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[T8SC]

I'm surprised there's no discussion on this, considering how big it is in the news at present and is affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.

Have you been affected? What are your thoughts of what's happened and what is potentially going to happen through Winter?

Two more suppliers went bust yesterday, Avro Energy & Green. This follows the others who have already gone bust including People's Energy, Utility Point, PFP & MoneyPlus Energy.

With Bulb & Igloo working to find additional funds, it is a worrying state for many as Winter approaches. Some people simply won't be able to afford to heat their homes, for the elderly this could be deadly. Bulb alone has 1.7 million customers.

Comparison sites aren't offering any low fixed rates anymore, everything has gone sky high so anyone not fixed is essentially paying extortionate amounts.

Thoughts?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

All those millions of customers that deserted British Gas have now been transferred back to British Gas as they’ve taken on the majority of the failed Suppliers customers - Ofgem award it to one of the so called ‘big six’

Thank Ofgem for all this shit. The regulator needs to be regulated.

There was a third Supplier yesterday you’re just not hearing about it because they ‘only’ have 1000 domestic customers.

 

[Cockles & Whelks]

I've always stuck with British Gas for just this reason. Lol.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

You might have added a safety lol at the end, but it makes fucking sense. Price cap (Ofgem again) has crippled all the Suppliers so only the likes of BGT and EON, EDF, SSE etc. will be left and with the government set to lend them millions to support well let’s face it it’s easier for them not to pay the Government back than it would be to borrow it from a bank.

 

[FunkMiller]

Is this like the food shortage crisis of last year when the pandemic struck? Or is it a real crisis?

Probably the first one, eh?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

What goes around comes around. Competition act saw anyone being able to set up as a gas Supplier just get a licence from yep, you guessed it, Ofgem and off you go.

Everyone and their dog thought it was fucking hilarious to be able to tell British Gas to fuck off and switch to Avro or PFP (for example) and now they’ve ended up back at British Gas again.

Soon that will get to big again and Ofgem the cunts will tell them they have to let customers go and it will all start again.

The problem here, if you haven’t guessed it, is the fucking inept regulator who is supposed to be on the side of the customer but never is.

 

[T8SC]

Is this like the food shortage crisis of last year when the pandemic struck? Or is it a real crisis?

Probably the first one, eh?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

And because Ofgem set the price cap the Suppliers cannot raise the prices to combat the wholesale costs posted above.

So they can’t cope. And go out of business.

 

[Jon Canon]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

Because we’re a developing third world country.

 

[RJMacready73]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

It's for home heating

 

[T8SC]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Fingers crossed the gas crysis doesn’t come to the US.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Fingers crossed the gas crysis doesn’t come to the US.

Does it work the same in the US? There’s over 200 gas Suppliers in the UK. I guess it’s all broken down by state there?

 

[DKehoe]

I've always stuck with British Gas for just this reason. Lol.

I'm with British Gas just now as well. With both energy and insurance I'll switch around to get better rates but I always go with a company I've heard of so that I don't get fucked over if things do go wrong.

 

[Jon Canon]

It's for home heating

So you have a gascable coming to your house, got it. Being from norway, this is a foreign concept for me.

We are quite pissed about a new cable being laid to the uk, to sell our electricity. We have never had higher electricity prices as it is, and it surely wont help. No gas fall back for us this winter.

 

[Atrus]

So you have a gascable coming to your house, got it. Being from norway, this is a foreign concept for me.

We are quite pissed about a new cable being laid to the uk, to sell our electricity. We have never had higher electricity prices as it is, and it surely wont help. No gas fall back for us this winter.

I’m curious, how do you heat your homes in winter?

In Canada, most homes are connected to gas lines that run natural gas furnaces in each home that heat air and circulate them through ducts. It also allows us to run natural gas fireplaces and bbqs.

 

[Jon Canon]

I’m curious, how do you heat your homes in winter?

