Electricity Charges Exorbitant 2020

Youre right, and a total waste of money too. They will be used to snoop on people also. Remember councils using anti terror laws to spy on the public.
But in this case it may be a way of getting the freeholder to agree to changing from that crazy set up?

 

Errr...EDF is slowly being privatised, like a lot of former State utilities. Like they were in the UK some time ago. So.....no surprise that prices are escalating. There is also the small matter of ageing power stations, as WeeTam mentioned. They claim to want to decommission the nuclear sites here, but it's not as cheap an option as patching up the old, existing ones.

 

One of the many complications to be sorted out as regards multinational links/cross-border supplies post B-day. I very much doubt that it will have an effect in France, but slowly, very slowly, some competition is emerging. It's a bit like the Orange monopoly, though, the other suppliers have to use the existing, former State-owned infrastructure so it's rarely worth changing supplier.

 

Hi,

We've been with British Gas and npower since we married 43 years ago paying bills immediately in full never having any problems.

We can't understand how all the suppliers can be cheaper than each other; it's lunacy when an electricity supplier can charge less for gas than a gas supplier and a gas supplier can charge less for electricity than an electricity supplier; we can't be bothered with all the switching and messing around with utility bills; we have friends who are obsessed watching their meters (OVO); I did at one point out of curiosity check and noticed the savings quoted were only estimates which of course they are.

We use gas and electricity sensibly unlike our neighbour who's bungalow is usually lit up like Blackpool Illuminations. A couple of years ago I showed her our then current electric bill and she immediately contacted npower to complain her neighbours (us) were using a lot more electricity than she was but that she was having to pay a much higher price; she also told them that her neighbour (me) had a workshop full of heavy machinery.

A short while later npower were here to install a smart meter but they couldn't because British Gas had installed their smart meter and npower couldn't touch British Gas equipment; of course we were perfectly legal and I explained what had happened to the npower engineer; I asked him to double check for any illegal interference by me of the electricity supply and he declared everything was fine. We are on very friendly terms with our neighbour but who needs enemies when friends are so good at stabbing us in the back; in future less information will be going her way from us.

I did however send her an email comparing running one of my big machines for an hour compared to 24 hours running one 60W light bulb; I quoted my big 4hp saw bench at full load amps (FLA) to run this saw bench for a full hour would put a huge amount of timber through it so yes it's a powerful machine but is only run for short periods unlike her light bulbs; living on her own she has four big freezers running full time; I do our electrical work being proficient and have been able to connect electric motors for the last 55 years being taught by The National Coal Board. We turn things OFF when not required and I never ever leave my fan heater or a machine running in the workshop if I'm not there.

This neighbour fell out with npower and switched; I sent her our last electricity bill details asking if she had now noticed a reduction in her electricity bill since she switched; NO REPLY. People can be strange indeed; holidays cruising the Rhine and cruising to New York on The Queen Mary for three weeks plus endless golf tournaments are fine but paying for electricity she wastes isn't her fault? We don't have holidays we enjoy our hobbies the year round and don't begrudge paying for what we use.

We are with Virgin Media for landline; TV and broadband; we've been with NTL/VM for over 30 years and we know we can get a cheaper bundle but VM service is excellent with fast broadband; we watch lots of downloaded movies and instructional videos so the £60 or so per month is good value to us.

It must be highly frustrating and upsetting for you Jenny having your hands tied to the supplier; this sort of problem can result in all kinds of conflicts; are you on your own or are your immediate neighbours treated likewise?



I'm rambling on as usual because it's too cold to play outside. Good luck Jenny.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Well Colin, you are lucky not to have a smart meter. We are on time of use rates. Pay double at certain times of the day. That time slot today is between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and again at 5-7 tonight. So I went 15 minutes overtime into the high rate this morning and didn't get the last of my Christmas baking done until 7:15. I started at 5.

We had no choice about the meter. It's high rates in the winter during the morning because that is when the big fan in the furnace is drawing lots of power to heat the house. In the summer, the highest rate is in the p.m. because that is when people run their air conditioning. Luckily I only use my air conditioning for maybe a week in the summer when it gets too hot and humid to sleep.

Your neighbor sounds like a real piece of work. I can't understand wanting someone else punished for our own utility issues! What a cow!!

 

Reading through some of the replies on here has made me think...

A number of years ago, we had a smart meter installed, and can truthfully say that no difference has been noticed since the change.

A few years ago, I had to pay some gas and electricity bills in England. The thing that shocked me was the cost of energy there! I found it to be ridiculously high in comparison to our charges here. To read that they are being increased there amazes me. Only last week, we got a letter from our electricity supplier (E.on) that told us they were reducing prices. It strikes me that there is something seriously amiss in the UK!

