Prices of the electricity we use to charge

[guerney]

This is filed in the "That's all right then" category

Susannah Reid asks Boris Johnson what he would do to help pensioner Elsie who can’t afford to stay at home because keeping heating on is too expensive and travels round London on bus all day.
Johnson says that as London mayor he introduced the 24 hour freedom bus pass.

Clearly we are going to need a bigger transport network!

What a very depressing vision of the future... but it makes such perfect practical sense!

 

[guerney]

Today's contribution to the "we're really in touch" fantasy:

Shoppers can deal with soaring food prices and cope with the cost of living crisis by choosing value brands in the supermarket, the environment secretary has suggested.

George Eustice, the cabinet minister overseeing food and farming, told Sky News food prices were going up because of the knock-on effect of higher energy costs, pushing up fertiliser and feed costs.

He said: “Generally speaking, what people find is by going for some of the value brands rather than own-branded products – they can actually contain and manage their household budget.

“It will undoubtedly put a pressure on household budgets and, of course, it comes on top of those high gas prices as well.”

He argued there was a “very, very competitive retail market with 10 big supermarkets and the four main ones competing very aggressively, particularly on some of the lower-cost, everyday value items for households, so things like spaghetti and ambient products – there’s a lot of competition to keep those prices down”.

He obviously doesn't think for half a second, just who is already buying the "value" brands. I suggest it will very often be those who already couldn't afford "big brands".

And there is a fundamental issue with going down market. Think of cow. If everyone is trying to save money, they will go for mince or "cheap" cuts. So who will buy the fillet steak?

We want those who can afford it to buy the expensive cuts and leave the cheap stuff for those who can't. That way, the rich who buy that fillet steak can, in a sense, subsidise those cheap cuts.

That's got me fired up to vote anti-Tory today, for all the good that my infinitesimal one vote can possibly do...

 

[sjpt]

That's got me fired up to vote anti-Tory today, for all the good that my infinitesimal one vote can possibly do...

Many years ago our LibDem candidate got in in a general election with a majority of two.

That was after a comment during the campaign by the wife of one of our most active campaigners:
All this fuss, and it'll never make more than a couple of votes difference.

 

[guerney]

This is filed in the "That's all right then" category

Susannah Reid asks Boris Johnson what he would do to help pensioner Elsie who can’t afford to stay at home because keeping heating on is too expensive and travels round London on bus all day.
Johnson says that as London mayor he introduced the 24 hour freedom bus pass.

Clearly we are going to need a bigger transport network!

 

[guerney]

Shell report record profits

 

[WheezyRider]

I'm at the point now where I think I will go off grid for electric. 28p/kWh and 50p/day standing charge!

So that's paying nearly £200/year for them to do almost nothing. They don't even send someone out to read the meter any more.

I use between 1 and 3 kWh per day. The washing machine consumes the biggest proportion of the electric I use. I have about 1300 peak W in various solar panels in storage. I have enough battery packs to store up to 5 kWh. I have a 3kW Sine wave inverter. As for the e-bike, I am lucky I can recharge it at work for free!

Over the last month I have been experimenting with a 180W solar panel on the shed roof charging an old car battery with an MPPT charge controller. That has been running a 12V camping fridge absolutely fine and on sunny days I've had enough juice to top up the e-bike, using a small 300W max inverter. I've just replaced the car battery now with a 40Ah LiFePO4 drop in replacement, so that means 0.5 kWh I can cycle at least 2000 times 100% DoD and many more times than that if only 50% DoD.

So if I get my act together, I think I could go off grid. Is it difficult to get disconnected? Does anyone know what you need to do? Do they charge to do it?

