How are you coping?

Having 'roughed it' in a draughty terraced house over a few 1980s winters as an impoverished student, there are all sorts of things that can be done to save energy, depending on the property and financial circumstances. I trialled all sorts of things including self adhesive window sealer and temporary double glazing film that was installed using a hair dryer. Better to save money up front than try to recover it afterwards. Only our individual members know how tough the coming few years will be for their own situation but if there's one thing people should do, it would be to try and work out what your bills would be if you made no changes from past years.

We invested in solar panels about 4 years ago when our county offered a tax break for doing so. We have a 3 storey 3 bedroomed house and our last monthly bill was $4.50, really cheap considering we have air conditioning. We have gas heating and a gas fire, which I prefer to electric heating but we're thinking of changing over in the next couple of years.

Hi all, I'm keeping my eye on the cost of energy, not saying too much since my last post, but thought it was time for a peekaboo. Wholesale gas prices are now around 40% down from their peak price earlier. Don't turn your thermostats up yet, as the current price is still around double of what it was at the start of last winter. I'm in no hurry to enter into future supply fixed contracts, for obvious reasons. It may still come down further, but I don't know.

It is worth waiting to see the final effect of the government's proposed price cap. I very much doubt that Labour would reject it. If you can get a deal lower than that, it would be worth taking. Be careful not to skimp too much on heat if you can. Keeping warm in winter is an important health aid. Blood thickens when you're cooler, which makes strokes and heart attacks more likely. That old wives' tale about wearing a hat because you lose most heat through your head isn't true but wearing a hat helps convince your body not to thicken the blood. Or so I've read.

Hi all, hi Helen, Please be mindful that news media will usually report to their best advantage, sweeping headlines sell more papers or media views. There's no getting away from the issue that consumers will be paying more for energy, but what's new? At present, I'm considering my next year’s energy budget of around twice my current real cost. That's taking out my long-term contract that ends at the end of this year. Any social handouts will simply be a bonus.

A reasonable explanation of the price cap. Caution, it's the Daily Mail so it will be full of junk adverts and tracking cookies. I have a browser set up with cookies turned off to read this sort of thing.

Hi all, Years ago I volunteered with a charity where one day they had invited a medical dietitian to try & help some of the clients understand the nature of food. I was fascinated. Always loved food. Ask Sir! Anyway, some things that I had learnt as a child were good & sound. For example. Whilst a bowl of lovely hot soup on a cold day goes down a treat, the main course doesn't need to be hot. Often, during my school winter holidays, mum or dad would pack me off with banana & chocolate button sarnies if I was going out (you can all guess where, hey). It was like eating central heating. I've never lost the love of that. I've shared this before, but once, Pam & a friend were doing a child's winter birthday party, you know, jelly & blancmange type thing. Pam asked my opinion about sarnies. Sounds of dismay came from both at my suggestion. When I arrived home later, there were no banana & chocolate sarnies left. They had even made more. None left for me. So, if you like banana & chocolate & you want a rest from cooking, on a cold day, just give it a try. One item never missing here. Happy eating all.

Hi all, Please have a read of my post dated the 13th Sept. I claim no skill on this, except that instead, I looked through the spamcan headlines at the actual facts. Natural gas spot prices are currently lower than three years ago. The government also knew that. Well, well, well, with a few more wells! We are not out of the woods. Europe has bought so much inflated price gas that prices will possibly be kept higher in Europe to pay for it.

Just received £66 from our energy supplier

Hi, Mine too. Five monthly to come. Watch for a £500/600 lump coming too on our pension channel.

Hi all, More ‘well, well, well’. Of course it won't affect your energy bills, because someone has to pay for the cockup, time after time. As a society, we have lost the ability to reason, I believe. Our decision making process now a tick-box assembly. That mentality often fuels a situation into existence by talking it up. Tell enough folk that elephants are really tartan in colour, for it to be made fact. Ok, on with your tea now.

