General Chat

..I loved my Calor gas cooker :-(

Some areas, of course, STILL don't have mains gas, so no matter how much opinions are voiced, non-mains gas cookers etc are still needed and used :-D

It's not a case of 'preferring to live in the past' - it's a case of councils and utility companies who make vast profits not being willing to pay for utilities to be provided.
Much like mobile phone providers.


..and in the case of my Calor Gas cooker - I dislike electric cookers, It was rented property with no mains gas.
Not, of course that I should have to justify anything to you, but as you're intent on not actually bothering to read what anyone else says, just putting down any one not as 'up to date' and as you consider yourself to be, I thought I'd explain in simple terms, just for you, or if you prefer J4Y.

We lived without mains gas for nearly 30 years. An assortment of bottled gas, oil and wet pele mond burned on the Rayburn were our alternatives. Even with 3 small children we managed quite well and of all the alternatives bottled gas was the most expensive.

Pele mond was dirt cheap...lolol that's what we had at the farm.

I do like the mains gas we have now as when there is a power cut we can still cook something quickly.

You can only avail yourself of what is available in rural areas.

Sorry Sue, words of one syllable needed, Rolo not understand!!!
..it's 'from the past'!! :-D :-D :-D


...and we all know he's a pseudo 'youff' :-D

Not everyone can afford to upgrade to solar etc Rollo as you well know hence you put it in as you're obviously so rich and green/uptodate.....envious?....nope not at all

Even if we installed solar panels we wouldn't live long enough to see any financial benefit...lolol

When we moved into this house, almost 30 years ago, we checked out the cost of solar panels and discovered it would take 20 years to recoup the outlay.

As I have never lived anywhere near that length of time, we did not bother, as it was never our intention to be here so long.

If I thought one of the children or grandchildren would like to live here, I'd install solar panels immediately - after installing a new roof first so 'up top' had a long shelf life.

I find it crazy to have lived in one place so long but that's the result of this being the home we eventually retired in and OH won't be shifted for love nor money.

The only gas we have is the boiler for the central heating (in the garage), no gas actually in the house. Our walls are insulated, as is our loft, we have fairly new double glazing and I think, our monthly bills are quite good. £78 a month for a 4 bed house with two TVs,Two desk top PCs, tumble drier, electric cooker, microwave, washing machine fridge separate freezer and the gas CH, I don't like the cold so the heating is kept reasonably high in cold weather.

Had the new meters fitted Dec. 2015, two days later gas leaking from a fractured pipe could of blown my house-up, no heating for to days. Had that fixed, six months later it was not sending the reading, so an engineer came & fixed it, BUT I STILL HAVE TO SEND MY READINGS TO MY SUPPIERS. New meters!!! a waste of time & money.

Your smart meter should be sending gas/electric meter readings automatically at whatever interval you have chosen. That is the whole point no more estimated bills no more hanging around for the meter man.

No more cheating either.

If the gas fitter is incompetent that is hardly the fault of the SMET technology. Apparently the govt does intend to make smart meters compulsory when the installed base is high enough. New and replacement meters must be smart2 by end 2018.

A smart prepayment ststem used in Northern Ireland is to be rolled out in the rest of the UK.

Rolo, Malcolm's meter is obviously NOT sending readings automatically.
Anyone can say it SHOULD be sending them automatically, it patently isn't.

If the gas company is using incompetent fitters - why?
Why has no-one gone back to fix Malcolm's oh-so-smart meter?

Could it be because the gas/electricity companies are raking it in.
Smart meter installed - tick box- receive dosh - move on.
Smart meter? No it's a pile of poo. What do they care, they've got their money.

I feel another 'McNicholas' scheme here.
That government funded caper was to fix cable TV installation bases in to every house, at a hidden cost to all.
I've never met anyone who has actually HAD cable TV - or at least not that attached to the boxes McNicholas installed..
As soon as they'd finished, SKY came about.

Thank's Maggie, my supplier has told me they aren't getting a reading, Yes i know it SHOULD be sending readings BUT NOBODY IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. After two & a half years i guess they are not interested as they have got their money for just fitting them.

Being forever cynical if we manage to reduce usage and so pay less the companys will put the price up anyway, we aren't going to be better off in the long run. :-0

So true Zzzz - and we're all paying for it - apparently (at the moment) £6 a year.


Smart meters however are not without their criticisms. Here's a roundup of the cons:
•Costs outweighing savings: The savings linked to smart meters could take a number of years to offset against the costs applied to energy bills to help with implementation.
•Delays to rolls out: Since the roll out project begun in 2013, there have been a number of technical setbacks, suggesting the 2020 goal is unrealistic.
•Compatibility between devices: Each provider has its own implementation programme and some testing has shown there is difficulty linking the technology between providers.
•Data concerns: Smart meters mean that energy companies will have more data than ever before and security breaches could pose a risk to personal data.


(From Moneysupermarket.com)

Just because Malcolm has a problem it doesn't mean that Smart Meters are rubbish.

There are several millions of other households out there whose meters are working perfectly well.

The main reason for installing them is to get regular and more accurate readings and to eliminate the meter reader which is an expensive overhead. As Rollo has already pointed out, they will join the ranks of lamp lighters, clock setters, railway guards and crossing keepers, piano tuners and shorthand typists.

The optional monitor you get is an added bonus. If you don't want to check it then don't bother, but you are missing out if you have high energy appliances that you are not aware of.

There is also the popular view that utility companies are making huge profits at the expense of the consumer. Actually the figure is small, around 1% which is around half what the big supermarkets make.

So, even if profits were reduced to zero, then the annual saving to a household would be insignificant.

That's not to say that prices should come down but the problem is not necessarily with excess profits, but rather with high overheads on top of the wholesale cost of the fuel. These are the main areas that need to be scrutinized.

Much of these overheads are taken up by staff costs so perhaps we should look at putting some of them out of work.

...so you didn't bother reading the list of 'cons' then?

Utility companies aren't making huge profits? (edit:information from the BBC)
Scottish Power's Spanish parent company, Iberdrola, said their profits rose from 37m euros (£27m) to 156m euros (£114m) between 2014 to 2015.

That's not a huge profit??????
and:
"Much of the increase was due to lower wholesale energy costs"

..as for your comment : "Much of these overheads are taken up by staff costs so perhaps we should look at putting some of them out of work".

Overheads? A problem, with a yearly profit like that?
And, of course, we could really do with more people out of work!!
After all, they're not 'executives' so their lives don't matter do they?

You really have no idea about corporate finance. £114 million profit for a company this size is nothing.

If they made zero profit by reducing prices, how much would it reduce their consumers bills by? Hardly anything perhaps £10 - £20 per year?

..You missed the bit about the profit being because of LOWER WHOLESALE COSTS

...so they didn't bother lowering energy prices for their customers then?
They wouldn't have made zero profit at all, and reducing bills as their costs were lower is just being HONEST.

But, according to you, more than doubling your profit on the backs of your customers is 'acceptable' in corporate finance? Really?
You're happy to be ripped off for the sake of the Company?

That would be the Diane Abbot who all the Labour lovies will be voting in on Thursday would it, along with her best mate

Why do you say that, Rolo?

Is it because neither you nor IGP can be bothered to read anything properly, and you believe an insult is better than a reasoned argument?

It's acceptable for a corporation to increase it's profits on the backs of it's users is it?

Let's use a commodity you may understand.
How about Petrol prices?.
Oil prices plummet to half, yet the cost of petrol stays the same.
You'd be happy would you?