UK Energy Price-Rise Insanity

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Socoder -> Off Topic -> UK Energy Price-Rise Insanity
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 01:09
Jayenkai	UK Energy Price-Rise Insanity Can't get into their website, "unprecedented demand".. maybe they should've paid their bills?! I'm having to go off estimations from the Smart Reader's stats. Seems that boiling the kettle has gone from 65p/h a couple of days ago, to 90p/h Fuxake.. God only knows how bad the gas is going to be. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 01:56
Pakz	My contract ends in june. Then I wil be on the standard contract. This means at least the price wil double. My home is very well insulated and it had not have to have the heating on yet this winter. Temperature stayed mostly above 16c. I wear a bodywarmer if needed. I think that I wil have to pay the new full price the first month before I can put the amount on my prefered advance amount. The standard for my home was 170 a month. With the new price it would be 340!. But I use a lot less since I take care of my mum at her home most of the time. I also expect to get back a large advance from last year to june this year. That might even cover(most of) the new ipad pro m2 which wil be here somewhere in the fall.
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 05:01
AndyH	I'm splurging on energy today - turning all the lights on, leaving the electric cooker on, running the shower and whacking up the heating to 25C ... Octopus energy are not putting the prices up until 00:00 on Saturday ... WOOOO .... party time!!!! But in all seriousness, they are atleast not maxing out the charges right to the top of the allowed cap. Still charging a fortune of course but a small concession. If anyone wants to move to them and split £100 off your bill with me, please feel free to use this referral link! https://share.octopus.energy/tulip-duck-988 -=-=- Andy H 8-bit games at www.hewco.uk Cartoons at awful.ovine.net Ovine at ovine.net
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 05:20
therevillsgames	So glad we upgraded our solar system a couple of years now to a 6.6KW array and splashed out on a Tesla battery, we havenâ€™t had to pay a bill since (yeah the upfront costs were a bit, but itâ€™s worth it].
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 05:58
Pakz	Denmark wil have enough windmills at sea around 2030 to cover the entire countries energy needs and have a large export capacity. Not sure what other countries are doing. They are trying to stop construction of a Meta datacenter here that uses the amount of energy of Amsterdam. Inflation is also getting high. Close to 12 percent compared to last year. I have not heard about more people getting homeless. But no one seems to usually care about them. It already doubled the last 10 years.
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 10:04
steve_ancell	It's all greed.
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 10:51
Dabz	Denmark wil have enough windmills at sea around 2030 to cover the entire countries energy needs and have a large export capacity. Not sure what other countries are doing. They are trying to stop construction of a Meta datacenter here that uses the amount of energy of Amsterdam. Which is what I find funny... Companies like Ecotricity, which proclaims to provide 100% renewable energy, which in turn makes people think they are using renewables exclusively, increased their prices too, I've been on the look out for another energy company... So had a good scout about, and yeah, they raised prices too... At first glance, it seems at the time the prospect of a war in Ukraine increased the price of fucking wind as well (Double in fact from 16p to 32p per unit) As it turns out, it's all bollocks, sneaky in fact, because even though they do create and provide energy from renewables, what they create goes into the grid, and as such, prices are based on that, so even though wind is free, your still charged the same as none-renewable energy, and highly likely, if there isnt enough renewable energy going into the grid, your using none-renewable like everyone else... So all them people who think and pride themselves that they are saving polar bears and penguins... Arent! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 12:35
cyangames	Yeah, marketing is a powerful isn't it, sell people energy based on it being green, but, turbines gotta turbine and we all rely on oil and gas to a great degree. The "reweable" sources simply aren't as relaible on a wide scale. Have a look into BioMSAR which is an alternative fuel in development, funnily enough, here in the UK, which could well be a game changer in this field, not for carsyet, but more for goods shipping, without the volitility of Hydrogen fuels as well as being able to run in Warsilla engines with little changes. IMHO Nuclear would be the greener alternative despite it's terrible past, add knowledge, technology and time and you've got something much better overall. Let's hope we don't end up with windfall profit taxes and price controls being put on the companies by the people / government as that'll push the companies down the nationalisation route and I would not want to trust any government with control over the energy supply. I disagree though, the war in Ukraine didn't cause this, one month of conflict does not a 100% price increase make. This is more the result of inflation on a global scale, largely based upon the U.S. petro dollar still hanging on to just about being the standard price for oil and gas. combined with politicians stopping pipelines, mass printing of currency during a stagnating economy, leading to what we'll affectionately refer to as "stagflation", and okay, our gov in the UK probably didn't print out as much as the U.S. did but those dollar sure do spread about. Admittedly the grade A retarded sanctions on Russia haven't helped matters either, but, on the plus side, if you're in India or China, you suddenly have way more, super cheap energy! I wander if it's still cheaper to charge you car up with leccy or buy gas down the petrol staion nowadays. -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Fri, 01 Apr 2022, 12:58
rockford	Every single energy company is increasing their prices - no matter whether they need to or not. The profits of the larger corps from last year alone are unpreceented - higher than ever before. They are increasing prices simply because they can. The governent removed the price-cap and pretty much allowed energy companies to ask whatever they choose. The "green" energy providers are just as greedy as the non-renewable providers. It's interesting to note that I've not heard anything about those people who have solar panels on their roof; they don;t appear to be receiving higher dividends for the energy they send to the power-cos. My parents certainly never mentioned getting a larger kick-back for their extra energy... Money grabbing bastards (energy cos, not my parents!).
