Energy price cap to rise to £2,800 in October: OFGEM Chief Exec

Zandoni

It’s been explained so badly on the news, they are making it sound like £2800 is the most you can pay.

doodling

Hi,

Benny2020 said:

Surprised that new houses don't have to have at least 2 wkp on their roofs.

Whilst I agree that the provision of solar by default is probably a good thing, it is really only useful in summer.  In the winter you can reduce the effective performance by around a factor of 10.

Unfortunately winter is when we all use the most energy so unless you have a really (really!) big battery which you spend all summer charging and then discharge in the winter then solar doesn't really help you as much as you might think.

brewerdave

Benny2020 said:

Surprised that new houses don't have to have at least 2 wkp on their roofs.

I talked to the agent on a new Taylor Wimpey development of over 500 houses on the edge of our village about 18 months ago. I was "surprised" that they were fitting gas boilers to all the houses (no ASHPs) and there wasn't a solar panel to be seen. He laughed and said that the developers would not be able to recover all the extra costs involved in the sale price (which was eye watering already) without hitting their profits!!
The only way to change this ,is via the planning laws.

Benny2020

My panels at this time of the year produce around 20 kwh a day and in the worst months (Dec Jan) still average 3.5 kwh a day.
That is useful power, i get a tank of hot water 300 days a year and even in winter its enough to cover my base load during the day.

edandfred

So that's an increase of 42% on the April cap and Cornwall Insights were forecasting 32% increase in Oct22 . Bear in mind that Ofgem have opened consultation about updating the price cap every three months (after Oct22) so the price cap may be increasing again in Jan23 & then Apr23 - during high usage months!

Decided that now I am fixing with current supplier EDF for 2 years to May24 (34.85p/Kwh and stays at 49.65 S/C) .Wouldn't normally fix for 2 years but only a 20% increase on the April cap, so still a good punt in my mind. Doing it now before EDF pulls it! Gives me a bit of protection over Winter22 and if prices come down next year then I will just pay the higher exit fee if there's a better deal out there!?

Effician

Benny2020 said:

My panels at this time of the year produce around 20 kwh a day and in the worst months (Dec Jan) still average 3.5 kwh a day.
That is useful power, i get a tank of hot water 300 days a year and even in winter its enough to cover my base load during the day.

Do you heat your home with electric thoughout winter?

Benny2020

Gas central heating.

aaiiee

I thought the recommendation was to improve insulation before looking at solar panels - so 300mm loft insulation, cavity wall insulation (if you have cavity walls) , block draughts, insulate hot water tank etc. Also, replace any old light bulbs with LED bulbs.

Cheaper and easier than investing in solar, and quicker return on investment.

sheramber

Solar panels are not much good if your roof points the wrong way. and you live in the north of Scotland.

We has solar lights on our front gate which did not light up during December and January because any sun was too low.

Our neighbours ( crofters) installed banks of panels in one of their fields.  We don't all have a handy field.

jrawle

doodling said:

Whilst I agree that the provision of solar by default is probably a good thing, it is really only useful in summer.  In the winter you can reduce the effective performance by around a factor of 10.

Unfortunately winter is when we all use the most energy so unless you have a really (really!) big battery which you spend all summer charging and then discharge in the winter then solar doesn't really help you as much as you might think.

You don't need a battery, you just need a savings account. Money saved by not having to pay for so much electricity in the summer can be used to pay the winter heating bill.

Of course, if everyone did it they would have to introduce differential pricing and it would be a different issue.