Energy Suppliers, Suppliers of Energy. Gas / Electric

as per previous comments on bulb: (also @dicki has bulb innit?)
west midlands here
my landlord who manages our electricity and bills readings where we rent, said:

The Bulb gas rate from 01/04/22 is 7.3668p per KWH (pre April, the rate is 4.046p per KWH). There is a Standing Charge of 27.2192p

lol?
https://mobile.twitter.com/FplAndSte/status/1500491830122762240

Thanks for giving me the kick up the bum to try this.

We have a 30kw boiler that spec'd on the assumption it will heat the whole house.

But we don't really do this, we just heat the rooms we are using with Tado. Even though the rads are over-spec'd I think the flow temp was too hot. Dialled it down a bit now and will see if its noticeable in quieter radiators.

We have a Vaillant Combi boiler (rental property) we've never been able to get the timed heating/hot water to work. So it's either on or off. Right pain in the harris

Can you get the landlord to have it serviced? Sounds like an issue with the boiler. In my youth I rented a place and we never realised we had the same problem so (being idiots) for a couple of years the boiler was near enough on full time. I shudder thinking about it now. We got it serviced in the end, landlord was a bit slow and useless (but didn't put the price up in 6 years) and there was a small part in the boiler had broken, once they fixed it it worked as it should.

The old but digital timers are pretty much impossible for any normal human being to use.

Install a Nest or whatever.

Can we use the confiscated oligarch billions to offset the cost of energy bills please?

at the very least, can someone (HM opposition?) please start putting political pressure on the government to make meaningful interventions

You got a £200 loan peasant, what more do you want?

New windows (a year ago) and using the Tado room controls diligently are hopefully meaning it could be a lot worse for us (in an otherwise fucked 5 bedroom Victorian end terrace). Before we got the windows and Tado, last January's energy bills were £300. Got it down to an average of £100 /month. Just logged into British Gas and they've recommended and annoying but do-able £150 DD to keep on top of the current* tariff.

*fixed ran out in Jan and they were suggesting we move to a £3k/year fix for 24 months.

So we're on the on the variable tariff and I've used last year's energy usage numbers (rounded up a bit) to predict what it will be like on the new price cap. Looks like I'll be bumping up to £200 a month next month.

1 Attachment

What’s the benefit of Tado over normal TRVs? Can you call additional heat to one room (presumably by all others turning off) or does the main boiler thermostat still override things?

What’s the benefit of Tado over normal TRVs? Can you call additional heat to one room (presumably by all others turning off)

If you convert all your normal TRVs to Tado valves every room becomes the equivalent of a central heating zone that's controllable independently from all the others. So yes, it works as you describe. They can be controlled in real time or programmed to heat to whatever temp at whatever time.

During the day we only heat the downstairs kitchen / diner and the office upstairs that I'm in. As our home is old (1920s) there's no point heating the rest because it will just bleed it out.

Have you seen the EU plan for getting off russian oil and gas? Their biggest saving is making the whole continent turn down their thermostats, expect to here Boris preaching the same to us soon

He’ll be getting people to insulate their houses better, soon. In the words of (I think) Michael hesseltine Boris is a man who sees which direction a crowd is headed then runs to the front and shouts “follow me!”

"if you heat at 22C, you heat with putin"

Their biggest saving is making the whole continent turn down their thermostats and put a jumper on

...Dad... is that you?

Bring back those rotating dip switch jobs, anyone can work those! Once saw one that had days of the week on it too, 7 full sets of clicky clicks.
90s to 2022 (they still sell them!) cheapie digi interface (with like two rubber buttons that only occasionally input the click when clicked) are the devil's work, impossible for anyone to figure out.

Most combi you want the return temp (once its leveled out) to be around 54 to 58c i think for peak efficiency.
Always thought that was the temp going out of the boiler!

Best energy saving advice though is just get a flat above someone who is "constantly cold". It's like a free heated floor. Unfortunately they are moving out though, probably due to their massive heating bill.

Tado is great, got one last year before the price rises.

Bring back those rotating dip switch jobs, anyone can work those!

You can still get those, Screwfix sell them! And maybe Wilko.

In the words of (I think) Michael hesseltine Boris is a man who sees which direction a crowd is headed then runs to the front and shouts “follow me!”

He must've taken part in a critical mass without me noticing

not sure if this is a thing or not

seen a campaign on't t'internet saying to make sure you get your current meter readings declared on or before the 31st of this month so any accumulated units don't get moved over to the new higher tariffs by the energy suppliers

not sure if peoples tariffs end on that day in general or not, haven't checked mine tbh

seems to make sense, they say the websites might be quite busy on the 31st so maybe do it a day earlier and take into account the extra days usage, trying not to overestimate your extra days usage too much !

I read an article today that said people on older prepayment meters can “stockpile” energy now to beat the April price increase. If you top up now, but use this energy after the price cap changes, you’ll be charged for your gas and electric at the rate that applied when you topped up.

Unfortunately most people on prepayment won’t have the funds to do this.

not sure if this is a thing or not

So do some fact-checking before repeating.

Have one of those poverty meters in our flat. Been trying for 6 months to get it swapped for a regular credit meter from this century (thing is 20 years old, and has attached a radio switch for the night storage heaters that we don't have that clacks loudly multiple times a day + night and wakes me up, which are obsolete as of 2023 as the signal is being turned off?).

However now, day rate of 20p/kwh and night rate of 14 to 17p (no idea where there are two night rates on it) and a standing charge of £2.20 a week is actually a good deal.
Don't think it has a sim card in it, so not sure how they will update the charge rate, imagine there is a radio signal that does this? But yeah saw that advise so will be putting as much as poss on it. We aren't in need of 'having' to have the lowest rate electric, but so many folk that are lumped with this metering system live day by day (been there, still got the t shirt) and not having the choice of anything BUT the cap is appalling.

Why are things like Octopus also jacking their charges if they're 100% renewable?

I could understand them raising standing charges but they're raising their fuel prices even though it's oil and gas that were supposed to be the issue.