Energy Bills

Saga Lout

Fuck the windfall tax, they need to be nationalised. 4% in France, 50% here and rising.

AndyG

I have a weekly meeting with E.on as my company has a contract with them to install renewable products. Last week they were say that at this time just over 500k of their 8 5m customer base is behind with their Bill's. They are estimating that by March 2023 over 3m will be in that position. A windfall tax that equates to a few hundred quid per household isnt going to touch the sides unfortunately.

If any of you have some spare cash I strongly advise you to get Solar Pv, battery storage and get yourselves on a smart tariff to charge the batteries overnight. This isnt a sales pitch as we do not install down south its honest genuine advice. 

I think in September this year the major energy companies will be offering to pay for renewables to be installed on everyone's houses and put the cost onto the household bill interest free over 10 years if the householder wants it so sit tight if you havent got the spare cash

ME14addick

Saga Lout said:

Fuck the windfall tax, they need to be nationalised. 4% in France, 50% here and rising.

Yes you're right, but it won't happen with the rabble that govern this country.

SantaClaus

AndyG said:

I have a weekly meeting with E.on as my company has a contract with them to install renewable products. Last week they were say that at this time just over 500k of their 8 5m customer base is behind with their Bill's. They are estimating that by March 2023 over 3m will be in that position. A windfall tax that equates to a few hundred quid per household isnt going to touch the sides unfortunately.

If any of you have some spare cash I strongly advise you to get Solar Pv, battery storage and get yourselves on a smart tariff to charge the batteries overnight. This isnt a sales pitch as we do not install down south its honest genuine advice. 

I think in September this year the major energy companies will be offering to pay for renewables to be installed on everyone's houses and put the cost onto the household bill interest free over 10 years if the householder wants it so sit tight if you havent got the spare cash

What's the outlay likely to be and how much will it save? 

AndyG

SantaClaus said:

AndyG said:

I have a weekly meeting with E.on as my company has a contract with them to install renewable products. Last week they were say that at this time just over 500k of their 8 5m customer base is behind with their Bill's. They are estimating that by March 2023 over 3m will be in that position. A windfall tax that equates to a few hundred quid per household isnt going to touch the sides unfortunately.

If any of you have some spare cash I strongly advise you to get Solar Pv, battery storage and get yourselves on a smart tariff to charge the batteries overnight. This isnt a sales pitch as we do not install down south its honest genuine advice. 

I think in September this year the major energy companies will be offering to pay for renewables to be installed on everyone's houses and put the cost onto the household bill interest free over 10 years if the householder wants it so sit tight if you havent got the spare cash

What's the outlay likely to be and how much will it save? 

My electricity usage is high so I doubt you would need the batteries that I have mate but if I explain what I did it may help.

If you have a smart meter you can charge batteries on a smart tariff in my case I use Octopus. I pay 8.5p per kw between 12pm and 4.30am. I have 44kw of batteries and solar Pv. I already had the Pv before the batteries though.
Before the recent price hike my daily average usage was £29 a day. Fortunately I got the batteries just before the cap lifted if I hadnt I guess my usage would be close to £40 a day. My daily usage now averages £9 a day by running on batteries for the majority of the time. The batteries cost me just over £12k but for most peoples usage I would think £5k would cover most of their requirements add 4kw of solar which up here costs approx £3.5k ( not sure what firms charge down there ) but if it's similar the £8.5k should pretty much cut your bill by atleast 70%. This is all guess work as you need to look at your households usage in terms of Kw consumed daily to work out how much battery capacity you need. 
As I have said before if anyone wants some unbiased advice just shout no agenda here at all

thickandthin63

I must admit i am confused about this price cap.Prior to april,I was paying £160.00 per month to British Gas as a combined gas -electricity payment that is £1920.pa,I am now paying £260.00 per month£3120.00 pa,is this too much there are only two of us in a 3 bed house.

