Energy Prices

[Left Back]

48 minutes ago, 101 said:

It's not the biggest job in the world to switch from a gas hob to an electric or induction hob.

But you're right bad time to go back to gas.

Has the price of gas gone up proportionately more than electric?  I don't have Gas so haven't paid that much attention to how much its changed.

[101]

53 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

Not our place unfortunately, will be buying in the next year or two all things being well and will be prioritising all electric probably. Love me gas hobs but some of the induction ones are nearly as good now 

 

Ah yeh just unfortunate.

Yeh I have really been won over by induction, wasn't sure I would like it but when I have cooked on it you can still make just as good stuff as with gas.

[101]

8 minutes ago, Left Back said:

Has the price of gas gone up proportionately more than electric?  I don't have Gas so haven't paid that much attention to how much its changed.

It probably will, the October rise will be the first that's taken into account the Russian invasion so imagine it will be weighted towards gas on the price per unit

[vikingTON]

Pretty sure that electricity and gas prices are closely pegged to each other in the UK market, which seems completely ridiculous when one of them involves literally piping in a fossil fuel to burn it in your house. The incentive to ditch domestic gas is nowhere near strong enough to justify the costs of the transition, which is a complete failure of the market and the government.  

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

59 minutes ago, 101 said:

It probably will, the October rise will be the first that's taken into account the Russian invasion so imagine it will be weighted towards gas on the price per unit

If I'm remembering right I think it's the move to multiple standing charges that I noticed would be the bigger issue when we moved/the prices initially went up 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Genuine Hibs Fan

[101]

21 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

If I'm remembering right I think it's the move to multiple standing charges that I noticed would be the bigger issue when we moved/the prices initially went up 

Yeh the standing charge rise was weighted towards electric for "fairness" in order to pay for the administration of all the companies that went bust. That must have been paid for by now and as VT said it disincentivsed folk who had tried to walk away from fossil fuels.

[Gordon EF]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

I have escalated my complaint to Scottish Power. 

Not sure if it was this thread where I first posted this, but the story is simply this. In 2015 I left Scottish power and joined OVO. Paid my final bill with SP and moved without too much pain. For 7 years all has been fine, no problems with OVO.  

In June Scottish power sent me a bill for over £11,000 "based on actual meter readings". I checked with OVO who say nothing has changed (ie I am very much still a customer of theirs). I put in a complaint. I got one reply, a week later, from someone telling me they were passing it on to someone "with more skill than me" to deal with. Then I received another bill, for just under £4,000. 

Having heard nothing else, I escalated this. I have to wait 8 weeks from my initial complaint to take it to the ombudsman, but i reckon I might go to the press with this if not resolved. The Guardian have regular stories about people having issues like this with energy companies. 

Even in a generally laughably incompetent industry, Scottish Power stand head and shoulders above their peers in terms of incompetence. If they're not charging you fictitious fortunes when you're not even a customer, they're letting you off with thousands because they can't arrange for someone to come round and change your meter.

[Ross.]

Not sure if it is the right thread to ask but is anyone using a geothermal pump for heating and hot water, and if so, is it worth the cost?

[MONKMAN]

5 hours ago, Satoshi said:

The shell share price is pretty close to what it was in 2001 and has hovered around the same level for 20 years.

Centrica had a higher share price in 1997 than it is today (it was more than 4x higher in 2013).

Relative to the market booming in that time these are both drastically unsuccessful companies.

The shell share price went up slightly following the announcement, Centricas went down.

Shell are one of the largest companies in the world, haven't missed a quarterly dividend payment in 80 (Eighty) years and in the last 20 years have paid out $200 billion to shareholders.  To say they're drastically unsuccessful is IMHO (in my honest opinion), utter shite. 

[Bairnardo]

Not sure if it is the right thread to ask but is anyone using a geothermal pump for heating and hot water, and if so, is it worth the cost?

Ground source heat pumps are an enormous outlay and you need either a very deep hole (fnarr) or a very large area into which you can lay a lot of pipe (fnarr).

Assume that's what you are on about? I don't believe on a household basis you would ever recoup the outlay

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, Ross. said:

Not sure if it is the right thread to ask but is anyone using a geothermal pump for heating and hot water, and if so, is it worth the cost?

