22% increase from British Gas

There really is absolutley no point moving now until all the gas/electricity companies have upped their prices, otherwise you will end up having to move a second time when the current cheapest one ups theirs. I'd say try in at least 6-8 weeks time, and then start looking around.

Why do we have to have just one supplier? What we ought to be able to do is have accounts with all the major players, and each time the meter's been read, they all send us a bill, and we choose which bill to pay!

In message , Energy? wrote

All these 'switch' sites only seem to provide out-of-date or inaccurate information.

The only way to be sure of getting the best deal is to accurately know your gas and electric consumption in the past year. You can then use the switch web sites to obtain information on which companies may provide the best deal. However if you then go to the web sites of the recommended companies you may find that the real cost of supplying the energy is hundreds of GBP different to what the 'switch' sites are quoting.

Most alternatives will be cheaper than British Gas but not necessarily by that much (assuming that you are paying by direct debit)

we signed up to have our prices fixed with BG - not sure when they are fixed from - but before this increase certainly - fixed til 2010 - probably stick to that as price will prob rise a lot by then!

i notice on their site they are offering their new prices til 2009.

Website host ISP snipped-for-privacy@lambdanet.net

How do they know which one is to buy the electricity from the power station and send it down your wires?

Having said that, how do they know anyway.

The one whose bill you pay. The bulk of the money all goes to the power station company, which retailer you use simply determines who gets the commission.

Quite. It's not as if the power station actually *sends* the power to the retailers, and they then send it to the end customers. There is only the one network, and the retailers are nothing but sales agents, or brokers, they don't actually stockpile electricity, because it is inherently unstockpileable, apart from the odd scheme like Cruachan, which is bound to lose a lot of it in the conversion.

Gas, on the other hand, can be stockpiled, but I don't suppose all the different gas companies have their own tanks. In any case, there's still the problem that the stuff has to go back into the same network of pipes.

It doesn't need to be stockpiled. Every electron I receive is returned, undamaged, to my local generator in something under half a milli-second.

In fact, it's totally scandalous. I'm sending back as much electricity as I receive, yet I keep getting billed.... :-(

Come to think about it, the same logic could apply here. If I collect up, then ship back, all those little atoms or molecules, I should get free gas too....

Just think of yourself as a really terrible tourist attraction. You have to pay them to come and see you, even if they're only electrons.

For the billing purpouses, you are kind of correct. But technically speaking, the drift speed of electrons in the wire is a fraction of millimeter per second, as opposed to the speed of "electricity" which is a fraction of that of light.

But meanwhile, I'll do my own experiment. I'm going to catch an electron, uniquely identify him by name using a dymo label - I'll call him "Fermi the Drifter" - then release him back onto the copper freeway and measure his lap times. I'm equipped with a calendar (in case you're right) and a stop watch accurate to within a fifth of a second (in case I'm right).

If I understand right, I take the mean lap velocity (in trillion-light-years per attosecond), raised to the power of avogadro's number (wasn't he a pear in an earlier life, aka chancellor of all germany?), integrate with respect to mho, and that's my electricity bill in lire (excluding vat) for the rest of this millenium?

Hey ho... think I'll stick to billing porpoises...

Isn't a fraction of a millimetre per second still a fraction of the speed of light? Just a slightly smaller fraction than you meant!

Neb

"Martin" wrote

"Martin" wrote

Taking this to it's logical conclusion, we should get all our food shopping for free just as long as we collect up, and send back, every scrap of ...

Hmmm....

mo wrote

That was suggested to be a bad bet on Moneybox Saturday lunchtime.

The only way prices will stabilise or fall is if some new miracle source of energy is discovered. Sadly, fusion's not going anywhere quickly. Fission takes a long time to build even if we agree to it. Gas & oil demand is rising globally while easily accessible stocks dwindle. Our coal industry is dead and would take a long time to rebuild. Renewables are great, but nowhere near energy-rich enough to make a major contribution to energy needs.

I'm not a gambling man, but I'd place good money on the fact that energy prices are only heading one way. And it's not down.

Andrew McP

At a time when gas prices are the highest they've been for 30? years ?

That's really stupid.....

Daytona

Only if you believe they've peaked and will go down again. The fact they're at the top is no indication of that .. given the world demand vs supply it's quite possible they'll keep going up for quite a while yet.

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote

British Gas must believe that the prices are near the peak or it would make no sense to allow customers to sign up to a price where BG would make a future loss on the deal.

The other alternative is to shop around! The BG increase is probably the largest increase in the pipeline, so tying yourself to them for three years precludes that, I assume?