General Random Conversation..

[Gemmill 46093]

3 minutes ago, PaddockLad said:

One thing no one is talking about is the affect on business energy bills. If a company is not on a fixed rate there’s no price cap, meaning that where domestic users are looking at around 400% increase business users are going to be >1000%.  This winter is going to be carnage, even compared with the lack of help SME’s got during lockdown. 
 

The tories will get crucified but am not sure if that automatically brings Labour back..  people are waking up to the point that 40 years of government basically contracting out fuckin everything has lead to this situation and voting for anyone is unlikely to change anything…

 

My lass was supposed to be leaving teaching this year, but the thing she was leaving to do involves her renting some shop space. 

 

The people she's renting off own the whole property (house and shop) - they live in the house - and I think they're on a domestic tariff for the whole thing. But I can't get a straight answer out of them - they're off the charts disorganised and not really dialled in to stuff like this. I've explained there's no cap on business tariffs but they're still on the tail end of a fixed deal so I don't think they realise that all this is coming to them too. 

 

Anyway I think the decision to quit teaching has been at least delayed until we know exactly what the situation is and what it does to her rent. It might just make her business unviable and she'll have to stay with teaching for a bit. 

 

Not intended as a sob story btw. I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to weather this and she's fortunate to be able to make a decision in the knowledge that she has secure employment. 

 

Although what the fuck this is going to do to school heating bills isn't getting talked about much either. I've heard talk of three day weeks for kids. 

[ewerk 31229]

32 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

I'm with Octopus Energy and I was just looking at their website. They've got a Balance Forecast tool that allows you to mess about with your DD and see where your balance will end up based on projected usage.

 

It has this "crystal ball" feature which you can turn on and it will apply uplifts to your tariff based on current projections. 

 

My DD needs to go from £252 a month to £477 a month for me to end up with the same balance after 12 months that I would without the price increase. 

 

And this factors in the effect of the £400 that the govt has already handed out. 

 

It's fucking outrageous. This will ruin a lot of people financially and that fat blond cunt who desperately wanted to stay on as PM has used the extra time he bought himself to have parties and go on holiday. 

 

If this doesn't end the country's stockholm syndrome relationship with these cunts, nothing will. 

 

 

How much is your electricity in kwph? I'm pretty sure I read the other day that in NI we cap electricity companies profits at 2.2% of turnover so our electricity tends to be a bit cheaper than yours.

[Gemmill 46093]

2 minutes ago, ewerk said:

 

 

How much is your electricity in kwph? I'm pretty sure I read the other day that in NI we cap electricity companies profits at 2.2% of turnover so our electricity tends to be a bit cheaper than yours.

 

That's my current tariff. 

[ewerk 31229]

I'm paying 23.85p per kwh which isn't dirt cheap but is a difference of over 10%.

 

The government could easily introduce a similar cap in GB which wouldn't see companies go bust but would help consumers a little. Of course they won't but it's an example of what is possible.

[Gemmill 46093]

 

This is the graph thing.  The pinky looking bars are my direct debit - I'm actually paying £252 but ignore that.  The bars below the line are my projected energy charges per month based on current tariff.  The jagged line is the balance on my account. 

 

 

And this is what happens if I did nothing to my direct debit and just let the price changes wash over me.  I'd be £2.4k in debit by this time next year.  The thin pink bars show you the extent of the government's "assistance" during this period.  

 

 

And this last one is what I have to do to my DD to ensure that I end up with a balance at this point next year which is something similar to what you see in the first graph.

 

When you think how many people just will not be able to make that adjustment and will be in gigantic debit balance territory, it's terrifying. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Gemmill

[PaddockLad 17698]

13 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

My lass was supposed to be leaving teaching this year, but the thing she was leaving to do involves her renting some shop space. 

 

The people she's renting off own the whole property (house and shop) - they live in the house - and I think they're on a domestic tariff for the whole thing. But I can't get a straight answer out of them - they're off the charts disorganised and not really dialled in to stuff like this. I've explained there's no cap on business tariffs but they're still on the tail end of a fixed deal so I don't think they realise that all this is coming to them too. 