I think it's only worth it if it's shared between a few houses, and it needs a fair bit of space to install. If the rise in energy prices is long term it could change the calculations though.

[Ross.]

14 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

Shell are one of the largest companies in the world, haven't missed a quarterly dividend payment in 80 (Eighty) years and in the last 20 years have paid out $200 billion to shareholders.  To say they're drastically unsuccessful is IMHO (in my honest opinion), utter shite. 

I have some Shell shares in my SIPP, bought a decade or so ago at about the current price. Anyone looking at the value now compared to then would say that at face value it was a poor investment. That ignores the fact I have received about half the value back in dividend payments. Using share price alone is a stupid way of judging performance.

12 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Ground source heat pumps are an enormous outlay and you need either a very deep hole (fnarr) or a very large area into which you can lay a lot of pipe (fnarr).

Assume that's what you are on about? I don't believe on a household basis you would ever recoup the outlay

11 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

I think it's only worth it if it's shared between a few houses, and it needs a fair bit of space to install. If the rise in energy prices is long term it could change the calculations though.

Probably not worth it for us then. Need to look at the basics first anyway, the windows are needing replaced in the next few years and they will likely make a bigger difference to heating use.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Ross.

[Todd_is_God]

18 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

Shell are one of the largest companies in the world, haven't missed a quarterly dividend payment in 80 (Eighty) years and in the last 20 years have paid out $200 billion to shareholders.  To say they're drastically unsuccessful is IMHO (in my honest opinion), utter shite. 

You are talking, remember, about someone who doesn't believe investing in crypto is a form of gambling.

[Alert Mongoose]

On 28/07/2022 at 10:58, Clown Job said:

 

Which is done purely to appease shareholders and does nothing productive for the company.  One might cynically suggest director's bonuses are closely linked to share price as well.

[Alert Mongoose]

16 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

RE: The Price Cap increase versus profits chat.

As the price cap is simply a reflection of the average wholesale price, it's natural that it goes up.

The profits, though, are obscene. Given the exceptional circumstances, suppliers should be capped at a % increase on last years profits (in line with the average yearly increase in profit over the previous 5 years) with everything above that taxed at 100% with this amount used to provide relief to end users.

That way private companies can still increase profits and joe public isn't slapped with £4k annual energy bills.

That's probably entirely simplistic, but is it not workable?

Any measure based on 'profit' is pointless. It is far too liable to manipulation through transfer pricing, write-offs etc.

We're it in place I can guarantee the profit figure just announced would be different.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Alert Mongoose

[MONKMAN]

55 minutes ago, Ross. said:

I have some Shell shares in my SIPP, bought a decade or so ago at about the current price. Anyone looking at the value now compared to then would say that at face value it was a poor investment. That ignores the fact I have received about half the value back in dividend payments. Using share price alone is a stupid way of judging performance.

My mate lives by the investment motto of “never sell shell”. It’s seen him alright over the years. 

[Bairnardo]

Shell are one of the largest companies in the world, haven't missed a quarterly dividend payment in 80 (Eighty) years and in the last 20 years have paid out $200 billion to shareholders.  To say they're drastically unsuccessful is IMHO (in my honest opinion), utter shite. 

These companies exist to pay the dividend. Its the be all and end all to them. I seen this with the wanks I (and you) worked for. They sold profitable assets to fund the dividend because no CEO wanted to be the one to break the streak.

When they get to that size, it doesn't matter what the commodity is. It's secondary to the financial side. Basically a f**k off big hedge fund with something tangible on the bottom tier.

[Todd_is_God]

In the unlikely event that the Government do anything major ahead of the October rises, there's going to be an absolute meltdown from those who have recently signed up to eyewatering fixed rate tariffs.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Todd_is_God

[vikingTON]

US corporations are literally carting away Europe's wealth under the cover of a Ukrainian flag. The only policy of the Biden administration that can be respected for its effectiveness. 

[MONKMAN]

Anyone thinking the super-majors making astronomical profits is a new thing, are living on another planet. These companies (one of which I work for), historically the largest and most successful in history, are basically cash machines for their shareholders.