 

We switched to Bulb a few years ago and made huge savings. I am with a web site that checks prices and advises me if there is a better deal. Last month they advised that Eon was a better deal. Their standing charge is higher but the unit cost is lower. As we use a lot of energy we save £60 a month by switching.
I have no loyalty to the energy companies. If I can save a few quid by filling in an on line form then I will

 

Hi,

Many thanks Lori; unfortunately our neighbour is a typical example of how people treat each other these days; it's very sad indeed but our friend a lady directly across the street from us is now very frail suffering dementia and she suffered a bullying husband and bad family all her married life; the husband died leaving her living her with her lodger bone idle son; she has two sons and a daughter the other son and daughter seldom visited but now she's so very ill the vultures are hovering it sickens us watching what is happening.

Isn't it typical though for your supplier to charge an increased rate just when you need electricity the most? Living in Ontario with so much timber around you do you use timber to heat your home or are you totally reliant on electricity? Timber of any kind here in the UK is expensive and there is little incentive these days to work for a living due to all the rules; regulations and taxes which no doubt will shortly get worse now we have the government of asset strippers in charge. Bron and I are pleased to be out of the rat race in retirement.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

I've been with British Gas, despite it being FRENCH, for gas and electric. When all of this smart meter mubbish came in. My meters were changed, so that the readings etc were automatically sent by radio waves. Saving the company having to pay some chap to call and read the meter. I have never been given one of these gismos whereby you become mesmerised... ooops I used 10p more to day than yesterday.

Most folk don't realise that switching on and off often uses more power than leaving things on. Much of the power source is used on the initial start up, washing machine. dryer, vacuum cleaner etc.

 

I think you will find "green energy" is pushing up the bills, not sure if we are being taken for a ride or not, but building all those windmills and at the same time decommissioning coal and gas power stations must come at a price.

If you are not a waster of power, I really can't see the point in so called smart meters as regards the consumer, but I do see the benefits for the suppliers.
So I'll not be getting one until they make it compulsory.

 

@Retired Obviously, I cant answer that question from a Canadian point of view, but I can from a Swedish one as there is a pretty big forestry industry here. Its estimated that there are around 60 billion trees in the country, and somewhere between 330 and 380 million new ones are planted annually. Wood is used in many rural areas as a form of heating. As a rule, gas is virtually non-existant. So that leaves wood, oil, or electricity.

Comparing wood and electricity. Lets assume someone buys £1 worth of electricity. The same amount of kW in birch wood would cost 75p if it was cut, split and palletized. If it was bought in 4 metre lengths, then cut and split at home, the same amount would cost around 25p. In other words, a big saving, so its what many do.

As an aside, nowadays, many of the people that sell the wood shred the waste from when the trees are cut, and this is also sold to make HVO diesel.

 

Hi,

Many thanks Sandy for your interesting and informative reply.

I've felled 80' tall trees but given the logs away to neighbours with wood burners for fire wood. Our neighbours who own wood burners seem to spend most of their time trying to obtain free wood because to buy wood is very expensive indeed. Our home is heated by gas which is so convenient.

Kind regards, Colin.


Tackling our overgrown rear garden felling two of these amongst others.



I had to be careful cutting and standing the logs up otherwise they would head down the valley at high speed. We must have given tons of such logs freely to neighbours and still do when I have the chainsaw in action.

 

Hi, @Jenny namaste have you tried octopus energy. They are very competitive.


I will try to get round to posting the fight I had earlier in the month regarding the price of electric! Xx

 

As promised @Jenny namaste!
So...I received an email in May to say my energy costs for the year were £553.00 (we aren’t home much), underneath that total was my predicted costs for the coming year £587.00, I think that’s reasonable, I then only received emails asking for meter readings (I track them so I was sure my bills wouldn’t increase) then out of the blue in December I receive an email to say my direct debit was increasing to £75.00 per month....erm £587.00 per year?? That’s £48.91 per month not £75.00! After sending the most sarcastic email to shell energy (I couldn’t help myself) I then receive an email to say my account has been looked at & they will ‘pull’ £48.00 from my bank account in January! ‘PULL’ what sort of language is that? Since when would a large company use the word ‘pull’??
How can my electric bill go up & down so much? Is it £75.00 or £48.00?
Now I’m not one for taking any brown stuff & I’m more than happy to fight for my rights BUT just imagine a pensioner living off the state pension or a single parent mum receiving that email in December! It would be enough to send some people over the side! I’ve now changed electricity companies, I’ve gone over to octopus my new direct debit is £35.00 a month! I’ve also received a £50 credit because a friend recommended me....what’s not to like? Shop around Jenny these big companies are taking us all for a ride. Xx