Wednesday 19 December 2012

We're doing our bit for global warming

Here's what the gas/electricity company sent us to cheer us up at Xmas time. I hope that once the 'planet' has warmed up a bit, it'll reduce our heating bills at least:

14 comments:

Kj said...

That's quite a bit.

Robin Smith said...

Funny how no one is really complaining about them fleecing us. Gas takes no more work to deliver, yet its price has doubled.

Global warming fanatics for and against the planet are barking up the wrong tree.

Kj said...

Is this all gas though?

Ian Hills said...

Wonder what the excuse for high bills will be when cheap shale gas comes on stream?

A K Haart said...

"once the 'planet' has warmed up a bit, it'll reduce our heating bills at least:"

But then we'll use less gas, produce less CO2 and the global temperature will fall again. Can't win.

banned said...

I do so enjoy explaining to old people, when they start moaning about rising fuel bills, about how it is all about building windmills and subsidising D. Camerons father in law; how they fume.

View from the Solent said...

So where's the data on which they base this comparison? How do they define 'similar home'? How do they know that e.g. your house is not occupied during the day as is the case with their '100 homes similar to yours'?
That stinks of the con (can't remember what it's called this week) borrow £x000 to upgrade your insulation etc. and repay it over the next umpty years as an extra on your fuel bill.
The Anglo Saxons had two words for it.

Old BE said...

I'd be looking to rent somewhere with a better energy performance next time.

My energy company once accused me of lying because I was being so frugal with my electricity.

BE

Old BE said...

"Gas takes no more work to deliver, yet its price has doubled."

You don't really get supply and demand, do you?

Bayard said...

How do you manage to consume so much energy; has your miserly landlord not put in any insulation?

"So where's the data on which they base this comparison? How do they define 'similar home'?"

Exactly. If you don't live in three-bed semi, a four-bed detatched, a two bed terraced or some other standard type, these comparisons are nonsense. So too are the suggestions they make for saving energy eg "Turn down your thermostat". Quite apart from not knowing where you have your thermostat set at the moment, many houses have thermostatic radiator valves which make the thermostat pretty well redundant. It's all about making meaningless efforts to solve a non-existent problem.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Kj, yup, put four wimps who hate the cold and like taking showers and washing clothes every day in a badly insulated house and that's what you get.

RS, quadrupled, actually. Twenty years ago I was shocked at how cheap it was.

Kj, yes. Our electricity use is probably only 50% more than average :-)

IH, "supply and demand" or "green subsidies".

AKH, true, that occurred to me later.

B, that's one kind of subsidy for landowners where even the Homeys can spot that it's morally wrong.

VFTS, the letter was sent by First Utility, our gas supplier who knows exactly what our usage and what the average usage is. Our monthly gas direct debit is nearly £200, so I think their comparison is correct.

BE, what's the point in that? If we could "save" £100 a month by renting a better insulated home, do you not think that the landlord of the new place will be charging £100 higher rent?

Mark Wadsworth said...

B: "How do you manage to consume so much energy; has your miserly landlord not put in any insulation?"

Years of practice :-)

See also my reply to Kj above.

Old BE said...

Yes, good point :-)

BE

Graeme said...


"BE, what's the point in that? If we could "save" £100 a month by renting a better insulated home, do you not think that the landlord of the new place will be charging £100 higher rent? "

It seems logical but as Professor Sir George Porter reminds us http://www.richannel.org/george-porter--famous-experiments
common sense is very unreliable. Admittedly I have not tried to rent a place in over 10 years but I do not recall landlords asking a premium because of the insulation.