Energy bill hikes to hit hundreds of thousands of households if they don't act now (Mirror News CO MSN)

[ericmark]

Hundreds of thousands of households potentially face major energy bill hikes unless they take action now. According to the latest figures, over 300,000 homes still have Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters.

It continues, we all know what it says, but what is the point in telling people when they have known for years about this, and individually house holders are powerless to do anything about it.

It took from September 2023 to end of January 2024 for me to get a Smart meter put in. And at that point no real big push. It seems a bit of scare mongering, to plaster this over the internet, we all know the valve has a limited life, and no amount of writing in the papers is going to change that. And

Some meters could become disconnected, but depending on when the RTS signal dies, some could also be left jammed on peak-time electricity rates.

well I can't see why anyone should loose the non off-peak supply. And when my off-peak contract ended, my contract auto changed to single fixed rate, which with Octopus was 23.86p/kWh and 68.17p standing charge, which is less than my peak payment now. So unless the house hold uses batteries, this time of year, the bill will likely drop.

As to an immersion heater, I was rather surprised to find, around 5 kWh/week.

Where the problem lies, is where the off-peak is supplied through an independent fuse box, may even be a consumer unit, but they could loose all from that distribution box (DB) but likely this is just the storage heaters.

As to using simple plug in heaters, in many cases people may find this cheaper than the split tariff as not heating unoccupied homes, or rooms within the home. As to if the supply can cope with all those who only switched on heating at 11 pm now turning it on at 6 pm, that is another story, 4 pm to 7 pm is at the moment the super peak time, without all the storage heaters, it will be much worse, but this is down to the supply network to sort out, not the customer.

One large problem, is rented accommodation, where the tenant can't fit solar panels, batteries, or anything else to reduce costs, and there is nothing to persuade the landlord to do it either. I look at my daughters old rented accommodation in Shrewsbury, no way could either the landlord or her have done much to save energy, single glazed windows were not down to landlord, he could not upgrade them as listed building, and it did list, the floor was far from level.

The smallest house in Wales

can't be lived in any more, it does not comply, but we are short of housing, how does it help, saying you can't live in that, you will need to pitch a tent in a field? But if you buy it then you can live in it, how does that make sense. But I digress, what is the point of telling people of doom, when they have no power to change things.

 

[flameport]

Blame OFGEM who only recently have started advertising advising people with RTS devices that they need replacing, with the signal being switched off in a few weeks.
Why they didn't do that years ago is known only to them.

 

[ericmark]

I can see there is a problem where the house holder refuses a smart meter, which in real terms is only way to have off-peak from the end of the month, and to warn people with teleswitches (A switch which can be controlled from a distance) that if they don't have a smart meter, they will be on a single tariff, is valid.

But if a smart meter either can't be fitted, or can't be fitted on time, there is little the house holder can do except complain.

I am not convinced Economy 7 storage heaters work for many who have them, as they heat the home often when it is empty, and except for central heating where a central heat store is used, which will stay warm for a week, the silly storage radiators are simply not fit for purpose, running out of energy just at the point when most needed when people return from work.

Once people realise a simple panel heater works out cheaper for them, they are not likely to return to storage radiators, which is really going to change when and how much maximum demand is imposed on our grid.

Of course the same applies to heat pumps, but they tend to be fitted to better insulated properties, the gas explosion which damaged the Ronan Point tower block, resulted in gas being banned in many tower blocks, so the only other option was the storage heater, these old tower blocks are not well know for their insulating properties against the weather, so I can see problems with supply if these start to use instant heating systems.