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The shock of energy prices increases


nheather

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1 hour ago, ckw said:

I heard on Radio 4 that it takes 1 -2 wks for any price drop to make its way to the pumps. Funny thing is it doesn't seem to take anything like that long for a price increase to appear at the pumps!

Was it ever thus?

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I'm honestly wondering what to do now with my current fixed deal with Octopus who IMHO are quite a good company, at least as seemingly openness and honesty is concerned, my current deal before all this crisis happened was OK (ish for UK prices) but it runs out 4th of April, maybe they have emailed me about this? but the situation just now is so dynamic and changing and ever expensive getting, really not sure what's happening?   I know its going to get dearer, but how to mitigate that please? it is a very big worry and concern here to me and many, is there a fixed tarriff i can choose now with Octopus or anyone? at least for a year, or have those days of fixed tarrifs gone in these uncertain times?

Should I be asking them for a better deal or fixed tarrif or will they let me know?

Its all got so confusing again.

I really feel for the single very elderly in this mess, really do :(

 

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My charges have gone from just under £50 a month (spread over a year and probably due for some upgrading anyway) to over £250 for a winter month.  So expect something like a quadrupling - but that's without counting for any effects of the Ukraine mess.  It was expected that oil prices would fall somewhat later this year, making a fixed tariff at current prices likely to be a poor choice, but I suspect that's gone by the board. 

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E10 nasty unleaded is near £1:70 in Upton now. Diesel obviously higher.

I need a full tank, which was about £65 two weeks ago (having Covid has saved me a fill-up, result!).

I'm guessing at about £75 next week.

On a plus note, spoke to our supplier today, Ecotricity (not a bad bunch really..). We have Gas and Electric with them. With a bit of juggling we've reduced it by about £150/month!

I guess they'll get the own back later...

They're increasing prices next month, but only by a few pence a unit.

They increased late last year so don't have to increase much this time. Hmmm......

 

 

Rick.

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12 hours ago, One 48 said:

I'm honestly wondering what to do now with my current fixed deal with Octopus who IMHO are quite a good company, at least as seemingly openness and honesty is concerned, my current deal before all this crisis happened was OK (ish for UK prices) but it runs out 4th of April, maybe they have emailed me about this? but the situation just now is so dynamic and changing and ever expensive getting, really not sure what's happening?   I know its going to get dearer, but how to mitigate that please? it is a very big worry and concern here to me and many, is there a fixed tarriff i can choose now with Octopus or anyone? at least for a year, or have those days of fixed tarrifs gone in these uncertain times?

Should I be asking them for a better deal or fixed tarrif or will they let me know?

Its all got so confusing again.

I really feel for the single very elderly in this mess, really do :(

 

I am with Octopus as well. They have an offer for loyal customers on a 10 months fixed tarrif contract and admittedly the price has gone up which we will probably sign up with. I received an email from them regarding the increases a couple of weeks back as our contract ends on 16th March 2022.Regards

 

Regards

Robert

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On 3/8/2022 at 4:33 PM, JohnT said:

 

 

I bet there are more

 

 

 

according to Quentin Wilson and the RAC you should be able to double mileage per gallon by very careful driving, no aircon, top gear asap etc etc. They did it on an A3

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The "fad" for open plan living is about to go belly up methinks............. If my house had this I'd be looking into getting thick insulating curtains to reduce the living area.

 

Whilst Victorian houses aren't no good insulation wise the larger windows makes up for it to a certain degree and I've always decided that the room I'm in the most is southerly facing to get both the sunshine heat and light, I also had a gas fire installed which is left on it's pilot light all the time in the winter and turned up when needed, it only needs 30 minutes to heat the room for most of the night, plus the psychological effect of a cosy coal effect fire and fireplace can't be ignored which brings me on to colours, yes magnolia and white and popular as they're neutral but strewth are they cold colours, my front room and front bedroom are painted raspberry and aubergine respectively, dark colours but with both rooms southerly facing it doesn't matter. A friend of mine said "How come your house seems warmer than mine?" "Because I chose warmer colours" was my reply.