Sat, 02 Apr 2022, 09:20
Jayenkai	"Amazing Tip : Use a slow cooker. You can run it all day, and it doesn't use as much electric." Reality : Based on our oven's instruction booklet, it works out that you can run a Slow Cooker for about 10 hours before it uses the amount that our oven says it'll use in only one hour. Sounds great. Except that's with the oven on, the grill on, and all four hobs on, all at the same time, for a full hour... Ain't nobody doing that shit!! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Sat, 02 Apr 2022, 10:22
rockford	Yeah, same as "Eco-friendly" dish-washers. If you actually examine all the stats, including running costs, water use AND detergents/salts/rinse-aids washing the same load by hand and dry draining is pretty much the same (and IMHO better - dishwashed stuffage never looks/feels clean to me).
Sun, 03 Apr 2022, 21:06
Pakz	Some reports that supermarket prices wil increase from 20% to 50% this week. This was about Aldi in Germany. Not picked up by larger media yet. Maybe it is just for meat and diary.
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 02:11
cyangames	Makes sense really, if you increase the cost of energy then it affects the cost of everything. Next up will be people complaining about basic goods and services being too expensive then demand the government implement price controls, which they'll probably do. Folks will blame the "greedy farmers" just like they're currently blaming the "greedy oil companies" and we'll either have a full on Venezuelan famine scenario or the government will force you to work for free / little money. Stock up and enjoy the ride or have some sort of exit strategy -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 02:51
Jayenkai	Pastas and rice, folk!
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 03:48
rockford	@Rychan. The thing is, the oil/gas companies ARE greedy. They always have been. And companies dealing with them are fast to increae prices to customers when the value of oil/gas goes up and slow to reduce them when values go down. It's always been like this. Unfortunately when nuclear power plants were planned/suggested twenty+ years ago to reduce the use of oil/gas the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) brigade revolted. Same as wind turbines and burning waste etc. etc.. Now we need all of those things by yesterday. The British taxpayer has also been paying a massive grren-levy tax to the government for green energy which we don't really benefit from. Sure we've got some wind turbines/farms, but not enough. Wind turbines also generally work at 30-45% efficiency and only producing electricity 70-80% of the time - https://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/energywise/all-you-need-to-know-about-wind-power So, as always, Joe Bloggs (ie us) are now paying the price. Interesting to read the other day that an MP, earning well over £100K P.A, complained it was hard on him. My heart fucking bleeds.
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 03:48
cyangames	Yup, Multi-vitamins, peanut butter, honey, tinned goods, etc. Better to have it and not need it now than to need it and not have it. -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 04:17
cyangames	It's always the Faaaking NIMBYS!!!!!! Give me some of that sweet safe Thorium reactor energy and someone please send Greta back to school -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 05:29
rockford	I just want a portable reactor, like Mr Fusion (Back To The Future). No mess. No waste.
Mon, 04 Apr 2022, 05:47
cyangames	That would be pretty awesome!
