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Gas and Electricity Prices

Seeker_UK said:
This is to make sure that the hot water in the radiators doesn’t burn you when you start to bleed the radiators.
So it's advice linked to safety, not efficacy.
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My hot water doesn't get hot enough to burn me at the bleeder valve :) Anyway, I wrap cloth round to absorb the outflow. Ellenor cracked this query in post 778 for gravity-fed (as mine is) systems

matt j said:
here is a chance it can draw air in through the bleed valve.
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Ellenor said:
Yes that was true on very old systems where the pump was on the return pipe back to the boiler.
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I rather think that my pump (over 20 yrs old; amazing!) is on a return pipe, and the boiler/pump is certainly old. Thought pump life was about 10 years, as has been mine in previous houses. A new kitchen was built over mine 15 years ago, unfortunately, despite my best efforts at the time with the pair of kitchen fitter Neanderthals. Not the easiest access !
 
Mike Reed said:
My hot water doesn't get hot enough to burn me at the bleeder valve :) Anyway, I wrap cloth round to absorb the outflow. Ellenor cracked this query in post 778 for gravity-fed (as mine is) systems




I rather think that my pump (over 20 yrs old; amazing!) is on a return pipe, and the boiler/pump is certainly old. Thought pump life was about 10 years, as has been mine in previous houses. A new kitchen was built over mine 15 years ago, unfortunately, despite my best efforts at the time with the pair of kitchen fitter Neanderthals. Not the easiest access !
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I don't think bleeding with the heating/rads off will give a poor result so I think it's much ado about nothing really.
 
Labour planning a windfall tax to reduce bills. How the hell does that work. If you are BP or Shell, faced will a 10% hike in corp tax for a year, you just bring forward future investment plans to reduce profits, give staff a bonus etc etc. Who decides who should receive the benefit? Cash poor grandma sat in her £1M house whose gas bill has doubled? What’s the cost of govt to work this all out? They’d be better off increasing the personal allowance further or delay the NI hike to ensure low earners keep more of their wages. It’s nonsense.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-tax-on-north-sea-oil-and-gas-to-reduce-bills
 
Ponty said:
Labour planning a windfall tax to reduce bills. How the hell does that work. If you are BP or Shell, faced will a 10% hike in corp tax for a year, you just bring forward future investment plans to reduce profits, give staff a bonus etc etc. Who decides who should receive the benefit? Cash poor grandma sat in her £1M house whose gas bill has doubled? What’s the cost of govt to work this all out? They’d be better off increasing the personal allowance further or delay the NI hike to ensure low earners keep more of their wages. It’s nonsense.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-tax-on-north-sea-oil-and-gas-to-reduce-bills
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On the one hand you are right - a one-year windfall tax can be mitigated by tax planning. On the other hand, it's a phantom policy - Labour won't be in government in the relevant tax year, and I suspect the windfall tax part of the proposal is just a neat answer to the inevitable questions of 'how are you going to pay for it'?

The real purpose of the proposal is to create pressure on the government around the 'cost of living crisis', a policy area about which Rees-Mogg and others have already voiced concern. In which case, it's not nonsense - it's a calculated attempt to put an already-troubled government on the backfoot.
 
laughingboy said:
On the one hand you are right - a one-year windfall tax can be mitigated by tax planning. On the other hand, it's a phantom policy - Labour won't be in government in the relevant tax year, and I suspect the windfall tax part of the proposal is just a neat answer to the inevitable questions of 'how are you going to pay for it'?

The real purpose of the proposal is to create pressure on the government around the 'cost of living crisis', a policy area about which Rees-Mogg and others have already voiced concern. In which case, it's not nonsense - it's a calculated attempt to put an already-troubled government on the backfoot.
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Indeed. It’s easy to offer all the unworkable solutions in the world when you’re not in the hot seat. I don’t really know what the govt can do in reality about the spiralling living costs. Where were the industry subsidies when demand plummeted and the oil price went negative? People were delighted at cheap heating oil and £1 a litre petrol then.
 
I've just read that the TSB (and others?) have said that there was an exceptional outflow of savings during December, putting it down to increasing h'hold costs. Funny thing is that they didn't mention Christmas. Doh!
 
Mike Reed said:
I've just read that the TSB (and others?) have said that there was an exceptional outflow of savings during December, putting it down to increasing h'hold costs. Funny thing is that they didn't mention Christmas. Doh!
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Well, if it happened every year for Christmas, I guess they wouldn’t describe this year’s as ‘exceptional’?
 