 

[WheezyRider]

I live in rural Wales - there is no gas.
I have never lived in a house with central heating, I believe I'm healthier for it, not provable of course.
It is a 1900's stone house with 2' thick stone, rubble filled walls, no insulation. But the wall construction, because it isn't solid, is a poor conductor. Therefore the place is cool in summer and warm in winter. We have a log stove in the living room and an old Rayburn converted to oil sometime in the 60/70's. Just does the hot water but is this friendly warm lump of cast iron in the kitchen.
Heating engineers have said, 'You wanna get rid of that mate, it's innefficient'. BUT, I change the wicks ,once a year in Autumn, and decoke the burner. I light it and it stays on until Aprilish. It uses no electriciity, has no moving parts and no fault liability. In 20 years I've never had to have an engineer or buy anything apart from oil and wicks. Why would I change?
The whole house is led lighting. I have solar P.V. and thermal for hot water in summer.
I find the electricity bills people talk about utterly astounding. I am constantly turning off lights in empty rooms where I work, this is a left over from the 70's.
We need to accept that we are going to have to drastically reduce our power consumption expectations for enviromental as well as financial reasons. Turn power not in use off - fully - not on standby. Turn heating down. Wear layers. Insulate where possible. Stay active.

I agree about central heating. For years I've just turned the thermostat up a bit when it felt a bit chilly. But now I don't turn it on unless the temp goes below 10 C. It's amazing how you acclimatise to colder temps. I sleep better too in the lower temperature. Just put another duvet on the bed.

 

[matthewslack]

I'm at the point now where I think I will go off grid for electric. 28p/kWh and 50p/day standing charge!

So that's paying nearly £200/year for them to do almost nothing. They don't even send someone out to read the meter any more.

I use between 1 and 3 kWh per day. The washing machine consumes the biggest proportion of the electric I use. I have about 1300 peak W in various solar panels in storage. I have enough battery packs to store up to 5 kWh. I have a 3kW Sine wave inverter. As for the e-bike, I am lucky I can recharge it at work for free!

Over the last month I have been experimenting with a 180W solar panel on the shed roof charging an old car battery with an MPPT charge controller. That has been running a 12V camping fridge absolutely fine and on sunny days I've had enough juice to top up the e-bike, using a small 300W max inverter. I've just replaced the car battery now with a 40Ah LiFePO4 drop in replacement, so that means 0.5 kWh I can cycle at least 2000 times 100% DoD and many more times than that if only 50% DoD.

So if I get my act together, I think I could go off grid. Is it difficult to get disconnected? Does anyone know what you need to do? Do they charge to do it?

How will you fare in the winter, when solar will be perhaps 10% of what you get at this time of year? Lights and central heating pumps are hard to manage without.

 

[WheezyRider]

How will you fare in the winter, when solar will be perhaps 10% of what you get at this time of year? Lights and central heating pumps are hard to manage without.

It gets a bit marginal in winter. I could be down to only 0.7 kWh/day from my 1300W peak panels. I could get more panels. But in the short term, I do have a 3kW petrol generator. I could convert this to run on gas instead of petrol and wrap copper pipes around the engine to re-use the waste heat to preheat the feed for the hot water system.

If it gets really bad, I could put the battery pack on a bike trailer, wheel it in to work and charge it up there

 

[matthewslack]

If I only had solar, and no opportunity for wind or hydro, I would stay grid connected, grumble about the standing charge, and lobby for fairer tariffs for economical customers, rising tariffs for the energy-profligate and a charge back arrangement to get landlords to pay the excess costs incurred by tenants in rented homes of poor EPC rating.

Disconnection has something of shooting oneself in both feet about it.

 

[Nealh]

Certainly use up or store all excess kw/h's generated or convert it to heat up the water, only a fool with solar panels will export it back to the grid for a paltry 5p per kw/h they give.

 

[guerney]

Nationalisation can't come soon enough... and if not, windfall tax!

‘Don’t tax energy giants – they invest in Britain’s future.’ Let’s drill down into that | Tessa Khan

North Sea developments aren’t about lowering bills or securing energy supplies – they’re just business as usual, says Tessa Khan, director of Uplift UK

www.theguardian.com

 

[PC2017]

It's all a tad dire indeed - I get the feeling @guerney really dislikes the current Governance - However, nationalisation aside, we need fundamental and systemic change, from futures, speculation and wealth distribution to name a few, and it will happen, although I fear it'll be the current establishment, on either side that instigates it and that will not bode well for no one, even the lower wealthy.