AndyG

thickandthin63 said:

I must admit i am confused about this price cap.Prior to april,I was paying £160.00 per month to British Gas as a combined gas -electricity payment that is £1920.pa,I am now paying £260.00 per month£3120.00 pa,is this too much there are only two of us in a 3 bed house.

What the energy companies are trying to do is increase everyone's DD in an attempt to build up a credit balance to try and mitigate a massive increase in October. Average price increase expected to be approx 42% with the new cap in Oct mate

TelMc32

@AndyG thanks for the note above, which is really interesting. Must admit I’m shocked at the amount of electricity you’re using though. 

Coincidentally, Royal Borough of Greewnwich are part of the latest London Mayor drive for “Solar Together”.  It’s offered to all London residents and, depending on the uptake, it then goes out to tender.  The winning installer this time is a firm called GET UK.

I had to make a judgement on the number of panels needed and they quoted for the panels and, if wanted, a battery.  There will still be a formal consultation, but the initial suggestion is:

Number of panels : 15
Panel brand : Jinko Solar
Inverter Brand : Fox ESS
Battery brand : Fox ESS

Battery Capacity : 4.6kWh

Cost : £10,572 (inc VAT) (£7,625 for the panels & £2,947 for the battery)

I just put this here now for reference for anyone thinking about doing this.  The current drive ended a couple of weeks ago but I would suspect that, given where this is all going, another drive will be made soon. 

Siv_in_Norfolk

Saga Lout said:

Fuck the windfall tax, they need to be nationalised. 4% in France, 50% here and rising.

Agree. Nationalisation in this context is effectively a no brainer. Current ideology runs against it though, so it won't happen.

Rob7Lee

TelMc32 said:

@AndyG thanks for the note above, which is really interesting. Must admit I’m shocked at the amount of electricity you’re using though. 

Coincidentally, Royal Borough of Greewnwich are part of the latest London Mayor drive for “Solar Together”.  It’s offered to all London residents and, depending on the uptake, it then goes out to tender.  The winning installer this time is a firm called GET UK.

I had to make a judgement on the number of panels needed and they quoted for the panels and, if wanted, a battery.  There will still be a formal consultation, but the initial suggestion is:

Number of panels : 15
Panel brand : Jinko Solar
Inverter Brand : Fox ESS
Battery brand : Fox ESS

Battery Capacity : 4.6kWh

Cost : £10,572 (inc VAT) (£7,625 for the panels & £2,947 for the battery)

I just put this here now for reference for anyone thinking about doing this.  The current drive ended a couple of weeks ago but I would suspect that, given where this is all going, another drive will be made soon. 

Out of interest, how much of your electricity are you expected to get from that outlay? Just looking at even if that provided me with 100% of my electricity it's broadly a ten year pay back (granted prices will be increasing!)

TelMc32

Rob7Lee said:

TelMc32 said:

@AndyG thanks for the note above, which is really interesting. Must admit I’m shocked at the amount of electricity you’re using though. 

Coincidentally, Royal Borough of Greewnwich are part of the latest London Mayor drive for “Solar Together”.  It’s offered to all London residents and, depending on the uptake, it then goes out to tender.  The winning installer this time is a firm called GET UK.

I had to make a judgement on the number of panels needed and they quoted for the panels and, if wanted, a battery.  There will still be a formal consultation, but the initial suggestion is:

Number of panels : 15
Panel brand : Jinko Solar
Inverter Brand : Fox ESS
Battery brand : Fox ESS

Battery Capacity : 4.6kWh

Cost : £10,572 (inc VAT) (£7,625 for the panels & £2,947 for the battery)

I just put this here now for reference for anyone thinking about doing this.  The current drive ended a couple of weeks ago but I would suspect that, given where this is all going, another drive will be made soon. 

Out of interest, how much of your electricity are you expected to get from that outlay? Just looking at even if that provided me with 100% of my electricity it's broadly a ten year pay back (granted prices will be increasing!)

That’s something I want to cover in the consultation @Rob7Lee   The initial proposal, included with those pricings above, suggested I would be 75% independent of the grid. But it also suggests the panels will generate 5,169kWh per year, of which I am only using 2,171.  

