How will the power price increases affect you?

[Floweryfields]

They justify it by trying to make you use alternatives and force the government to use more renewable sources.

The fact of the matter is that this increase will force everyone to look at how and when they udse energy and push them to seek out alternatives. That will only be a good thing

But won't that just bite themselves in the bum - I mean the power companies make money by providing power, if they put the prices up so high that everyone extememly cuts back, then they don't make enough money and they put the prices up again. Sounds like a very vicious cycle to me.

[~Trish~]

We were lucky enough to get the government grant for solar panels and had them installed in December. It has cut our power consumption by half and we get paid 66c for each kilowatt hour we generate in surpluss (we pay 20c per kilowatt hour that we use so it's a pretty good deal ). To get this deal we had to fill out a premium tariff agreement which no one tells you about! You need to enquire yourself, dodgy...

We also qualify for the green loan and are thinking about what we should use it for. DH wants more solar panels, we'd also consider solar hot water, but we got a quote recently and the payback period was 15 years. So we're not sure if it's worth it. I guess if rates go up it might be better. We already have a water tank.

We had someone from the council come in and replace all our old light globes with energy saving ones for free. Olive - we have energy saving downlights and they blow really easily - grrrrr!

We took up the government rebate for insulation too, luckily it didn't cost us a cent. Hopefully that makes a difference on our electricity bill with our heating and cooling.

It's such a scary thought all these price rises, I worry for us all

[Liviam]

How do I find out about solar panels and solar hot water? Also how do I find out about making my house more energy efficient? Guess I've got three years to get it sorted before I end up under the street lights with Maz!

[lilima]

We got the solar panels, which has cut our energy bill considerably.

we also pay nothing in heating as DH's dad is a tree lopper, so we have free wook and a log heater. We have instant hot water, so no continual heating on a tank.
We have water tanks to look after the garden.
We do have evap cooling,m but try not to use it.

We are also thinking of double glazing the windows (that we had tinted that helps keep the heat out)

My house is such an energy sucker. Our living room windows are west facing, that means it gets really hot, hence the tint, and the possibility of double glazing.