Gas and Electricity Prices
- Thread starter gordonscobie
- Start date
x21
pfm Member
Canada has a few plants including Bruce Power. So far Ontario where a lot of the CANDU reactors are have decent power. I have a lot of faith in the technology.
Seanm
pfm Member
One big problem in the U.K. is that politicians and pundits from across the acceptable political spectrum - I.e. extreme right to soft right - have for years been telling us that the necessary responses are not just wrong but moronic, childish, insane, possibly traitorous. We are not in a position to have a sensible conversation about e.g. the role of public ownership in energy security so public debate is restricted to the Tories clowning around and commentators/opposition flapping and saying Somebody Do Something. Just a joke of a political establishment.
Ponty
pfm Member
Let's remember that energy prices were already on the way up before Putin's Ukraine adventure, so the war is making a bad situation even worse. What was the reason given back in September '21 for price hikes?
The price cap went down in 2020, so was adjusting post covid. I do wonder where we’re heading as a society. If I think back a generation, my grandmother lived in a stone house with a coal fire and ice on the inside of the windows in winter. She wasn’t poor and lived an amazing life to a very old age. I suppose it’s the relative weakness of society in the west today which Putin is exploiting, highly successfully it would seem.
wulbert
pfm Member
I don't "want" to be cut off, but it would be to save money. I'm pretty sure that once my son leaves home in September, my wife and I could reduce out electricity use to very close to zero on many days, however the standing charge is payable whether or not you use any electricity. The only way to get rid of the standing charge is to be cut off completely.
We have a wood burning stove and we are well-used to roughing it. House is fairly well insulated.
Isn't that just like saying we coped alright before we had electric lights, so we should go back to using candles?
The trouble is tenants can’t vote with their feet, most of them are stuck where they are because of such demand for housing. They have no option but to live in sub standard properties and when landlords are forced to upgrade they’ll just sell up. I go in a lot of rental properties and I’m so relieved I’m not in the position these tenants are in. With many of them it’s their own life choices that’s put them there but the large majority have simply been priced out of the market.
Seanm
pfm Member
You know who else talks a lot about their society being undermined from within by its own weakness, to the benefit of sinister foreign powers?
wulbert
pfm Member
Looks like it's starting to kick off already. There's a campaign started called "Don't Pay" threatening to cancel direct debits on October 1st if energy costs are not reduced. Apologies if this has already been mentioned up thread.
This has got me thinking about the potential of a "Consumer's Union". If enough people joined up, then concerted action could be taken by coordinated withdrawal of spending on goods/services which were deemed to be acting against the public interest. Politicians only seem to value us as consumers anyhow. Why not use that power?
poems by lucy maud montgomery
Seanm
pfm Member
Suspect Ponty would be pretty much ok with *you* going back to using candles, scraping the ice off the inside of windows, generally toughening up. Him and his mates, not so much.
Ponty
pfm Member
Looks like it's starting to kick off already. There's a campaign started called "Don't Pay" threatening to cancel direct debits on October 1st if energy costs are not reduced. Apologies if this has already been mentioned up thread.
This has got me thinking about the potential of a "Consumer's Union". If enough people joined up, then concerted action could be taken by coordinated withdrawal of spending on goods/services which were deemed to be acting against the public interest. Politicians only seem to value us as consumers anyhow. Why not use that power?
poems by lucy maud montgomery
Brilliant idea. Those who think it will be successful should buy shares in whoever makes energy prepayment meters as they’re going to be very busy.
Ponty
pfm Member
That may come sooner than you think! Only 12 years ago my house had ice on the inside of windows in winter. Never got any colds, it killed all the bugs off.
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
Yes. In some ways we were living better then.
My wife and I still live in a rather cool house during Winter as we both don't like a stuffy atmosphere.
However with our new multi-zoned heating and weather compensated boiler its different. Its taken me 30 years to achieve but my wife now says " I am warm but the radiators are cold" and we don't have any stuffiness at all. Oh and our gas usage has dropped by almost a half.
The heating is on 24*7 but every zone is independently controlled.
DV
Sorry but is this a wind up? You can’t live without electricity this isn’t 1912 FFS!
wulbert
pfm Member
I understand that there is quite a long and onerous process that electricity companies have to go through before cutting someone off. If you query your bill, ask for help with payments and demand ombudsman intervention, it costs the energy co.s about £400-£500 per customer to process. They will be very reluctant to absorb that cost on a large scale.
As someone who practiced community work many years ago, I know from experience that the "disempowered" often have a lot more power than they realise. It's often simply a matter of finding the pressure point that forces compromise.
farfromthesun
pfm Member
I am undecided about the "Don't Pay" movement, but there's no doubt that if enough people do it, the problem will be wholly for the energy companies.
wulbert
pfm Member
I suppose it is, a wee bit. I'm just exploring options. If you recall, my original question was whether being cut-off is the only way to avoid standing charges?
I can bear the high price of electricity that I actually use, but I am really furious about paying extra standing charges to fund the failure of privatised companies like Bulb and others who should never have been allowed into this, so-called "market". Some estimates suggest we will all be paying around £180 this year to cover the cost of failed businesses in a failed business model. If it's privatised, why am I paying a subsidy to cover their business losses?
I could live without mains electricity. I have a wood burning stove, a source of cheap firewood and I know how to rig up solar panels, 12v electrics and inverters to convert the 12v to 240v.
Richard Lines
pfm Member
I think you will find that we will ALL pay the price to some degree.........
Regards
Richard