They calculate their numbers on 28p per kWh used - my tariff is already 29.63p. Selling excess electricity back to the grid is based on 7.5p per kWh, which is apparently the best price currently paid at the time of the review. 

arthur

Ive had solar panels on my roof for about two months now. Similar to TelMc32's quote above. Averaging almost 80% saving on electricity bills so far. that is at least £120 per month probably between April and October. Will be less over winter but must be somewhere near £1200 saving in a year will hopefully mean breaking even in just over 8 years. If prices go up again might get closer to 7 years. I havent included what BGas will pay me for the exported electricity, thats not much though, doubt it will get to £100 per year unless I change suppliers. Its also probably best to not purely look at it as a break even competition though, its also something that is good to do!

TelMc32

arthur said:

Ive had solar panels on my roof for about two months now. Similar to TelMc32's quote above. Averaging almost 80% saving on electricity bills so far. that is at least £120 per month probably between April and October. Will be less over winter but must be somewhere near £1200 saving in a year will hopefully mean breaking even in just over 8 years. If prices go up again might get closer to 7 years. I havent included what BGas will pay me for the exported electricity, thats not much though, doubt it will get to £100 per year unless I change suppliers. Its also probably best to not purely look at it as a break even competition though, its also something that is good to do!

That was one of my main thoughts @arthur

Also, in the short-term I can only see electricity prices increasing, but even if they start to fall again in the future there is likely to be more need for electricity as gas is phased out & electric cars become more common. 

ShootersHillGuru

The cost of solar panels and batteries rules out 99.9% of U.K. homes. It might well be the ecological thing to do and over the long game be cost effective but for most people it’s a fantasy. 

bobmunro

ShootersHillGuru said:

The cost of solar panels and batteries rules out 99.9% of U.K. homes. It might well be the ecological thing to do and over the long game be cost effective but for most people it’s a fantasy. 

I agree - the solution lies perhaps in Government subsidy and as part of the overall renewables agenda. If every house in the country had solar/battery technology installed how much would that compare with the costs of on/off-shore wind farms?

This is not a job to be left to the private sector. 

SantaClaus

Thanks for the reply @AndyG. My situation is that i'm looking at an extra few grand to repair/replace my roof before I put up solar panels. Once I do that the cost is comparable to a heat pump system. I was wondering which is the better bet if I can only afford one of them?

arthur

ShootersHillGuru said:

The cost of solar panels and batteries rules out 99.9% of U.K. homes. It might well be the ecological thing to do and over the long game be cost effective but for most people it’s a fantasy. 

It is probably out of reach for a lot of homes, but nowhere near 99.9%!

daveaddick

Somebody mentioned the French and how much better they are doing. That's partly due to to the fact that they invested heavily in nuclear power many years ago, something we should have done but the environmentalists didn't like it (what do they fucking approve of?). What is even crazier is that we are sitting on millions of cubic metres of natural gas and refuse to extract it.
I am not opposed to any renewable energy, but lets be realistic here, wind and solar power are never going to be enough for a country in Northern Europe with a population fast approaching seventy million.
Mind you, up until now solar panels were probably a waste of money due to the payback time, but given the new cost of electricity they may now be much more viable. Anyone have any idea?

ShootersHillGuru

arthur said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

The cost of solar panels and batteries rules out 99.9% of U.K. homes. It might well be the ecological thing to do and over the long game be cost effective but for most people it’s a fantasy. 

It is probably out of reach for a lot of homes, but nowhere near 99.9%!

90% then. The actual figure is really irrelevant. It’s a pipe dream for most households 

ME14addick

Landlords aren't going to be bothered with making expensive improvements, when they are not going to benefit from lower bills. When people are struggling to pay their bills, the last thing they will be able to spend money on is the installation of batteries etc.

Mendonca In Asdas

Just wondered if anyone on here have had solar roof tiles (not solar panels)  fitted , and who they used, and was it worth it?

