Ours was £220 for electricity

What the chuffin eck are you doing? Welding?

I am with Octopus and a low user, £65 per month DD and in credit.

Recently I received an email informing me that Octopus will not be taking any DD payments this winter as my payment is less than the UK government support.
This was a surprise, not what I was expecting.

The support scheme is very poorly designed to provide this level of support to folk like me.
The money will be going to local charities.

And yet they(Ovo) put my £66 into my bank account with no direction as to why….

And won’t let me drop my dd down to a value that lets me drop the credit balance

They are a law to them selves

a month ago, might have been on this thread or maybe another, we were discussing blackouts. R4 had run a report on the potential, with the regulator saying they always model for a scenario leading to blackouts. The minister (maybe ex minister IIRC) put up to defend the mishandling of energy security was saying they model it every year (true) and this year was no different; the R4 journalist was saying that actually reading the report and comparing to last years’, the model was now no longer in the unconscionable category, and was now a possibility albeit a slight one of the ‘perfect storm’ type.

Well….. seems like they’re now war gaming it as a ‘reasonable worst case’ scenario

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/01/government-tests-energy-blackout-emergency-plans-as-supply-fears-grow

It stands to reason that if you close nuclear plants and coal plants without replacing them and build nothing but wind and solar (and a tiny bit of hydro) you will eventually get to the point where there isn’t enough electricity on cold dark nights with no wind.

There is no incentive for new gas plants to be built because the marginal cost is more than wind so the number of hours they can run to cover costs is reduced.

And planning to rely on imports from Europe does not look so clever when Ukraine happens. Norwegian hydro was another banker which is actually not 100% dependable.

Norwegian ministers have signalled that they may consider restricting electricity exports as the situation in the country is becoming increasingly sensitive both physically and politically, with various politicians now calling for curbs on exports.

Confirmation bias: ignoring the evidence when assessing the early outlook

I believe planned rolling 3 hour power cuts are unlikely but not impossible. I have prepared by making sure head torches are in easy to find places upstairs and downstairs. I bought a couple of cheap LED lamps. We have gas for cooking and a battery radio.

I’m presuming the mobile phone base stations will have some sort of backup and will stay live for communication but we have a battery radio anyway.

Hopefully we don’t get a 2010 style winter.

If the longer power cuts mentioned in the Guardian link happen it is trickier. Having cash rather than relying on cards seems sensible and a week’s worth of petrol in the car.

Results are in. 3 bed standard 30s semi, 2 adults, 2 kids, old fashioned boiler and hot water tank. Thermostat set at 19 in the afternoon/evenings.

View post on imgur.com

A warm October is the key it seems! Barely used any more gas than July. Will have to see what November brings as the temperature drops…

A warm October is the key it seems! Barely used any more gas than July. Will have to see what November brings as the temperature drops…

Indeed, only used 15% of our annual gas consumption in the last 6 months, still not turned the heating on 🫣 (940m3 annual use, 4 bed 80’s detached house with 4 adults, old boiler & hot water tank)

In April Shell Energy fitted a new meter to my Dad’s gas, he already has the electricity one in place. He was paying £140 per month.

The meter as of Saturday showed he had used in total £640 for G&E since 14th April. EDIT; he’s currently £400 in credit

They are getting £278pm from him but send me emails every week advising I up this to £462pm with warnings of debt and recovery.

I’m not moving it beyond the £278pm which is the lowest amount I can set the d/d at online.

This is for an 81yr old man in a bungalow.

I work at home all day in a 3 bed semi and they are happy I pay £240pm.

just done my October readings on Octopus. 3 bed end of terrace with 3 of us in (Daughter at Uni) so reduced vs previous months. And just under a month of usage (28d)

237kWh of electricity = £95

362 kWh of gas = £45

Total = £140 but paying £250 including the Gov top up (£184 from me then) and I’m currently £546 in credit.

As others have said, be interesting in Dec / Jan but for now relatively comfortable.

Yay for global warming (joking)