 

Anyway I think the decision to quit teaching has been at least delayed until we know exactly what the situation is and what it does to her rent. It might just make her business unviable and she'll have to stay with teaching for a bit. 

 

Not intended as a sob story btw. I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to weather this and she's fortunate to be able to make a decision in the knowledge that she has secure employment. 

 

Although what the fuck this is going to do to school heating bills isn't getting talked about much either. I've heard talk of three day weeks for kids. 

Schools, all NHS, all other emergency service premises .  They’ll all very likely be    fixed, but if/when those deals end they’re screwed…. people who can’t afford to heat their homes whilst in work will be made redundant, that’s when I think we’ll see proper anger.

 

Labours plan to freeze current tariffs for 6 months will cost half of the entire bill for Sunak’s 18 month furlough scheme & that’s just for domestic users. We’ve not started paying back what we borrowed from the markets to finance furlough, T&T, the bounce back loan fraud etc etc…. we’re obviously not alone in this but as far as I can make out this country is in a great deal of trouble 

[Rayvin 5311]

9 minutes ago, PaddockLad said:

Schools, all NHS, all other emergency service premises .  They’ll all very likely be    fixed, but if/when those deals end they’re screwed…. people who can’t afford to heat their homes whilst in work will be made redundant, that’s when I think we’ll see proper anger.

 

Labours plan to freeze current tariffs for 6 months will cost half of the entire bill for Sunak’s 18 month furlough scheme & that’s just for domestic users. We’ve not started paying back what we borrowed from the markets to finance furlough, T&T, the bounce back loan fraud etc etc…. we’re obviously not alone in this but as far as I can make out this country is in a great deal of trouble 

 

I think we need to quite quickly and urgently come up with some genuinely creative solutions around this before winter or people are going to die. Medium to long term we need to invest heavily into renewables and get as close to self sustaining as we can - not sure where that percentage hovers around at the moment but still.

[ewerk 31229]

@Gemmill Is that just for electricity? I'm paying £93 a month for electricity for a fairly sizeable house. Have you got a weed farm in your loft?

[Rayvin 5311]

It'll be his fleet of Roombas.

[Gemmill 46093]

4 minutes ago, ewerk said:

@Gemmill Is that just for electricity? I'm paying £93 a month for electricity for a fairly sizeable house. Have you got a weed farm in your loft?

 

Nah that's everything. My actual monthly energy cost for the last month was:

 

Electric: £82

Gas: £36

 

My direct debit was massive cos I was with one of the providers that went bust who just stopped billing me for ages. So when I came over to Octopus I had a big debit balance. 

 

I don't see any point in dropping it for the time being though, given what's coming. 

 

TIP FROM THE TOP:

 

I've got a water tank which previously was set to always on for heating, so basically the tank just heated back to 65 or whatever as soon as it dropped below a certain temp. I changed it so it just comes on for 2 hours in the morning and half an hour in the evening and my gas bill has dropped from about 100 quid a month to nearer 40 quid. 

 

 

[ewerk 31229]

Ah right. I decided not to get gas in after the fuckers quoted be £7k just to put the line down the driveway so it's actually worked out okay for me sticking with oil.

[Gemmill 46093]

"Dem culchies and der oil heating. Smell o' shoite o' dem." 

[Renton 22015]

2 hours ago, ewerk said:

Ah right. I decided not to get gas in after the fuckers quoted be £7k just to put the line down the driveway so it's actually worked out okay for me sticking with oil.

 

Sure you're not using peat? Sure you should, so you should. 

