putting-central-heating-on.html 

She really doesn't have a clue !  Unbelievable just how many basic mistakes can be squeezed into just one article.  She can't even get her spelling and grammar correct ('bare in mind').

TheElectricCow

Was curious about the rather dubious figures being thrown about in the article so thought I’d do a quick test just to see how ridiculous the hot water bottle claims are. Easy enough to check both in theory and in practice, and as the image above claims 1p for 10 minutes but 82.05p for 60 minutes we know from the get go that it’s all nonsense anyway.

I filled my hot water bottle up to its usual level of around 2/3 full, as per the instructions, which I then measured to be 615ml of water. Poured this into my 3kW kettle, plugged into an energy monitor plug, and switched on.

1 minute and 29 seconds later the water was ready. The plug reports a consumption of 0.069kWh, which on my current tariff is 1.93p of electricity.

I don’t know exactly how long the bottle will stay hot, but in my experience I’d say it’ll be adequately warm for a minimum of 2 hours. 

That puts the actual cost of the hot water bottle I’ve just prepared at 0.96p/hour.

As expected, that’s a bit off from the claimed 82.05p/hour (or 6p/hour if you run your kettle for 10 minutes six times).

GingerTim

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/15/ofgem-plans-household-charge-to-help-energy-firms-recover-bad-debts

The energy watchdog has set out plans that would result in households paying an extra £16 on top of their energy bills to help suppliers recover almost £3bn in bad debts from customers struggling to pay bills.

Ofgem said the one-off extra charge, which would be levied at £1.33 a month on bills paid between April next year and March 2025, was to “protect the market and consumers” after figures showed energy debt had hit a record £3bn.

The level of bad debt, which refers to the amount of money owed by customers that is unlikely to realistically be repaid, has soared because of increases in wholesale energy prices and the wider cost of living crisis putting pressure on household finances.

“We know that cost of living pressure is hitting people hard and this is evident in the increase in energy debt reaching record levels,” said Tim Jarvis, the director general for markets at Ofgem.

“The record level of debt in the system means we must take action to make sure suppliers can recover their reasonable costs, so the market remains resilient, and suppliers are offering consumers support in managing their debts.”

Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, said this one-off move would be less costly to consumers than if suppliers were forced out of business.