In Canada, most homes are connected to gas lines that run natural gas furnaces in each home that heat air and circulate them through ducts. It also allows us to run natural gas fireplaces and bbqs.

Electricity and some firewood.

 

[Mikado]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

For heating and cooking, natural gas is normally much cheaper than electricity, especially if the electrical heating option is baseboard heaters.
(Yes heat pumps are marginally more efficient but that breaks down in locales that actually get cold and they're usually not an option in apartments).

Edit: Moved to a more remote location in Canada and there's no gas lines up here. Electric heating cost about $750 a month in the winter. At our old place with gas it rarely over $100 for heating.
We have an oil furnace as well that we didn't use last year but we're going to try it out this year. Not sure that it will be any cheaper than electricity but maybe the heat will be more pleasant.

 

[Xyphie]

I am a bit oblivious to this. Why do you need gas? You dont have electricity?

Burning natural gas for heat is very efficient, basically 100% efficiency. A state-of-the-art gas turbine power plant is only like ~60% efficient, so in many countries people literally just burn gas for cooking, heating etc instead of using electric appliances. As a Scandinavian it's a pretty weird thing to find out about since we have basically 0% natural gas usage in our energy mix thanks to abundant hydro/nuclear/district heating.

 

[Mikado]

Burning natural gas for heat is very efficient, basically 100% efficiency. A state-of-the-art gas turbine power plant is only like ~60% efficient, so in many countries people literally just burn gas for cooking, heating etc instead of using electric appliances. As a Scandinavian it's a pretty weird thing to find out about since we have basically 0% natural gas usage in our energy mix thanks to abundant hydro/nuclear/district heating.

Years ago I lived in Iceland and all the heating was geothermal. It was amazing; the warmest house I've ever lived in.
The downside is all the hot water smells like egg farts but you get used to it.

 

[Decontamination Silo]

Makes ya think stopping imperialism isn't such a great idea.

 

[funkygunther]

with British Gas for both gas and electric, going up in October by £80 a year

thats about a 10% increase, but they’re at least offering a fixed price tariff if no other providers are

 

[RJMacready73]

So you have a gascable coming to your house, got it. Being from norway, this is a foreign concept for me.

We are quite pissed about a new cable being laid to the uk, to sell our electricity. We have never had higher electricity prices as it is, and it surely wont help. No gas fall back for us this winter.

Really? I had assumed with your utter abundance of offshore oil there would've been the odd gas field powering your home's, either that or you guys burned Viking plunder

 

[kingkaiser]

 

[Thaedolus]

Stay warm Bri’ish GAF

 

[YCoCg]

Gas crisis, food shortages, soon to be fuel shortages at some petrol stations, people in the North West being told there's a water shortage, Universal Credit being cut, Taxes going up. Man all the things the newspapers said would come true under Labour have! ...under the Tories.

 

[6502]

British gas put my prices up £500 a year, I tore up their offer to fix that rip off price. Probably a mistake.

But luckily we will be straving before the gas runs out - I got two bags of chicken and vegan chips (wtf) to feed family tonight as the shelves were largely bare aside from ultra expensive gluten free shite in my local coop.

We can all lose weight now those foreign lorry drivers arent working for £10 an hour stocking our shops and we can add value for corporates who export our gas whilst we freeze because the idiots left the eu pool and closed our own storage! (We can store something like 1% of eu total now).

But at least the govt can probably print some money for their donors again like the £30billion track and trace that never worked.

What a total shower of shit.

Sadly the majority of people of the UK deserve every single fucking bit of it. Everything was foretold and they literally voted for it 3 times (1 referendum and 2 GE).

We even had newsreels of kids starving, ice on the inside of their bedroom windows with not a penny in the household, and people gleefully voted for it.

It is poetic justice.

 

[6502]

I’m curious, how do you heat your homes in winter?

In Canada, most homes are connected to gas lines that run natural gas furnaces in each home that heat air and circulate them through ducts. It also allows us to run natural gas fireplaces and bbqs.

Air through ducts???

