Re: The energy crisis
 

I will have to put my heating on , I cannot stand the cold, So I will have to pay,

Re: The energy crisis
 

Well if you will live in Glasgow. Emigrate to Yorkshire, its still sweltering hot here, honest ;)

Re: The energy crisis
 

Got an email from Bulb the other day saying they needed to increase my DD again as I was "at risk of building up debit soon".

This was clearly ridiculous, I was almost £500 in credit, and my last two monthly bills were < £200.

I dropped their support an email pointing this out and instructing them to leave the DD alone. I also asked about just paying the actual bill each month.

I was slightly shocked to get a reply at just after midnight ... :shocked:

They basically offered to refund all my credit, and change my DD to take the actual billed usage each month.

I accepted.

Re: The energy crisis
 

No notification as yet from Scottish Power about the new tariffs or DD levels.

Re: The energy crisis
 

We got our first payment credited on our meter this morning of £66.

Re: The energy crisis
 

The Thatcher Government closed the mines because they were uneconomical, however, after chatting to a retired miner, he says there was plenty of coal left in them and millions of pounds worth of equipment was left down there because it was cheaper than recovering it.

He said that many mines will have flooded by now, so I can't help but wonder if it was a mistake to have closed them in the first place.

The uneconomical cost of mining our own coal will be dwarfed by the now extortionate cost of energy & any loss of gas to industry.

Re: The energy crisis
 

reserved for future use -what a woman Mrs T was.

Re: The energy crisis
 

The quantity of coal and the cost of extraction are not necessarily linked. It absolutely was not a mistake to close the mines - even if they could quickly be reopened now, coal is an environmentally disastrous fuel which we should only contemplate using in a dire emergency.

This present crisis will not be severe or long-lasting enough to justify what it would have cost to keep those mines ticking over for the past 30-40 years.

Re: The energy crisis
 

The miners' strikes of 72 and 74 showed that there was too much militant power they could muster. So the mines finally closed in 85, as it had been far cheaper to import coal from Poland and other places.

And yes, it did hold onto stocks we might really need at some point in the future. Sand-bed furnaces and CO2 scrubbers were not ready, but they are now.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Octopus are giving out free electric blankets from today to the first 10000.

Thermals and a hot water bottle is probably better though.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/fre...ilable-4006120

Re: The energy crisis
 

To keep customers warm through the coming power cuts:spin:

Re: The energy crisis
 

There's a big difference between "worst case scenario" and absolute certainty.
Germany and the EU are already having to reduce energy consumption.

---------- Post added at 16:26 ---------- Previous post was at 16:11 ----------

IIRC Labour closed more mines.

Re: The energy crisis
 

The only absolute certainties are death, taxes, and SWMBO giving me earache about my whisky drinking… ;)

Everything is scenario based, and if you’re prudent (and able to), cater for likelyhood X impact weighting; if, as a country, we don’t plan for the "worst case scenario" in the energy scenario, we are being failed.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Germany and the EU have already cut back on their energy usage, so that was an "absolute certainty".

Re: The energy crisis
 

Maybe Germany and the EU are more risk averse while our government are more gung ho when looking at the same set of data.