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Who do you get your electricity from?


kgwilson

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1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Taxes provide the services everyone takes for granted…

Pay your fair share and get over it. Nev

Right on Nev! Countries where tax avoidance is rife have major problems; Greece, USA…some are turning into ungovernable sh1tholes. 

Meanwhile, countries where people pay their taxers are the most prosperous and peaceful: Scandinavian nations are good examples.

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As I said in a previous post, I get electricity from AGL and gas from Origin. Both accounts are in credit, plus I have the $250 energy compare grant from the Vic Gov't in my savings account ready for the next bill - I might as well earn a bt of interest on it. I make small payments from each pension so I don't get hit with a big bill. Te energy comarison for electricity showed that AGL was second cheapest, costing only $20 p.a. more than the cheapest, wom I had never heard of. Might as well let this remain as is.

 

Last night on A Current Affair, they did a report on a pensioner couple who received a bill for over $9,000 dollars for electricty from Origin. Origin would not speak to them about it until ACA intervened, whereeupon they refunded $3,000. ACA are pursuing them for much more.

 

While I have had no gripe with Origin, it makes you wonder whether you should switch providers.

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WHY ! , don,t they advertise the " cents per Kwh " .

Instead they wish to blind us with a lot of ' lawyerspeak '. 

AND

If you get solar panels,  a New meter will be forced on to you at a Huge price, that takes forever to pay off.

Most people l have spoken to all say " not worth the money, as it take too long to repay " .

spacesailor

 

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6 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

WHY ! , don,t they advertise the " cents per Kwh " .

Most of them do (I just changed my retailer).  It can be slightly complex because there is usually a daily connection fee and then the KWh charge.  Some companies have a larger daily fee but a lower KWh charge and vice versa.

 

8 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

If you get solar panels,  a New meter will be forced on to you at a Huge price, that takes forever to pay off.

I don't think so. In my case I already had a smart meter so there was  cost zero cost for metering.  It is not so much a case of the meter being forced on you but if you wish to get paid for the electricity you send to the grid you need a meter that can read this.  How else would the electricity company know how much to pay you?

 

11 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Most people l have spoken to all say " not worth the money, as it take too long to repay " .

 

My solar is definitely a winner.  The average payback time in NSW is 4-5 years. In Victoria where I live it is more like 7 however I am doing better than this.    My bills are small and I am not losing sleep over the prospect of the price of power going up.

 

I have recently had to fly interstate regularly and the one thing you notice flying over Melbourne of Adelaide is the almost universal adoption of solar panels on industrial buildings.   One thing the business sector is good at is working out the cheapest way to do things.

 

  

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When I enquired about solar that ' smart meter ' was a must have , or no discount on the panels. 

I wasn,t worried about being paid for the returned electricity, but as my saving have no or almost nil interest 

I would risk lowering my power bill instead of Any interest. 

But ' no stand ' alone allowed ,

Now if I buy & install secondhand panels,  ( same price as discounted new ) how would , connecting them to an A C unit work ?.

Only to run in the day when cooling is needed! !, will a battery be needed. 

spacesailor

 

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On 18/8/2022 at 3:15 PM, facthunter said:

Electricity was static with them if Coal wasn't in the equation..  Once the system isn't centralised, giving individuals choices the fossil fuel monopoly is  destroyed. Nev

I keep mentioning the analogy of the refrigerator: today there’s an inexpensive reliable one in every home, car, caravan etc. That revolution took a generation or so to replace centralised works that delivered ice blocks to commercial and residential users.
 

The centralised model of distributing electricity is collapsing fast.

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I have 3 heat pumps. One for my hot water (which runs off the solar power generated from the PV panels on the roof) & the other 2 are inverter heat pumps more commonly called air conditioning units in Australia. Originally air conditioners were simple refrigeration units that turned off & on when the thermostat told them to, only had a single operation function and it was either on or off. Once technology got hold of them they became heat pumps able to work both ways (cold or hot output) and the inclusion of an inverter enabled the power requirement to reduce as the desired temperature setting was reached.

 

My main Mitsubishi Electric heat pump produces 7.1 KW of cooling energy from the input of 2.01 KW of electric energy & 8.0 KW of heat energy from the input of 2.09 of electric energy. Once the desired temperature is reached the inverter enables the input energy requirement to be reduced. Cooling minimum input energy is 480 watts cooling & 420 watts heating.

 

It is also possible to direct the exhaust cold air from the water heater in to the house in summer to cool the house while it is heating the water.

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I was quite staggered to read that the average annual energy cost for someone living in the U.K. is £4,266! I know that the lower temperatures of the U.K. make for higher heating costs, but I still find this figure to be quite surprising. How does the average person in the U.K. find this kind of money for energy? That's an average of £82 (AUD$140) a week!

 

I note also, that the U.K. Govt has a scheme to replace electric boilers with heat pumps, but even with the Govt supporting the exercise with a 50% rebate, it still means that the average householder in the U.K. still has to find another £5,000 to fund the installation of a heat pump!

 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1656432/heat-pump-fury-uk-rollout-dead-britons-no-saving-energy-bills-spike-boiler-upgrade-scheme

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I use red for 3 accounts, I have my work one rising from 33c kw to37c kw, connection is going up around 12c day, solar is dropping from 11c to 7c.

at my property my bills have gone down with a self reading meter even with the rises and pay on time discounts finishing.

house runs 10 kw solar with no battery, bills are still high but half of original on time of use smart self reading meter. At worst they got to 2400 per quarter with 2 adults an 5 kids.

every time make it cheaper rings up and compares they always come up with red being best overall.

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The UK retail prices are set by a price cap, which is set by OfGen (Office of Governing Energy or some such dribble).. The price cap only applies to consumer accounts and not corporate/government accounts. This is based  on prices of energy futures contracts that roll every 6 months. One senior OfGen exec resigned as she didn't believe the office was considering the consumer enough; most of the retail sellers of electrcitiy have gone broke, and the main sellers now are companies like Shell, British Gas, etc. who also profit from upstream activities (mining, refnining, generating, etc). 

 

Price rises for corporates and government is uncapped; however, mid - large corporates and government usually buy commodities futures of what they consume, and electricity is no different. It is the smaller businesses that suffer, and 1 in 7 pubs in central London are reportedly closing; and many are considering closing for the winter.

 

About 30% of UK's generation capacity is gas fired plants - they were built in the days when I was in the industry because they require little maintenance, and gas was dirt cheap - it came from the North Sea oil fields; almost exclusively in UK waters.. Well, times have changed - those oil fields are all but dry, and there's not enough gas in them to power a birthday candle. These were built about 20 years ago now, and were designed to last 15 years. They are still going because the guvmint dilly-dallied on energy policy in both the Labour and Conservative years - in fact, it was BoJo (not as PM I hasten to add) that I think brokered the deal for EDF to build a new plant at Hinkley Point (HPC - Or Hinkley Point C). 

 

We have been importing something like 30% of our energy needs from France for a long time. Most of our generation infrastructure is foreign owned (European - which was a disadvantage of the EU as we couldn't reject takeovers on the basis of sovereign interests). So, our energy security is at best wobbly... Another series of short-sighted governments.. what can I say?

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It'll all work out O.K. The climate is rapidly getting hotter, so you won't need all that energy for heating any more.

You're going to end up worrying more about where your drinking water is going to come from, than worrying about how you're going to keep warm.

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