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 04:29
cyangames	I did find that using my laptop instead of my main PC saves at lot of wattage 5W idle on the Lappy vs 60W idle on the main PC, the lappy seems to max out at ~25W according to HWMonitor and there's the additional energy usage from the monitors to consider. I don't need much power for most of my tasks so I wander if that would make much of a difference to things or at least reduce the price hike from 100% to around 80% I guess I'll find out! -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 05:35
Jayenkai	Yeah, laptops and mobile devices are great for reducing power wastage. I turned on my old desktop PC the other week, and good grief, the power meter shot up! It also does so when the PS4 is on, so I'm now .. a) A whole lot less tempted to by a PS5, and b) Wondering if I can replace the PS4 with anything suitably less power-consuming, but that I can also teach Mum to use it well enough. Thinking a Switch might do the trick, there.. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 05:45
cyangames	Is that from one of those Smart meter thingies Jay? -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 06:33
Jayenkai	Yeah, the base is usually between 2 and 4p per hour, depending on what lights are on in the house. (The living room lights are still ye-olde incandescent bulbs!) Using that baseline, then watching it bob up and down, you can figure out how much each device uses. Kettle on, shoots up to 70p/h! Oven on, goes to 40p/h Hob, about 20p/h Bloody kettle.. If you boot up Puyo Puyo Tetris on the PS4, and couple it with the telly, you hit about 12p. The same game (because we LOVE Puyo Puyo Tetris) on the Switch with the telly on, it only gets to 5p. .. That's a FAIR amount of difference, but then you also have to take into account that the Switch has a battery. I'm not sure if it uses that first, whilst docked, or if it's exclusively draws power from the plug whilst docked.. \|edit\| Just in case the PS4 sounds "actually not all that bad, what are you worrying about, Jay" \|edit\| The Kettle at 70p/h is only on for about 2 or 3 minutes. The PS4 at 12p/h is usually on for about 2 or 3 hours!! You do the maths!! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 08:40
cyangames	Just as an aside to the craziness, some recent resources I've stumbled upon. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Saudi-Arabia-Raises-Oil-Prices-To-Record-Premiums.html https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/French-Power-Prices-Spike-To-3000-Per-Megawatt-Hour-Following-Cold-Snap.html , https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/UK-Drivers-Queue-For-Gasoline-As-Climate-Activists-Block-Fuel-Depots.html -=-=- Web / Game Dev, occasionally finishes off coding games also!
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 10:22
Dabz	What narks me is that for years we've been told to wrap our houses up in all sorts, from insulating the loft, which mine has been done by the looks of it about three times over the years... Fill cavities up with insulation, that's been done, the windows are all good and they are double glazed, my front and back doors will have insulation inside them... Literally, the place is wrapped... And it does work, it does warm the place up more... Moving on... My combi boiler is more efficient then the old back boilers (And even the old combi's) they had in fire places when they replace solid fossil fuels like coal and coke fires... Again, it is, no doubt about it, but what benefit do you actually see from it, because the way they go on how you save using energy with all this guff, it seems these companies know that and, well, you save... Nothing in pound sterling... Nowt!!! Dont use gas, they'll just whack up the standing charge. And lecky... Most things now come with a energy rating, so you can see how efficient it is... But it doesn't matter, you go out and pay extra on an appliance so you use less energy... BONG... Prices go up... It's the age old tale... The less your spending, the more they charge... Customers are in a pretty much no-win situation. I mean, look at all the devices we use now when compared to yesteryear, we are running things now with a USB cable, years ago, it would've had a lead with a brick attached to it, TV's were monsters, we had Hifi systems that looked like a bloody wall unit... Now we have Alexa etc etc that does it all... And yet... I feel like I'm spending a fortune on lecky and there's just me in here... I use very little I think, yet I look and I think "God help those with kids who lets face it, are probably the biggest energy gobblers of any house hold" I just cannot understand how we are supposed to be more energy efficient then say, 30 years ago and having to pay what feels like miles more then we did! :/ Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 10:52
Pakz	I know they tax energy extra and invest that into things to help the enviroment. The Paris treaties and such. In china hunderds of milions of people also got lifted out of poverty the last 30 or so years and are now living mid class life styles. Needing cars, fuel, gas etc. Driving up prices even more. This week I did notice they discovered how to increase efficiency of solar panels with another 30%.