Our cookers connect to gas. We also have water boilers that circulate hot water through copper pipes and radiators which in turn cause convection currents in each room. Surely that is more efficient than hot air?

 

[funkygunther]

 

[gatti-man]

This is why I own $140,000 worth of oil stocks. When the world cut investment in oil last year it guaranteed this outcome. There is nothing to do at this point. Not enough producers and infrastructure to change the direction of what’s going to happen. Even if governments decided to change course and promote drilling it would take 8-12 months for things to come on line.

Oil could easily double if Covid backs off. Same thing with Natgas.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

In Ontario, my water, gas and electricity bills have barely budge in years.

However gasoline whipsaws back and forth between $1/litre for regular to $1.40/litre. I think Im paying $1.70 now for premium 91 gas.

 

[nush]

Air through ducts???

Our cookers connect to gas. We also have water boilers that circulate hot water through copper pipes and radiators which in turn cause convection currents in each room. Surely that is more efficient than hot air?

It is, hot air just heats the air and does not get into the walls. I have an air conditioner with a heater function and it just does not do the same job as radiators in the UK. I find it better to open my oven door and turn the oven on low all day and that will heat the apartment for the few days a year it gets cold here in the south of China.

 

[RainblowDash]

They need to back to horses and carriages, steam engines too

 

[Atrus]

Air through ducts???

Our cookers connect to gas. We also have water boilers that circulate hot water through copper pipes and radiators which in turn cause convection currents in each room. Surely that is more efficient than hot air?

Not sure. I know that older buildings from 1900 until maybe 1970 have radiator heating and comparing with those, the furnace forced air heating heats the homes faster and more uniformly so all new homes are natural gas fed forced air heating.

I’m not sure what modern radiator technology might be like.

We tend to run into really cold temperatures in Winter, typically in the -18C to -40C between January and March.

 

[IDKFA]

Are we able to even discuss this? I think it's pretty much impossible without talking about politics and the UK government.

 

[DonJorginho]

Are we able to even discuss this? I think it's pretty much impossible without talking about politics and the UK government.

We are not talking about Boris Johnson's Government, we are talking about Joris Bohnson and his pals.

 

[segasonic]

How‘s that Brexit working out for ya?

 

[Dr.D00p]

British gas put my prices up £500 a year, I tore up their offer to fix that rip off price. Probably a mistake.

But luckily we will be straving before the gas runs out - I got two bags of chicken and vegan chips (wtf) to feed family tonight as the shelves were largely bare aside from ultra expensive gluten free shite in my local coop.

We can all lose weight now those foreign lorry drivers arent working for £10 an hour stocking our shops and we can add value for corporates who export our gas whilst we freeze because the idiots left the eu pool and closed our own storage! (We can store something like 1% of eu total now).

But at least the govt can probably print some money for their donors again like the £30billion track and trace that never worked.

What a total shower of shit.

Sadly the majority of people of the UK deserve every single fucking bit of it. Everything was foretold and they literally voted for it 3 times (1 referendum and 2 GE).

We even had newsreels of kids starving, ice on the inside of their bedroom windows with not a penny in the household, and people gleefully voted for it.

It is poetic justice.

I see the hysterical Drama Queens are back...Why, Its like March-April 2020 all over again round here.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Ovo have put my gas bill up to £75 a month from around £30 recently.
I don't know if that's an anomaly or relative to the current situation.
They fail to respond to email queries.
Edit: They told me my bill was Electric and Gas combined. They recently took over Southern electric who used to send me individual bills for gas/elec.
I've assumed the one bill I was getting from Ovo was Gas only for some reason.
Anyone feeling the cold should warm themselves in the glow from my embarrassment.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

France electricity price has also gone up, which is ridiculous since the country has more than 50 nuclear power plants.

In Poland electricity suppliers wants the prices to go up 3-4x.

 

[Irobot82]

France electricity price has also gone up, which is ridiculous since the country has more than 50 nuclear power plants.