 

[guerney]

It's all a tad dire indeed - I get the feeling @guerney really dislikes the current Governance - However, nationalisation aside, we need fundamental and systemic change, from futures, speculation and wealth distribution to name a few, and it will happen, although I fear it'll be the current establishment, on either side that instigates it and that will not bode well for no one, even the lower wealthy.

If it wasn't for the economic misery resulting from the pademic, plus this new war which look set to run for years, I thought the chances of nationalisation had become an extremely unlikely possibility. A few years of ever increasing prices of pretty much everything, may see it happen yet? Wealth is now spread globally, I don't see how that genie can be rebottled in order to tax the 1% and big business effectively.

 

[guerney]

"Warning of £900 rise in energy bills"

 

[PC2017]

Futures, it makes one wonder who is the main recipient of the profits caused by theses price increases, Russia[Putin's pocket], the day traders, energy giants or the government coffers from larger VAT intake or perhaps all the above. Someone somewhere is getting rich off the people more than normal, the powers that be realised the people will just role over and take it & now they take the p...

 

[guerney]

"three-quarters of this planned “investment” – 72% – is in North Sea oil (as opposed to gas) fields, and the majority of this oil – 80% – will probably be shipped abroad. "

‘Don’t tax energy giants – they invest in Britain’s future.’ Let’s drill down into that | Tessa Khan

North Sea developments aren’t about lowering bills or securing energy supplies – they’re just business as usual, says Tessa Khan, director of Uplift UK

www.theguardian.com

Sneaky Sunak is "Threatening" energy companies with a windfall tax

British Gas owner’s profits to hit top targets

British Gas owner’s profits to hit top targets amid calls for windfall tax

Centrica said it has been boosted by ‘strong’ volumes across its nuclear and gas production operations.

www.oxfordmail.co.uk

 

[PC2017]

Sneaky Sunak is "Threatening" energy companies

Most likely because they've stopped paying dividends on his shares!

 

[Croxden]

Very easy for you to say in your situation, but only a miniscule number can and do live in such conditions and such a way.

Where I live is far more representative. A flat with vast areas of window glass losing heat, despite the gas filled double glazing. Electricity only for everything, heating, cooking, hot water, lighting, entertainment. That all ends up with an unavoidable huge fuel cost, despite the most energy efficient everything in my home.

Now add that I'm 86 with a failing heart and our ever growing older population. That means limited exercise so less muscle heat generated, and in turn less food consumption so less heat from combusting the food I consume. So I have difficulty maintaining body temperature and more clothing can't keep in heat which isn't there in the first place.

In other words the continuance of mine and many other lives depends on heat from external sources for much of the year.

And I get annoyed at politicians and others constantly saying don't leave anything on standby. Today's electrical equipment is very economical on standby but needs to be left on. My current OLED TV has to be on standby to receive software updates, but at only a miserly 1 Watt standby current, that costs just £2.54 a year on the new very high unit prices from this April.

Standby barely has any influence of fuel costs, nor does LED lighting. It's heating of any kind which is the villain, especially if directly electrical. The best solution to that is a heat pump, but a very high proportion of the homes we have, like mine, simply cannot be converted to that.

So to make any real headway on this subject, we need to start again and rebuild Britain to suit. Ultra low heat loss homes with heat pumps or benefitting from heat and power schemes. Scrapping out of town shopping in retail parks etc to cut the excess driving that people do. Localising work places and homes to drastically cut the immense total of current commuting travel. Plus anything else that can be thought of to stop people's addiction to being on the mechanised move all the time.

Alternatively, large scale euthanasia, for example people as well as motorways having a 70 limit!
.

When I was very young, I thought 50 was the ideal age to go. I went off the idea as time passed, but I am beginning to think I may have been right the first time. Would the world be better or worse? How old is Putin?

Looking on YouTube about heat pumps, it seems they aren't as good as made out.
Has anyone any experience of them.

 

[matthewslack]

Looking on YouTube about heat pumps, it seems they aren't as good as made out.
Has anyone any experience of them.

A certain level of knowledge from a previous life. Air, ground or water source?