MSE News: Energy Price Cap to FALL 12.3% on 1 April AND prepay becomes the cheapest way to pay.

MattMattMattUK

MikeJXE said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Using the average figures for electricity anyone who uses less than 1.638 kWh a day/49.82kWh a month will be worse off, it does vary by region though. I cannot find any reliable data breaking down usage in a granular enough way to find out exactly how many households use that little, but extrapolating between various sources it looks like around 25k and 100k grid connected households in the UK and they would be those with solar and batteries (both, solar on it'sown is not enough), there will be a handful of others without. So whilst the amount of reduction will vary I would expect that nearly everyone without a large solar and battery installation will be saving money and those people will likely experience a net gain due to the seasonal increase in generation from their solar panels.

There's only 4 left for your first handful, I don't have solar or batteries and only use 10/11kWh per week all seasons

Are you talking net or gross there with solar being involved? Otherwise how is it so low? A modern ultra efficient fridge freezer is going to use 4-5kWh a week, an older one more, a WiFi router will use around 3.3kWh over a week, a bit of lighting in the evenings, running the washing machine etc. would easily take it over that threshold.

MikeJXE

MattMattMattUK said:

MikeJXE said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Using the average figures for electricity anyone who uses less than 1.638 kWh a day/49.82kWh a month will be worse off, it does vary by region though. I cannot find any reliable data breaking down usage in a granular enough way to find out exactly how many households use that little, but extrapolating between various sources it looks like around 25k and 100k grid connected households in the UK and they would be those with solar and batteries (both, solar on it'sown is not enough), there will be a handful of others without. So whilst the amount of reduction will vary I would expect that nearly everyone without a large solar and battery installation will be saving money and those people will likely experience a net gain due to the seasonal increase in generation from their solar panels.

There's only 4 left for your first handful, I don't have solar or batteries and only use 10/11kWh per week all seasons

Are you talking net or gross there with solar being involved? Otherwise how is it so low? A modern ultra efficient fridge freezer is going to use 4-5kWh a week, an older one more, a WiFi router will use around 3.3kWh over a week, a bit of lighting in the evenings, running the washing machine etc. would easily take it over that threshold.

I don't have solar, I don't have fridge freezer only a fridge, i don't watch TV, I have a street lamp outside so I only ever use 1 lamp in the lounge.

My total usage last year was 585kWh

MikeJXE

587 sorry, I can't get the full year in the shot but you can see the totals, readings took weekly 

Krakkkers

My electricity is below 1000 kwh a year but i have solar.

SAC2334

MikeJXE said:

587 sorry, I can't get the full year in the shot but you can see the totals, readings took weekly 

MikeJXE said:

587 sorry, I can't get the full year in the shot but you can see the totals, readings took weekly 

I see your dual fuel total for last year was £736 so your gas heating total is nt that low ,probably over £600 .are you on Octopus Tracker for gas ? If not check it out .

MikeJXE

Total Electric £348.47 Total gas £387.60. SC is £271 71 of that total 

My gas heating is on most of the time as I feel the cold, 18/19/20 by day and 16 at night 

I'm on Octopus September 12m fix I don't have a smart meter 

tghe-retford

So we now have the perverse situation where those who did what they were believed to be the right thing, reduce their energy consumption, invested in renewable energy to lower consumption further and keep themselves out of debt could now face the prospect of not only having the standing charge become the dominant slice of their bill but also could be worse off, contrary to the news reports yesterday.

At the same time we are still being told to reduce our energy consumption for the planet and our pockets.

I truly despair at this bait and switch.

wrf12345

For pensioners, a huge chunk of the state pension is stolen by the council and now another large chunk is taken by standing charges, albeit a little bit less than the winter fuel allowance if it stays at £500 - no wonder half the bus drivers seem to be nearer 70 than 65 where I live. For people working you have to increase the stolen money to reflect that you have to pay tax on it (ie to get two grand you have to earn £2500) but as a percentage of income it is still nearly ten percent for average earners and twice that for pensioners only on the state pension. Simply not a viable state of affairs and councils will have to be radically downsized whilst energy companies margins will have to be cut right back rather than enhanced by dodgy accountants. This has become purely a political issue now.

MattMattMattUK

wrf12345 said:

For pensioners, a huge chunk of the state pension is stolen by the council and now another large chunk is taken by standing charges, albeit a little bit less than the winter fuel allowance if it stays at £500 - no wonder half the bus drivers seem to be nearer 70 than 65 where I live. For people working you have to increase the stolen money to reflect that you have to pay tax on it (ie to get two grand you have to earn £2500) but as a percentage of income it is still nearly ten percent for average earners and twice that for pensioners only on the state pension. Simply not a viable state of affairs and councils will have to be radically downsized whilst energy companies margins will have to be cut right back rather than enhanced by dodgy accountants. This has become purely a political issue now.

Taxation is not stealing, those who claim that make very clear their lack of understanding. 

The margins on domestic energy are tiny, less than three percent.

Councils are already cut to the bone, most can provide little more than statutory services.

Every time there is a change in energy prices you claim "it's political", that the people will vote based entirely on standing charges, that a government could win elections by offering subsidised energy etc. The reality is that is not the case because many people could tell they would be being bribed and people try to take a holistic view rather than just focusing on one thing (although Brexit did demonstrate that the electorate can also be phenomenally stupid).

I do not enjoy paying tax, but equally I recognise it is a key component of being part of a civilised society and the population of the UK needs to pay more tax, not less. Two thirds of the population have the lowest effective rate of income taxation in the EU (the top third has the fifth highest), 55% of households receive more in cash benefits than they pay in taxes, the net contribution rate is less than 5%. We have debt equal to the entire annual economic output of the country, we are running a deficit and our services and infrastructure are falling apart, we need to pay more tax, we need to invest more in our energy infrastructure, water supplies, roads etc. The shortsighted view you have that you should get everything cheaper/for free because "I don't like contributing" is not going to cut it, it is a recipe for disaster.

2010

Buy an electric heated throw and save hundreds a year on heating.