AndyG

SantaClaus said:

Thanks for the reply @AndyG. My situation is that i'm looking at an extra few grand to repair/replace my roof before I put up solar panels. Once I do that the cost is comparable to a heat pump system. I was wondering which is the better bet if I can only afford one of them?

It depends what your existing heating system is mate. If its oil, lpg then an ASHP will save you atleast 50% of your heating bill. Solar PV is imo a complete no brainer if anyone has savings and they are not planning on moving. Any solar Pv will give a much bigger ROI than even the best investment via interest rates without even trying to use them the best way by monitoring your production and using what your generating. I honestly dont get the negativity towards them yet if a financial advisor was offering anything like the % ROI people would be hammering their door down.
The simple answer mate is solar is a dead easy investment choice, heat pumps need a bit of analysis regarding your household

clb74

Not one post on this thread since yesterday.
I take it the money put forward was sufficient then?

cantersaddick

Mendonca In Asdas said:

Just wondered if anyone on here have had solar roof tiles (not solar panels)  fitted , and who they used, and was it worth it?

Great question. Considering this in an extention we're planning in a year or so. Be good to hear pros and cons of them.

Rob7Lee

clb74 said:

Not one post on this thread since yesterday.
I take it the money put forward was sufficient then?

There's a few posts in HoC, de politicised I posted;

Pensioners is always a difficult one as just because you are 65+ doesn't mean you are poor, but as we know the poorest pensioners when means tested many tend not to apply, so overall it makes sense.

Still think they should also have temporarily dropped VAT on fuel as well though.

I'll receive the £400 only, which I'm lucky enough not to need, so if you are like me maybe consider donating some or all of it to one of the charities such as NEA.

ShootersHillGuru

I also think it’s worthwhile for those of us that can afford it to start putting an item or two in the food bank donation box when we visit the supermarket. It really doesn’t have to be much but might make a huge difference to some struggling family.

Cant believe I’ve felt the need to write that in the U.K. in 2022. Absolutely shocking.

Rob7Lee

ShootersHillGuru said:

I also think it’s worthwhile for those of us that can afford it to start putting an item or two in the food bank donation box when we visit the supermarket. It really doesn’t have to be much but might make a huge difference to some struggling family.

Cant believe I’ve felt the need to write that in the U.K. in 2022. Absolutely shocking.

I know a couple of supermarkets were looking at it but dropped the idea, but having the ability to round up your shopping bill to the nearest pound with the difference going to a food bank would also really add up and allow the food banks to buy exactly what they need (they always have a surplus of some items and not enough of others).

A good friend of mine is CEO of The Hygiene Bank, they are also a very worthy cause as people tend to drop those type of products before food/fuel.

Lincsaddick

perhaps solar panels and non gas heating equipment could be built into every new house and block of flats/apartments .. that would be costly but some form of government subsidy could be on the agenda

guinnessaddick

ShootersHillGuru said:

I also think it’s worthwhile for those of us that can afford it to start putting an item or two in the food bank donation box when we visit the supermarket. It really doesn’t have to be much but might make a huge difference to some struggling family.

Cant believe I’ve felt the need to write that in the U.K. in 2022. Absolutely shocking.

Since Mrs GA has been wfh, she puts 1/2 her of what she would spend on petrol into food donations in the food banks.

bobmunro

Rob7Lee said:

clb74 said:

Not one post on this thread since yesterday.
I take it the money put forward was sufficient then?

There's a few posts in HoC, de politicised I posted;

Pensioners is always a difficult one as just because you are 65+ doesn't mean you are poor, but as we know the poorest pensioners when means tested many tend not to apply, so overall it makes sense.

Still think they should also have temporarily dropped VAT on fuel as well though.

I'll receive the £400 only, which I'm lucky enough not to need, so if you are like me maybe consider donating some or all of it to one of the charities such as NEA.

In an ideal world it would be means tested.

Likewise, and mine will be going to The Christie.