HIGH GAS PRICES

[Anonymous]

I have just had my first gas bill after the huge rise from British gas and it is bad, I am considering getting a soild fuel Rayburn to heat my downstairs, as my heating mainly does my bathroom and 2 main bedrooms and box room. What is the running cost of one of these or is better to stick to gas or even change to oil?

Any comments greatly appreciated on running costs of ranges etc.

I have doubled loft insulation so that is better

 

[Anonymous]

I reckon this is something we are all going to feel the pinch on soon.... as for a solid fuel rayburn - my only caution would be for the amount of work it takes to get it, and keep it going. Many of the people I know who have had solid fuel have converted them to oil fired purely because of the convenience - if you go out / or away for any length of time during the winter you've got to either ask someone to come in and keep it stoked up, or it goes out and whatever it should be heating is freezing cold before you get back.

Have you tried U-switch? A recent radio interview with them advised that you can get very good savings on fuel costs by just switching suppliers - they also suggested that, once our Government gets its act together on the price of us sourcing gas from other continents, fuel prices will fall again anyway.

H

 

[Anonymous]

British Gas is a large part of the problem.

If you go to moneysavingexpert.com they have several price comparason websites linked that actually refund to you part of their kick back fromt he energy co.

I recently switched and they project that my Gas bill will come down by 30%... it is going to take one hell of a price rise to make it worth staying with British Gas... and you can always switch back...

If you want some alternative to Gas then Oil is a poor choice IMO. How about a nice wood burning stove?

G.

 

[Anonymous]

>British Gas is a large part of the problem

I don’t think so. It’s more to do with geology and our insatiable demand for comfort and stuff. Those of us who pointed out several years ago, when the government thought up the policy of Dash for Gas, that the North Sea had a finite supply of gas and that it would all end in tears were dismissed as scary doom mongers. Now we find, oh, surprise, surprise, that gas production has peaked and is declining at about 12%p.a.. Arguments about which supplier’s price is least cheap at any particular moment are just froth on the top of the big problem that we are entering the post Peak Oil, and then the Post Peak Gas eras. While the world tears itself apart in resource wars we can at least sit on a Cumbrian hillside and admire an unspoilt view.

 

[Anonymous]

I meant in terms of immediate issues with high bills.

I agree that we face problems with long term Gas supply, but (as consumers) we also need to consider the issues of greedy suppliers and speculators. The Enron fiasco should be a worning to all that if a company thinks it can get away with continually hiking prices then it will....

Jumping ship to a cheaper supplier doesnt resolve issues of Monopoly higher up the chain but it will hopefully keep the likes of British Gas in check...

In the longer term I think we are likely to see gassification make a come-back before we see widespread use of alternatives.

I would dearly love to see more effort put into alternative energy, even if they simply extended the Clearskies grants to things like (manually fed) clean-burn woodburning stoves, it would help a lot.

G.

 

[Anonymous]

The real truth is that whilst the "civilised" countries populations can indulge in spending money on all sorts of C**P and religiously believing that even more is needed to keep up with the "Jonses", energy waste is the leat of their problem .

After all three holidays a year have to do, as long as the four telies and the three cars can be sustained.

The big leveller in conservation of energy will only be effective when there is a straigt choise between not enough to eat or keep warm.

Yours truly will bite the dust same as everybody else.

In the mean time I shall get two unused open fires back in action, an a tripod for the wife to cook on.

 

[Anonymous]

Plenty of wind turbines around Cumbria already though... Kendal, round the west coast, outskirts of Whitehaven...

But the Whinash verdict may bring a bit of sense into where we should be putting these.

Kiln Pit Hill, and unspoilt parts of Northumberland are NOT the places...

And maybe we should be doing as Mr Cameron is doing (although things will have to come down in price considerably first...) and try generating some of our own energy.

Posssibly people should consider dressing a little more warmly to save fuel costs too.

 

[Anonymous]

From the reading I've been doing over the last few weeks, mains gas is still the cheapest of the main stream energy supplies, oil is quite a bit more expensive, you cna have our fuel bills if you like!!!!!!!
As has been mentioned , look at Uswitch and the likes for help finding a cheaper alternative in the short term.

Graham

 

[Anonymous]

He he he!

No holiday in about eight years; solar hot water; wood fires, self-sufficient in pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, honey, vegetables, beer, cider and wood; a working Lister Start-o-matic (going to try running it on WVO); wheeled hand plough, wheeled hand furrower, wheeled hand cultivator and wheeled hand hoe; axe, bow saw, maul and wedges; and ancient Land Rover (running on diesel/WVO mix).

All I have to do now is get my cereal growing on track, finish making that wind turbine, get the oil Rayburn back on wood, and get me an arsenal to keep all you cold, starving city types at bay!! <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

As for gas, I'll just hook up a pipe to my pigs' bums and away we go...

 

[Anonymous]

>Posssibly people should consider dressing a little more warmly to save fuel costs too.

Care to join me? I'm inside and wearing thermals, then moleskin trousers and flannel shirt, then light sweater, then boilersuit. Outside, I add waterproof overalls, a heavy jacket, scarf, balaclava, and two pairs of gloves. (We have four feet of snow inside the steading, with drifts up to six feet deep. The road is like a tunnel through the snow.)

The heating gets run for an hour or so in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, plus we keep the wood fire in the sitting room going at a low level all day. That's the case even when it's -15C out.

Our neighbours, whose family have been here for well over 200 years, leave their front door open in most weathers (no central heating) and only bother with lighting a fire of an evening or when they're having a bath. She's even known to shovel snow at 6am in her nightie and slippers....

 

[Anonymous]

No-one mentioned solar yet, solar air space heating can pay back nicely if designed right.

NT

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sitting readin these posts with 2 pairs socks, thermal layer, ski sallopetes, 3 long sleeve tops and 2 jumpers and a thick lined hat! I have a rapidly cooloing hot water bottle up my jumper and my main fear is the fridge switching off as then there is nowhere to stick my head for a warm up!

At night I lie thinking perhaps i should be in Nova Scotia learning how to fish from an ice hut so I am prepared for permafrost survival!
Not sure if trees grow in permafrost which sends me into a panic about wood stoves as an option!
Wish we could make a choice on the heating subject but it is all so confusung!

Aren't you glad you don't carry my brain around all day.

 

[Anonymous]

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