Rising cost of living

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

my last deal is meant to run with no price rises so guess I will see

Worth bearing in mind VM Essential Broadband if you want broadband only for £15pm and are on Universal Credit. You can also trade down to this without a penalty. They state Universal Credit as the criteria, I don't know if they can take comparable support into account instead

https://www.virginmedia.com/broadban...ncome-families

See also https://www.express.co.uk/finance/pe...fits-broadband

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Worth bearing in mind VM Essential Broadband if you want broadband only for £15pm and are on Universal Credit. You can also trade down to this without a penalty. They state Universal Credit as the criteria, I don't know if they can take comparable support into account instead

https://www.virginmedia.com/broadban...ncome-families

See also https://www.express.co.uk/finance/pe...fits-broadband

It may well come to that but VMs is pitifully slow compared with some other companies alternatives.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

We'll be looking to dump the TV and phone and go for the minimum BB pack that does the deal. Freeview and free streamers will do the business.

Think a lot of folks will be doing that calculation. Do they really need gigabyte broadband, or is 100mb more than enough for their needs. Suspect it is for most.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Wonder what price rise VM are planning ? They'd better be careful as their support forum is already full of people trying to downgrade/cancel. After utility bills people might not have much for tv subs.

Maybe none or is that a bit crazy?

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Maybe none or is that a bit crazy?

Might be the sensible move and result in more income if they want to keep customers. But when did VM do common sense?

[Taf]

ASDA Click-and-collect is no longer free. But at 50p it's no great thing.

Originally Posted by Taf

ASDA Click-and-collect is no longer free. But at 50p it's no great thing.

I have a delivery pass, £35 for the year, giving me free delivery as often as I want (on a Tue/Wed/Thu), and a recurring slot.
Minimum spend is £40, but thats never an issue with 4 adults and a child living here.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Paul

I have a delivery pass, £35 for the year, giving me free delivery as often as I want (on a Tue/Wed/Thu), and a recurring slot.
Minimum spend is £40, but thats never an issue with 4 adults and a child living here.

I have the same with Tesco. I pay a little more but monthly £3.49

[Sephiroth]

We travel to Waitrose in Wokingham daily because their loyalty scheme give us a free Torygraph and most weeks further savings of c. £3 irrespective of spend.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

We travel to Waitrose in Wokingham daily because their loyalty scheme give us a free Torygraph and most weeks further savings of c. £3 irrespective of spend.

Sounds fun.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Chris

Not entirely. The gas price is set by the global market but the UK’s internal electricity generation market is rigged so all producers get the same unit rate as the most expensive. The abnormally high gas price means we are paying way, way over the odds for wind, solar, hydro and nuclear right now, because the most expensive electricity is produced by burning gas so that’s what’s setting the market rate.

indeed

https://www.thenational.scot/busines...ple-uk-ransom/

If this claim can be substantiated, it's really a scandal.

In the mad, mad world of electricity supply, figures from the National Grid have revealed that since the start of April, the UK has actually been a net exporter of electricity to Europe, powering countries including France, Belgium and the Netherlands through subsea cables. Electricity prices are generally lower in Europe, so presumably this means that, for example, French consumers are paying less for electricity generated in Scotland than consumers in Scotland.

Originally Posted by Pierre

indeed

https://www.thenational.scot/busines...ple-uk-ransom/

If this claim can be substantiated, it's really a scandal.

I think this might be because we don't/cannot store electricity so we're selling it to Europe in the hope that this winter they'll sell their excess back to us. Not too sure about why the pricing is different though

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Damien

I think this might be because we don't/cannot store electricity so we're selling it to Europe in the hope that this winter they'll sell their excess back to us. Not too sure about why the pricing is different though

We need to invest in electrical storage like Norway does eg pumping water up hill into lakes using wind and solar power and then releasing it when those sources are not generating so much power.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Pierre

indeed

https://www.thenational.scot/busines...ple-uk-ransom/

If this claim can be substantiated, it's really a scandal.

Why is it a scandal? The French consumer may pay lower than a UK consumer, but the French taxpayer is paying the difference.
We don't have a surplus of production as such, but we do have the gas-generated capacity, while France has issues with its Nuclear plants.
We're even exporting to Norway.
You can see the figures here.
We even import from Ireland, which seems odd.

Part of the problem is it may be a National Grid, but still the power has to be roughly in the right area of the country. Eg Over a month ago, London was at risk of a blackout, so we had to import extremely expensive electricity from Belgium, even though overall the UK had the spare capacity, just not in the London area.

---------- Post added at 10:46 ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 ----------

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

We need to invest in electrical storage like Norway does eg pumping water up hill into lakes using wind and solar power and then releasing it when those sources are not generating so much power.

Why are we exporting 1GW to Norway at the moment? They are having problems with lack of water for their Hydroelectric plants.

We generally don't have the geography to do that(it needs 2 reservoirs per plant), but we do have 4 pumped storage plants. They use electricity at night when demand is lower. Solar isn't going to be much use then.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by nomadking

You can see the figures here.
We even import from Ireland, which seems odd.

If it's to Northern Ireland that makes sense to me.

Originally Posted by nomadking

Why are we exporting 1GW to Norway at the moment? They are having problems with lack of water for their Hydroelectric plants.

We generally don't have the geography to do that(it needs 2 reservoirs per plant), but we do have 4 pumped storage plants. They use electricity at night when demand is lower. Solar isn't going to be much use then.

Because Norway has water problems doesn't mean the UK necessarily has water problems as well. I'm sure that more pumping and storage capacity can be built, it's just that the private sector has less incentive to develop more capacity when it can just by gas on the global market and pass on the costs to the consumer.