MSE News: £200 Alternative Fuel Payment to be paid 'in the New Year'

magickmagpie

Tyna said:

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

It is not only gas and electricity that has gone up. I bought a pallet of eco logs in Aug for £325 and the same pallet today is £530. My log burner is my only source of heat.

Same for heating oil. I just bought 1000 litres and paid £880. Same fill at the same time last year cost £460.

Qyburn

I don't think it's realistic to expect Government subsidies to cover every price rise, we'll just end up paying it back in our taxes. 

dunstonh

Tyna said:

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

It is not only gas and electricity that has gone up. I bought a pallet of eco logs in Aug for £325 and the same pallet today is £530. My log burner is my only source of heat.

Eco logs are quite an expensive option for burning.  Seasoned logs are still the cheapest in most areas.   They have gone up too but not as much. Kiln dried has gone up more.

Suffolk_lass

dunstonh said:

Tyna said:

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

It is not only gas and electricity that has gone up. I bought a pallet of eco logs in Aug for £325 and the same pallet today is £530. My log burner is my only source of heat.

Eco logs are quite an expensive option for burning.  Seasoned logs are still the cheapest in most areas.   They have gone up too but not as much. Kiln dried has gone up more.

Yes indeed, up from £70 for a ton-sized aggregate bag or small trailer full of seasoned logs up to £125-£140 locally here. If you believe they are properly seasoned! A lot of them are opportunists selling softwood and industrial waste wood so if you do burn it, the doors of your log-burner need to stay shut and secured and your chimney may need an extra clean.

Qyburn

Firewood prices are more or less unchanged round here, we just got 2cu.m softwood for £110 collected. That's "loose" cu.m so around 500kg. It measured between 15-19%. I wouldn't normally buy at this time of year as I prefer to store for at least a Summer before use.

Hardwood is £99/cu.m from our nearest supplier.

maisie_cat

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

We use 10500kWh of wood pellets a year, if we had gas we'd receive a 3p/kWh subsidy under EPG. That £316 is far more than the £200. At the same time our pellets have increased from £290/tonne to £650/tonne.
I think the Gov't are just trying to be fairer

dunstonh

Suffolk_lass said:

dunstonh said:

Tyna said:

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

It is not only gas and electricity that has gone up. I bought a pallet of eco logs in Aug for £325 and the same pallet today is £530. My log burner is my only source of heat.

Eco logs are quite an expensive option for burning.  Seasoned logs are still the cheapest in most areas.   They have gone up too but not as much. Kiln dried has gone up more.

Yes indeed, up from £70 for a ton-sized aggregate bag or small trailer full of seasoned logs up to £125-£140 locally here. If you believe they are properly seasoned! A lot of them are opportunists selling softwood and industrial waste wood so if you do burn it, the doors of your log-burner need to stay shut and secured and your chimney may need an extra clean.

When we replaced the weatherboarding on our stables, someone came to take the old stuff away to use in their burner.    The weatherboarding was at least over 60 years old.    It would have been creosoted multiple times in its life.   He came back and got some more and admitted the smell whilst burning was horrendous.   He wasn't rural either.    He is exactly the type that gives stove burning a bad name.

Effician

dunstonh said:

Suffolk_lass said:

dunstonh said:

Tyna said:

Reed_Richards said:

I think the whole idea of an Alternative Fuel Payment is a bit wacky.  At current prices oil is probably the cheapest way to heat your house at present; why should oil users receive an extra subsidy?  

It is not only gas and electricity that has gone up. I bought a pallet of eco logs in Aug for £325 and the same pallet today is £530. My log burner is my only source of heat.

Eco logs are quite an expensive option for burning.  Seasoned logs are still the cheapest in most areas.   They have gone up too but not as much. Kiln dried has gone up more.

Yes indeed, up from £70 for a ton-sized aggregate bag or small trailer full of seasoned logs up to £125-£140 locally here. If you believe they are properly seasoned! A lot of them are opportunists selling softwood and industrial waste wood so if you do burn it, the doors of your log-burner need to stay shut and secured and your chimney may need an extra clean.

When we replaced the weatherboarding on our stables, someone came to take the old stuff away to use in their burner.    The weatherboarding was at least over 60 years old.    It would have been creosoted multiple times in its life.   He came back and got some more and admitted the smell whilst burning was horrendous.   He wasn't rural either.    He is exactly the type that gives stove burning a bad name.

You could have refused to let him take it as you knew what his intentions were & disposed of it more responsibly , though i guess there would have been some cost to you.

Spoonie_Turtle

I found this https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/census2021howhomesareheatedinyourarea/2023-01-05
There's a tool to check which type of heating predominates in your area (England and Wales only, unfortunately).  It will be interesting to see if the results correlate with who gets the payment automatically - in my area it says only 4.8% use electricity for their central heating, so I'm hoping we might be some of the accidental benefactors.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I found this https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/census2021howhomesareheatedinyourarea/2023-01-05
There's a tool to check which type of heating predominates in your area (England and Wales only, unfortunately).  It will be interesting to see if the results correlate with who gets the payment automatically - in my area it says only 4.8% use electricity for their central heating, so I'm hoping we might be some of the accidental benefactors.

Thanks  

Approx 3% mains gas where we are with about 52% oil, wood/solid fuel & bottled gas and only 7% electric so hopefully we'll get the £200 automatically