Electricity

[Michael Rolls]

Just had a gleeful letter from SSE telling me my costs will rise from 1/4/22 - surprise, surprise. The cost this year £3,769.51. Cost next year, assuming the same level of usage- and I can't see it changing - £5074.86. That's an increase of 34.6%. What really riles me is that the daily standing charge has risen from 27.48p to 50.14, or by 84.46%!
WHY? the standing charge -  as I understand it, is effectively an admin charge to cover the cost of actually providing the service - how can that have changed, never mind very nearly doubling!
Mike

[crabbyob]

the Govt needs to be examining the power companies books very closely, and if not
then why not???
of course if your bill doubles then so does your VAT charge.... excuse my French...bastards, all of them

[Michael Rolls]

I must admit to seething over that standing charge, but I know damn well it would be a waste of effort - and a raising of blood pressure - to moan to company. I am already on their lowest tariff.
Mike

[klondike]

Maybe you should consider if you really need such a large energy inefficient house.

[Raven]

I down sized my house 20 years ago. I was rattling around by myself in a big family house. I loved my new wee bungalow, only downside was the great big garden. I liked working in the the garden but this was just too much for me on my own, plus I was still working and out at night teaching the Linedancing. My son stays in my house often while I'm up at the farm and he enjoys doing the garden, it's his now not mine.

[Michael Rolls]

Maybe you should consider if you really need such a large energy inefficient house.

No way - this is where we were happy, Unless I have to go into a home, the only way I am leaving is in a box. The fact that, under protest, I can afford these swingeing increases, doesn't mean that everybody can. Whether the degree of price increase for the product is justified, clearly I have no way of knowing, but the increase in the standing charge? How on earth can that be justified?
Mike

[Jacqueline]

Mike, My Standing Charge is now 48.15 when the unit of electric is 28.289.  why has the standing charge gone up so much in relation to the electricity cost which I can understand as they are paying more for it? something is very wrong here, they say their pricing is clear, the hell it is.  Smoke and mirrors again.

As for you moving out of your large bungalow Mike, its your home, you have all your stuff around you, why should you move if you don't want to.  We are trying to sell our place, people assume I am downsizing, I want the same space in a more convenient location. I have a lifetime collection of nice furniture and stuff, I am not a horder but do need space to display it all.  If it all went I would be misrable there would be no point I  would be just sitting here waiting to die, Ok if you can do it but like you I can't, its my home I have paid for it I intend to live in it with all my stuff, the kids can flog it all when I am gone.   

[klondike]

I wouldn't move either so I undersand that. I think come April there is going to be one hell of a row brewing on VAT on fuel and green subsidies. Plus we are sitting on plenty of our own gas that isn't being extracted. Coal too come to that. I think Putin may have put a big spanner in our governments net zero plans which seem to rely heavily on gas imports for when the wind don't blow.

[Michael Rolls]

Mike, My Standing Charge is now 48.15 when the unit of electric is 28.289.  why has the standing charge gone up so much in relation to the electricity cost which I can understand as they are paying more for it? something is very wrong here, they say their pricing is clear, the hell it is.  Smoke and mirrors again.

As for you moving out of your large bungalow Mike, its your home, you have all your stuff around you, why should you move if you don't want to.  We are trying to sell our place, people assume I am downsizing, I want the same space in a more convenient location. I have a lifetime collection of nice furniture and stuff, I am not a horder but do need space to display it all.  If it all went I would be misrable there would be no point I  would be just sitting here waiting to die, Ok if you can do it but like you I can't, its my home I have paid for it I intend to live in it with all my stuff, the kids can flog it all when I am gone.

My feelings exactly.
Mike

[GrannyMac]

And I will happily move at some point.  After being unable to persuade my mother to move, she ended up in a nursing home.  She had lived in the same flat for over fifty years. We've moved several times, and I was determined not to get too attached to bricks and mortar. I have a few things I'd hate to part with, but they'd fit into a small flat.  Less cleaning, cheaper to heat and maintain.  What's not to like. 😉

[Alex]

I agree with GM.   I don't want to move but I know leaving this large, dusty, old house would make sense financially and 'housework' wise    and  I don't need 3 bedrooms or a dining room.  Lots of memories here for me too, but the memories are in my heart, not in the bricks and mortar.

[Michael Rolls]

As I look around - at my books (some 500 or so), at my pictures (85), at Veronica's Hummel collection, at her crystal collection, at her wall hangings, at my files, at the wine racks - it is a large bungalow, but only just about large enough! No, for me, somewhere smaller would be a prison
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Oh, and I forgot - because it is second nature to me - to say that I couldn't bear to live somewhere Veronica never knew.
Mike

[klondike]

As I look around - at my books (some 500 or so),

The books you said just recently you cannot easily read any more so use a Kindle instead.

[Michael Rolls]

Many of my books are not available on Kindle - also many of them are on fairly esoteric subjects unlikely to ever be on Kindle. Hopefully, one day my arm will be better and I will once again be able to hold large, heavy books. As an example - I have about 20 books devoted to WW2 fighter a/c alone, some of them fairly technical, including Air Ministry (as it was then) Pilot's Notes.
Mike