Mike Reed said:
I've noticed a gradual deterioration in heating my 3 bed detached, esp. this winter. Not sure if it's my 30+ year old boiler, the pipes and/or rad's becoming less efficient due to build-up of detritus or my age, with its commensurate circulatory degradation and susceptibility to cold. Maybe all three, but at least the boiler is still functioning well; that's a plus. Shall have to seriously consider a revamp from spring onward, but hate to jettison a decent piece of kit.
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Have the system flushed and corrosion inhibitor fitted along with a magnetic filter. This would all need to be done before a new boiler could be fitted anyway.
If the rads are full of black sludge they cannot heat/circulate properly.
 
misterdog said:
Have the system flushed and corrosion inhibitor fitted along with a magnetic filter. This would all need to be done before a new boiler could be fitted anyway.
If the rads are full of black sludge they cannot heat/circulate properly.
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Thanks, but not at this time of year !! Besides, this is best done (and mandatory, really) when a new boiler's installed, which may well be this year. I put corrosion inhibitor in anyway. but you're probably right about the sludge impeding circulation, as nothing has been done for around 15 years.
 
Ponty said:
By revise do you mean increase it? Trouble is, when energy costs go down, if they reduce it in line, the govt would be accused of cutting benefits and hitting the most vulnerable in society. Same as the ‘bedroom tax’, it’s not a tax, it’s a benefit reduction. Damned if they do…
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If they do nothing, they're going to lose a lot of votes - JRM can see it - and for the Conservatives, that's the worst outcome; losing power.

Changes to the WHD scheme is the least worst and can be targeted at those who will need it. If you cut VAT (something Brexit would enable apparently) then people like me benefit and the UK tax take drops which are both unnecessary.
 
Seeker_UK said:
If they do nothing, they're going to lose a lot of votes - JRM can see it - and for the Conservatives, that's the worst outcome; losing power.

Changes to the WHD scheme is the least worst and can be targeted at those who will need it. If you cut VAT (something Brexit would enable apparently) then people like me benefit and the UK tax take drops which are both unnecessary.
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Yes, understand the dilemma. Where does it end though, different pricing in Aldi for the weekly shop according to your ability to pay as food prices rocket? I’ve always said the Lib Dem policy of raising the personal allowance is one of the best ways of putting money in peoples pockets who need it the most. Keep it simple, efficient and effective.
 
Seeker_UK said:
If they do nothing, they're going to lose a lot of votes - JRM can see it - and for the Conservatives, that's the worst outcome; losing power.

Changes to the WHD scheme is the least worst and can be targeted at those who will need it. If you cut VAT (something Brexit would enable apparently) then people like me benefit and the UK tax take drops which are both unnecessary.
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Isn’t VAT on fuel only 5% anyway? That’s small beer really. It’s certainly not the answer.
 
Mike Reed said:
Thanks, but not at this time of year !! Besides, this is best done (and mandatory, really) when a new boiler's installed, which may well be this year. I put corrosion inhibitor in anyway. but you're probably right about the sludge impeding circulation, as nothing has been done for around 15 years.
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I was going to post that these threads only come to the fore during Dec/Feb, the time to check your heating system is around September when plumbers are more readily available ;).

A simple check would be to crack one of your rad valves and drain off some fluid, if it is black oil you have a problem, also the rads will only heat at the top as the pump cannot circulate the black sludge which settles to the bottom.

In the days before corrosion inhibitor (1970's) my father and myself used to remove the rads and flush them out with a hosepipe every year.

I still have some of those rads...:eek:
 
I installed a weather compensation sensor last year on our replacement Alpha combi, that has made a worthwhile improvement to the bills as it assesses the temp outside to the temp required inside then adjusts the boiler programme to suit.
 
lordsummit said:
Isn’t VAT on fuel only 5% anyway? That’s small beer really. It’s certainly not the answer.
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Yes, 5% for domestic use (*). If an average bill is £1200 pa and goes up 50% then if VAT was removed, it's only an £85 saving pa. As you say, small beer.

(*) 20% for heavy business use.
 
Ponty said:
Yes, understand the dilemma. Where does it end though, different pricing in Aldi for the weekly shop according to your ability to pay as food prices rocket?
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If food prices go up 50%, then there's a big problem and people are going to go hungry. So yes, some sort of intervention would be required; food banks won't be able to cope.
 
Seeker_UK said:
If food prices go up 50%, then there's a big problem and people are going to go hungry. So yes, some sort of intervention would be required; food banks won't be able to cope.
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It is estimated 1/3 of food produced goes to waste. If we didn’t waste food, this would offset a 50% increase in price. I’d suggest the same were true of energy.
 
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