In Poland electricity suppliers wants the prices to go up 3-4x.

Isn't France shutting down all their Nuke plants and trying to go solor/wind?

 

[Alx]

Isn't France shutting down all their Nuke plants and trying to go solor/wind?

Not really shutting them down (only the oldest one has been stopped recently), but the goal is to move from 80% nuclear to 50%, with the new sources being renewable.
Anyway nuclear doesn’t come free either, since building, maintaining and researching such plants is a major cost for the national electricity company.

 

[Irobot82]

We really need to be putting more funding into fusion energy.

 

[AV]

Partner's dad helps run a business that relies on running materials up and down the country, he's got drivers returning to base telling him there's multiple hour/mile queues and that it's not even worth it.

And we're supposed to be driving a 5 hour round journey tonight/tomorrow, yikes

 

[FunkMiller]

British gas put my prices up £500 a year, I tore up their offer to fix that rip off price. Probably a mistake.

But luckily we will be straving before the gas runs out - I got two bags of chicken and vegan chips (wtf) to feed family tonight as the shelves were largely bare aside from ultra expensive gluten free shite in my local coop.

We can all lose weight now those foreign lorry drivers arent working for £10 an hour stocking our shops and we can add value for corporates who export our gas whilst we freeze because the idiots left the eu pool and closed our own storage! (We can store something like 1% of eu total now).

But at least the govt can probably print some money for their donors again like the £30billion track and trace that never worked.

What a total shower of shit.

Sadly the majority of people of the UK deserve every single fucking bit of it. Everything was foretold and they literally voted for it 3 times (1 referendum and 2 GE).

We even had newsreels of kids starving, ice on the inside of their bedroom windows with not a penny in the household, and people gleefully voted for it.

It is poetic justice.

You're absolutely right. It's a fucking disaster zone.

I had my organic strawberries substituted with normal ones in my Ocado shop yesterday.

 

[keraj37]

It is just the begining, wait for a harsh winter. Stock up while you can, advice.

 

[6502]

You're absolutely right. It's a fucking disaster zone.

I had my organic strawberries substituted with normal ones in my Ocado shop yesterday.

Lol, but seriously, we have such insecure work for low paid workers, zero hours contracts and no rights in first 2 years of employment etc and a decade of attacks on benefits and welfare (they cover up the fact that most welfare is actually pensions and wage subsidies for corporations) plus state workers decade of wage suppression (which encourages private sector to drive down or freeze pay) that people were increasingly choosing between eating and heating already. Food banks are an ever present thing for a reason.

The govt. Says wages are up 8% which in reality is because low earners are losing work so going uncounted. People are not getting 8% rises.

These people may not own a car so buy food from convenience stores which are over priced and poorly stocked as is. They are on pre pay gas and electric meters which oddly enough, are the most expensive tariff and price caps are being lifted 12% before the current crisis is even factored in.

Now prices on all of our goods are going up with inflation and benefits are being cut along side tax rises.

It is deadly for the poor, the just about managing are going to be driven into poverty and those of us a bit more well off are going to share at least some of the pain previously reserved for the poor being priced out thanks to supply crisis.

2020 is going be seen as the good times come 2022.

We were warned.

 

[Insane Metal]

Damn that looks bad.

But I'll dare to ask you guys to take a look at the situation in Brazil.

Minimum wage = R$ 1,100. Gas price (liter): R$ 6.00. 25% of the families make 2 minimum wages or less. If you have a car with 40L tank you'll spend R$ 240.00. That's like 20% of a minimum wage... to fill a tank. Once.

 

[6502]

Damn that looks bad.

But I'll dare to ask you guys to take a look at the situation in Brazil.

Minimum wage = R$ 1,100. Gas price (liter): R$ 6.00. 25% of the families make 2 minimum wages or less. If you have a car with 40L tank you'll spend R$ 240.00. That's like 20% of a minimum wage... to fill a tank. Once.

Are they still using that sugar petrol (was that the 70s?) or did they go back to oil?