 

That fucker Martin Lewis has some shit to answer for. I took his advice on NOT taking a fixed deal in May or June time and now I'm going to be massively out of pocket as the fixed rate deals are insane and variable rates are far worse than they would have been had I fixed when he told us not to. Also think I've said it before, but I'm with EDF with 2 smart meters they fitted when I moved in here. The electricity one doesn't work at all so I still have to take manual readings with estimates based on this. I don't have consoles for either so have no idea what is costing me what. Brand new combi boiler C/H system, new electrics, but my windows and doors and roof are drafty as fuck. I can see myself spending £500 a month or more during winter easily, especially when you wfh. Insane. 

 

As for commerical properties, I heard a story yesterday of a fish and chip shop whose energy bills had gone up from 7k pa to 80k pa. Needless to say he is out of business now (when you also factor in increases in cooking oil, potatoes, fish, employee pay etc). This is going to happen on a massive scale this winter imo. I mean even a bag of chips is becoming a luxury (£4.50 here). People aren't going to be eating/drinking out and the whole cycle negatively reinforces itself. This is going to make the 80s look like a cake walk. 

 

All this is in the wrong thread btw.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gemmill 46093]

Here Flaps McGee have you followed the G-Man's advice on reducing the flow temperature of your boiler? 

 

https://www.theheatinghub.co.uk/articles/turn-down-the-boiler-flow-temperature

 

That'll knock your bills down a bit. 

 

[Gemmill 46093]

And aye, we all should have fixed fucking ages ago. There's still some deals where it's just about worth fixing if you're an existing customer but I'm not gonna bother now. I'm just gonna moan like fuck about it on here and wear a hat and scarf in the house. 

[NJS 4411]

I just read an email I got last week offering to fix and it's twice as much as current standard so I suppose the gamble is whether standard goes up that much. 

 

I know they're cunts obviously but I think they'll have no choice politically to limit the increase somehow on top of this £400 thing. 

[Gemmill 46093]

Just now, NJS said:

I just read an email I got last week offering to fix and it's twice as much as current standard so I suppose the gamble is whether standard goes up that much. 

 

I know they're cunts obviously but I think they'll have no choice politically to limit the increase somehow on top of this £400 thing. 

 

Aye, my sister was asking me what to do last week and it was around the time Starmer came out with his stuff about fixing at current prices. 

 

Sunak and Truss hadn't come out and fucked that idea off at the time, and I was saying to her if you fix and they then do this, you're just gonna be paying double bubble. I think they'll do something but not sure what and I'm sure it won't be enough. 

[strawb 4385]

Booked a nice meal for me and our lass. Booked it last night and said to her (paraphrasing cos she has a horrid Manc twang):

 

“is 7pm ok? Will you be home from work in time?”

 

”Oh yeah no bother, I will leave at 4pm”

 

Just text her and she hasn’t left work yet, takes an hour for her to get home. I even text her this morning and asked if I should go change the booking till later. Foaming 

[Gemmill 46093]

Aye that's bullshit like. 

[strawb 4385]

I fucking hate being late to bookings as well. Seriously considering just going to the pub if she isn’t here soon

[Monkeys Fist 43115]

“Dinner’s in the bin, I’m in the pub”

[strawb 4385]

1 hour ago, Monkeys Fist said:

“Dinner’s in the bin, I’m in the pub”

She made it but I angrily ate that fucking meal and she knew it. 
 

Bit drunk now so all is forgiven in the hope of getting my end away

[Gemmill 46093]

4 minutes ago, strawb said:

She made it but I angrily ate that fucking meal and she knew it. 
 

Bit drunk now so all is forgiven in the hope of getting my end away

 

[catmag 337]

I know you’ve all missed my tales from the world of the NHS so just to ease you into the weekend I’ve spent half the night in an operating theatre with a patient who had necrotising fasciitis of the perineum. Don’t Google unless you have a strong constitution. You’re welcome. Happy weekend 😘

[Ayatollah Hermione 14069]

9 hours ago, strawb said:

She made it but I angrily ate that fucking meal and she knew it. 
 

Bit drunk now so all is forgiven in the hope of getting my end away

How many times did she try and blame you somehow? That’s a favourite tactic of theirs.