General Chat

When asked today, what he was going to do, to help families deal with rising energy bills, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said, that freezing energy bills was not the way to help people, the way to help people is to wait until the investigation proposed by OFGEM is completed - an investigation that could take up to two years to produce it's findings.

Thanks Mr Davey that will be a great help :-S

We've just switched yet again.
Will have to wait and see if we save anything. I doubt it but I refuse to be cold.
More trips to the local library I guess.

;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

No doubt we are paying the energy bills for the Secretary of State in question, via his MP allowances :-|

I guess it is all to obvious but the easiest way to reduce heating bills is to use less energy.

1. England is a cold country most of the year yet insulation is typically poor to abysmal. Underfloor insulation in particular is ignored even though a third of energy loss can be through the floor. Damp wastes heat like anything ( see skool, how to be topp, latent heat )
2. Small things like not heating a whole kettle of water for 2 cups, turning stuff off instead of standby, modern energy efficient tv, computer can add up to a big difference.
3. Old central heating systems tend to have very inefficient boilers, radiators often need bleeding, radiators full of lime scale.
4. Dishwashers are more energy efficient than washing up by hand as well as more hygenic.
5. Old fridges are an energy disaster zone. Old washing machines not a lot better. Old cookers and hobs perform poorly too. Unfortunately the least energy appliances tend to be more expensive.
6. Get an energy usage gadget from yr supplier - ours gives them away free.
7. On cold days wear a thick sweater - they can look cool though if you get a Sarah Lund sweater it will use up all the energy savings.
8. Consider spending the winter months somewhere warmer - lots of Brits do just that :-)

BTW if anybody is going to visit the Houses of Parliament be aware that most of it is swelteringly hot. No wonder Mr Davy sees no need for haste.

We have not had our heating on at all this winter, we have an open fire which I am able to provide plenty of free wood and logs, fir cones burn like coal, our last gas bill £195 !!!
All the boiler does is hot water and the cookers duel fuel, ie gas hob, god knows what the bill would have been with the heating on.

Know how you feel McB, just had my q electric bill and it's the highest ever £252.00!!! I was paying £80 per month but now they are increasing it to £100 as i had carried forward some from last quarter. I already pay £140 per month for my oil central heating.

in 2004 we completely renovated this house, new boiler and every utensil replaced, insulation coming out of your ears.

have my energy bills gone down ? no. Why not you say surely the house is warmer so less heat required? Actually no we use the same amount of units as always, as ive checked the old bills. But the unit price over the last 10 years has gone up and nothing we can do about that.

So after spending £80k on the house, we are no better off and infact worse off as the bills cost us so much more now,

i have an open fire on every day burning peat and coal and therefore only put the heating on for 2 hours sometimes 3 a day. cant afford to put it on more.

If it's a fine day, washing goes out all the time. This week has been brilliant hardly used my tumble drier at all.

have compared other companies but there's not much in it and i froze our prices for 2 years,runs out in dec14.
Unfortunately everyday life costs money for essentials. So washing, bathing, cooking and heating we cant do without. Yes turn off lights, keep doors shut etc but that really doesnt save much.

Not sure what else we can do?

The companies are so greedy, taking more and more from us.
Bet they couldnt feed a family of 4 for £70 per week and run a house?

Florence
in the hebrides :-|

"Dishwashers are more energy efficient than washing up by hand as well as more hygienic"

They are? Hygienic Ok but don't they use a lot of hot water????

Florence, I'll swap you electric bills anyday, ours is always around £480 - £520

The advice dished out is all very well but not the answer, the fact that Cameron and crew tell us to change supplier etc is making it easier for them, what needs to happen now is the government to swap places with us and be cold and hungry in winter every winter.

OMG Mcb thats horrendous! Oil per q is £420+£300(elect)=£720 per quarter.
Do you get a gas bill as well?

We don't even have an electric shower as it works off the oil.

If you dont put on the heating and have an open fire, out of interest what eats up your electric? Do you use an emersion heater or electric fire?

And people ask us why we dont go out for meals or holiday abroad,amazing!!!!!

Really chilly up here tonight, lovely peat/coal fire on. So warm and cosy in the lounge, but the rest of the house well....brrr as heating is off now.

Florence
in the hebrides.

ZZzzz absolutely agree with you. These policticians have no idea what it's like to live out of their comfort zone and come into the real world do they?

like to see them go without food or heating for a few months and also live on my salary!!
Florence
in the hebrides

Gas is on top of that Florence, my oh does ironing all day, the washing machine is never off, well hardly, tumble dryer is as bad, washing does go on the line outside through the summer, picked up a wood burner for 50 quid today, that will be going in through the summer so should be able to keep it going low all through the night when it's real cold, the supply of wood isn't a problem for me I'm a joiner and every time I'm out in my van I pick up any branches, bows or trees that have come down, there's huge amounts down here, ALL FREE HEAT

Florence.

I reckon one winter would do the trick but make them suffer it for more winters and not tell when it will stop, that would give them the wake up call, they would start to dread every winter but that is the point, and should be made now to stop their arrogance.