Check, or cancel, your Direct Debits!

Only for some

 

Indeed - the downside is there is a hell of a lot more folk that are stuck in the middle nowadays; no savings, raped on interest rates on any debts despite low base rates and then will get clobbered by rent rises as landlords pass on the interest rate rises to their mortgages.

 

I cannot have smart meters sadly, but I am tracking via a spreadsheet so that is almost as good albeit not daily/weekly breakdown. I have also cancelled the direct debit - why should I allow an energy company to go roughly £600-£800 in credit and make interest out of having that money when I can either save money by paying more of a credit card or at the least keep it in a savings account? Stuff them - I will pay for what I use at the end of each month.

 

Exactly - the elites of our society could resolve much of this, but have chosen not to because they are not affected in the same way we are.

 

I do my own meter readings and make sure that my monthly Direct Debit doesn't overcharge me. I don't need a 'Smart Meter' to make the decision for me . Long Live Luddites!

 

Our solar panels have already given us more electricity so far this year than we got for the whole of last year - but last year was our worst year ever. I'm hoping it will have made a significant difference to our bill but can't compare properly since my last year's power company went bust. When they went bust I owed them £70 (agreed by me) which was collected on their behalf by the receiver.

 

Financed how, exactly? Also, why should I pay the thick end of £10k or whatever it is for solar panels for a rented property? How would that help those living in blocks of flats?

 

Quite right. There is no incentive for people renting.

Also, the stupid government took away the incentives it gave homeowners to install the panels.

They started off by offering loans to install them. When that didn't work (absolute failure) they offered grants, which helped a bit. Then they offered to pay the householder a set sum per kWh for everything the panels produced whether they house used it or it went back into the grid. That was a fantastic idea that was taken up very quickly and helped boost renewable energy production fourfold. So, of course, they stopped it!

The price nowadays for a full set of 16 panels is something under £5,000 (there is a small payback for what isn't used and goes back into the grid) but why should people who rent want to pay anything?

Now that we need all the renewable energy we can get the government should be thinking up worthwhile incentives.

 

I agree with you but the solar panels are unlikely to pay for themselves 'soon'. It's a longer term investment. It's more likely to take from five but much closer to ten years.

 

Especially now that feed in tariffs are no longer and it is the SEG:



If you have a 4.7kWh PV set up, assuming 8 hours at full capacity of production and no usage at all (ie, exporting it all to the grid), that is £2.06 per day even at the highest 5.5p - standing charges are now between 70p and £1 per day, so even being generous that is £1.36 per day or circa £40 per month... at absolute most. This is the UK, so good luck having PV running at full tilt for 8 hours all day every day.

The only upside is that you have, in theory, 4.7kWh that you can use that you are not buying from the grid at 0.29p per kWh, but given that a kettle uses 3kW that means you cannot use that and a toaster at the same time. Sorry, but solar is not the answer to our problems.

Indeed, we are now even seeing councils installing car charging stations with solar roofs on them (usually with panels all at jaunty angles so that a given number of them are at the right angle for the sun) - even assuming that these may be two to three times the size of a house roof, they are clearly not going to be chucking out a full 14.1 kWh at all times (so let's be fair and say they average around 8 kWh constantly) then an MG5 rolls in and wants a 50kWh rapid charge....

This is the problem with all of this green tosh being forced upon us - the numbers simply do not stack up.