The usual thing of wearing more layers of clothing is pertinent too, heard of so many walking around in T-shirts when it's below zero outside. Having no heating in the bedroom is something else, whilst they say the bedroom should be cooler I don't think they mean actually cold but mine is, I make up for it with an electric blanket that has a good range of heat settings and a wool duvet which whilst is light is damn good at insulation as we know, bit of a sod if I have to get up in the night though! Use a washing line if you can rather than a tumble dryer and also if possible have thermostats on each radiator. I also try to take most of my holiday from work during the spring/summer/autumn so that my place of work provides the heating and I can switch the heating off at home 🤣

 

With all this in mind I've managed to limit the increase over the year to £440 for my household of a 2 bed end terrace with 2 of us living here, well, that is what Octopus is predicting... 

 

Don't forget the insulating properties of stashes too, so never  mind about paying for energy bills, get out there and increase the stash even more, enough to line the walls!! 🤣

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22 minutes ago, FalkeEins said:

 

according to Quentin Wilson and the RAC you should be able to double mileage per gallon by very careful driving, no aircon, top gear asap etc etc. They did it on an A3

And you belive you can really double your milage by doing that, that means I'll do 100mpg with my petrol Volvo, that aint never going to happen 🤣

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27 minutes ago, FalkeEins said:

 

according to Quentin Wilson and the RAC you should be able to double mileage per gallon by very careful driving, no aircon, top gear asap etc etc. They did it on an A3

How bad must someone's driving be to able to double their MPG with their ideas?! 🤣

Diminishing returns....

 

Rick.

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I can see in the future that how we all used to live will return, you can see it with corner shops coming back and eventually so will jobs and housing; work will be but a cycle ride away, houses will be smaller with smaller rooms and there'll be greengrocers/butchers/bakers/off licences!/ popping up everywhere because so many won't be able to afford the cost of your own transport and energy bills unless you're pretty well off, I'm just going to dust off that chimney sweep gear 🤣, having said that if I remember right you're stuffed in London too as I've heard there are plans to ban log/coal burners etc in houses due to emissions? Can see the idea here, don't want the pea soupers of the 50's back 

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I think you are underestimating the love people have for their own personal transport, and its unparalleled ability to go from point to point.  The cost of petrol is still small compared to the ownership cost,  The economics of large shopping spaces with a wide range of choice combined with mass ordering/storage will still count heavily6 against the small corner shop when it comes to the mass market items,  The amount saved in one weekly/monthly visit will outweigh the current increase in costs, even without allowing for home deliveries.  There may well be niche opportunities for fresh items: fruit, bread, treats, and we are already seeing that.

 

If even worse does befall, it will still be possible to stick panniers on you bicycle and pedal a bit further to reach the store.  I'm told it is very good for your health.

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1 hour ago, FalkeEins said:

top gear asap

No chance of that on mine when mrs fatfingers is driving.... she never goes any higher than 3rd! 😬

 

Regards,

 

Steve

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3 hours ago, FalkeEins said:

 

according to Quentin Wilson and the RAC you should be able to double mileage per gallon by very careful driving, no aircon, top gear asap etc etc. They did it on an A3


was that when they drove an Audi from London to Edinburgh and back on a single tank of fuel albeit filled to the top of the fuller pipe?  Or was that another time?

 

edit - I think that was on BBC Top Gear

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1 hour ago, JohnT said:

I think that was on BBC Top Gear

The one you're thinking of was Jezza driving a diesel Jag from London to Edinburgh and back to London on one tank,another episode was the three of them driving from somwhere in europe to Blackpool i think to switch on the xmas lights on one tank...

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5 hours ago, Toe said:

The "fad" for open plan living is about to go belly up methinks...........

Surely having no wall between your kitchen and lounge saves on heating bills - heat generated by cooking warms the living area rather than leaving through the external wall.

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6 hours ago, colin said:

And you belive you can really double your milage by doing that, that means I'll do 100mpg with my petrol Volvo, that aint never going to happen 🤣

 

..fuel price rises don't really affect me..I ever put  20 quid's worth in .........:banghead:

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I must say that having just built a brand new house as a self build taking the insulation to the required standards plus a bit eg triple glazing rather than double etc. the heat retention is mind blowing. When the painters were here they asked for doors and windows to be open in winter as they were sweating with no heat on at all. 
 

I suspect this is the way forward but there is still problems with older properties where modern hi tech is not 100% compatible with older structures

 

I'm still going to have a healthy electric bill though. 

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7 hours ago, Toe said:

The "fad" for open plan living is about to go belly up methinks............. If my house had this I'd be looking into getting thick insulating curtains to reduce the living area.