It's not a cockup, it is good news. It means that the government will pay less for our price cap. The gas we're paying for now was bought when prices were super high. They couldn't not buy it or we wouldn't have had enough. So far the weather has been mild and Europe have done much better at sourcing alternative supplies than expected. Some of that could change depending on weather and the global markets. Russia could cause us severe problems if they continue to blow up pipelines and cables. Fracking and nuclear could help in the long term but not in the next few years. We haven't got a lot of storage because we rely on our gas being delivered as we need it. OK in good times but not enough in bad. For various reasons we have eschewed security of supply.

The fact remains that natural gas was bought in panic mode, when if the same volume was bought now, it would cost less than 2019 The economics regards falling natural gas prices. Even a quote from Martin Lewis. Do nothing - inaction is now the best action As a result of the fast-changing energy supplier landscape, Martin stressed to households during his show: “Do nothing, do nothing. Energy prices are rising, energy firms are falling. The cheapest firms are £500/yr higher than just a month ago. People are panicking; do nothing... inaction is now the best action." Do you remember a sketch from Open All Hours, where the baker trips over an old lawnmower, throwing the buns over the floor. "What on earth are we going to do with a load of old dusty buns now?" exclaims Arkwright, as he negotiates a new price. That I believe is what is going on in Whitehall, with the energy companies right now. So often, we see reality played out in drama. The script writers of Yes Minister would be having a field day right now. My fixed energy price contract comes to an end next month, but I don't believe that I'm going to be paying an extortionately higher price than last year. I certainly won't be cold, unless I'm inside a wooden box.

I started this thread during last summer, to try to remove the hype of frightening media headlines, intended to sell coverage & sell papers. One paper talked about average domestic bills of £4/5k for this winter. The government have already stated that for most, the energy cap of £2500 will never be reached. So without wasting heat or energy, please sleep warmly. I do sincerely hope that I've helped you pick through the sensational headlines. Best wishes.

The prediction is that it will go up again next September if the Ukraine war is still going on. Because we operate a just in time system we have to pay a higher price than those countries that have a bigger buffer or have other options (eg coal). There is a lead time to ensure it can be delivered when we need it and that we secure supply against a higher bidder. Yes, Martin Lewis warned domestic customers to not sign up to higher than fixed tariff price but that's not necessarily possible for suppliers. Some already went bust because they couldn't balance the cost of buying against what they'd pre sold supply for. Other companies have been reluctant to take the domestic customers on because they hadn't got the capacity. If we were suffering from low wind and cold conditions the price of gas wholesale would still be high since Europe tends to get the same conditions. We'd all be using a lot more gas. If the gas suppliers decided to drop production to squeeze wholesale customers, the price would still be high. Russia was trying to achieve just that. They blew up their own pipeline to justify a potential attack on other services (eg our supplies from Norway). Everyone knows how much we are relying on gas for heat and electricity but how little storage we have. People and organisations have been warning about just this situation for decades. Tories, Lib Dems, Labour and the grid/pipe heads all dismissed the risks. If you've got very little storage you have to buy when you have to buy and the sellers know it. We use wind power, supplies from Europe, nuclear, a bit of coal/bio and gas. If any of those sources are reduced (eg EDF in France have had problems with their nuclear, Norway has had a very dry summer and was short of hydro, most were relying on Russian gas) then the others generators become more essential. The nuclear fleet is much smaller than it was, wind is massively variable, so potentially we could be relying on our own gas stations for a big part of our supply of electricity. How much would you gamble that prices would fall, supplies could be bought late and the wind would keep blowing? In theory we are in a La Nina situation that can see Europe with lots of high pressure systems (like we did in the summer) but in winter it means cold, still conditions. On top of everything, renewables have contracts that give them 2.5 to 3.5 times the base price of electricity (as produced by gas and coal), so their electricity is even more expensive than conventional supplies. The grid even has an obligation to use it if it can. If it can't then it has to compensate the renewables suppliers to turn off their supply (eg turn windmills out of the wind).