 

Whilst Victorian houses aren't no good insulation wise the larger windows makes up for it to a certain degree and I've always decided that the room I'm in the most is southerly facing to get both the sunshine heat and light, I also had a gas fire installed which is left on it's pilot light all the time in the winter and turned up when needed, it only needs 30 minutes to heat the room for most of the night, plus the psychological effect of a cosy coal effect fire and fireplace can't be ignored which brings me on to colours, yes magnolia and white and popular as they're neutral but strewth are they cold colours, my front room and front bedroom are painted raspberry and aubergine respectively, dark colours but with both rooms southerly facing it doesn't matter. A friend of mine said "How come your house seems warmer than mine?" "Because I chose warmer colours" was my reply.

The usual thing of wearing more layers of clothing is pertinent too, heard of so many walking around in T-shirts when it's below zero outside. Having no heating in the bedroom is something else, whilst they say the bedroom should be cooler I don't think they mean actually cold but mine is, I make up for it with an electric blanket that has a good range of heat settings and a wool duvet which whilst is light is damn good at insulation as we know, bit of a sod if I have to get up in the night though! Use a washing line if you can rather than a tumble dryer and also if possible have thermostats on each radiator. I also try to take most of my holiday from work during the spring/summer/autumn so that my place of work provides the heating and I can switch the heating off at home 🤣

 

With all this in mind I've managed to limit the increase over the year to £440 for my household of a 2 bed end terrace with 2 of us living here, well, that is what Octopus is predicting... 

 

Don't forget the insulating properties of stashes too, so never  mind about paying for energy bills, get out there and increase the stash even more, enough to line the walls!! 🤣

I also live in a Victorian end of terrace house and agree the heat retention properties could be better.

To be honest I didn't work for forty years to spend my later years messing about trying to save a few quid. I like sitting about in light clothing and having nice warm rooms. Wasted more than enough cash in my life on non essential things and not about to change now. My wife has just finished a course of chemo and 

last thing she needs is a cold house.

So its pay up time for me, tumble dryer, heated towel rail and thermostat set at 21c. Can't take it with me and would rather my wife and I enjoyed our life than worrying how much we can save. Admittedly if you can't afford it then it makes sense to economise. 

 

 

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36 minutes ago, Tijuana Taxi said:

. My wife has just finished a course of chemo and 

last thing she needs is a cold house.

So its pay up time for me, tumble dryer, heated towel rail and thermostat set at 21c.

 

 


Hope Mrs Taxi makes a full recovery and the chemo does the business. These things put all the rest into perspective. 
 

On the subject of old buildings I really love them but they are not energy efficient. My mum and dad’s Victorian terrace where I was brought up had no central heating and impersonated a passable fridge in winter.  My dad was a keen and good diy man. One time we papered the ceiling of the living room. It was a high ceiling so we used two big sets of stepladders with a wide plank between. At ground level the room was cold and up on the plank near the ceiling we were sweating like two pigs with the paste drying out in double time. It was then I realised where the heat was going that the coal fire pumped out. 

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4 minutes ago, JohnT said:


Hope Mrs Taxi makes a full recovery and the chemo does the business. These things put all the rest into perspective. 
 

On the subject of old buildings I really love them but they are not energy efficient. My mum and dad’s Victorian terrace where I was brought up had no central heating and impersonated a passable fridge in winter.  My dad was a keen and good diy man. One time we papered the ceiling of the living room. It was a high ceiling so we used two big sets of stepladders with a wide plank between. At ground level the room was cold and up on the plank near the ceiling we were sweating like two pigs with the paste drying out in double time. It was then I realised where the heat was going that the coal fire pumped out. 

Thanks for the kind words John, surgery next, the prognosis is positive.

Only two houses we have owned have been Victorian and know what you mean about the rising heat. Like an oven up in the loft, but insulation under the slates must be good because snow melts very slowly. 

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our prayers and best wishes for a full and good recovery for Mrs. Taxi. On the problem of heat near the ceiling, a powerful ceiling fan will help distribute the heat.  Just reverse it in summer for the a/c.    Regards,       Ruben.

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6 hours ago, firefly7 said:

our prayers and best wishes for a full and good recovery for Mrs. Taxi. On the problem of heat near the ceiling, a powerful ceiling fan will help distribute the heat.  Just reverse it in summer for the a/c.    Regards,       Ruben.

 

Thanks for the best wishes Ruben and the fan idea.

We actually have large ceiling fans in the sitting and dining rooms, just never thought of reversing them in winter, will definitelygive it a go.

 

Regards

Rich

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