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Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

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Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#311

Post by nahnotreal4 »

archsurface wrote: post #259

A couple of years ago I found Assassin's Creed 2 for £2.50 - bargain! I'd never played it. At the end of the quarter my electricity bill was £600 higher than usual. Not a bargain!

It seems exaggerated for comedic effect, but it is technically possible under certain extreme conditions. For a £600 increase in an electricity bill, the player would have to use a device with high power consumption for an extended period. Here's a breakdown:

Gaming PC Power Consumption: High-end gaming PCs can consume around 300–600 watts while gaming. Let's assume a power usage of 500 watts for simplicity.

Usage Time: Playing continuously for long hours over a quarter (about 90 days) could significantly increase electricity consumption.

500 watts = 0.5 kilowatts Playing 8 hours daily for 90 days = 720 hours 0.5 kW × 720 hours = 360 kWh Electricity Costs: Assuming a cost of £0.30 per kWh:

360 kWh × £0.30 = £108 additional cost. For a £600 increase, you'd need much higher power usage (e.g., using multiple devices like a high-end PC, large TV, and cooling systems) or running the game nearly 24/7. It’s unlikely but feasible if they had an exceptionally inefficient setup or other contributing factors.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#312

Post by graemep »

elcritch wrote: post #213
graemep wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you overestimate the importance of what the West does. The West no longer dominates the world economically. Things no longer filter down the rest of the world as simply as you think. China is a bigger economy than any Western economy than the US, and is growing. India is about as big as any European economy. Both, and many other countries are doing more and more of their own R & D and have their own agendas.

The West still leads in overall R&D. Even TSMC advanced nodes ultimately rely on western equipment and technology. New advancements in AI and vaccines were western as well. China has made impressive bounds in R&D but still lags in many fields of scientific research. Much of their research output is derivative in my experience of reading a fair bit of research articles in several fields. However China does lead in man…

There is a big difference between "leads" and "dominates".

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#313

Post by graemep »

Xelbair wrote: post #244
threeseed wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) China is third to US and EU in terms of GDP. And their economy is on a downwards trajectory. b) Majority of the early R&D in solar, EVs etc came from the US. China has been vital in driving unit economics.

a) China is third to US and EU in terms of GDP. And their economy is on a downwards trajectory. what about population? as that's the main driving factor for pollution - especially if you couple that with energy needs.

So you have to count the EU as a single country to push China into third place. This is something people argue about. During Brexit I many people assured me the EU was not a country.

If you use PPP rather than nominal GDP China is actually the biggest and the EU the third biggest.

Also worth noting that, despite expansion, the EU was a smaller proportion of the worth economy before the UK left, than the EEC was after Britain joined. The trend is very much away from the West.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#314

Post by ZeroGravitas »

ajb wrote: post #114
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently the UK government estimated that in 2016 and 2019 the average household saved £11 on their bill due to this feedback from smart meters. This page estimates the cost at £15 so 2/3rds is recovered just from that effect.

There's no way it only cost £15 in total to install a smart meter. The cost of the meter has to be at least that much and then you have paying a guy to actually install it (which in my case took 3 attempts and caused a gas leak, which took 4 or 5 guys several hours to fix - although hopefully that's unusual).

15 pounds cost per year, 11 pounds saving per year, for an average user.

Not sure how many years the cost is assumed to be spread over and what the ongoing running costs are but that's the per average customer cost apparently.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#315

Post by intended »

moooo99 wrote: post #245
fakedang wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, Bavaria isn't the ideal place for wind power imo, WHEN THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES. Braindead Germany just woke up and decided that they want to do away with nuclear and suck the icy cold teats of Mother Russia. Wind isn't suited for inland Germany, especially in a place like Bavaria, which has the frickking Black Forest ecosystem and a mountainous terrain. Not to mention the winds are much slower there than…

Your comment really is a prime example of what is wrong with this discourse. > which has the frickking Black Forest ecosystem Bavaria has forests, but not the Black Forest. The Black Forest is in Baden Württemberg. > and a mountainous terrain Bavaria is more mountainous than northern Germany for sure, but not all of Bavaria is the alps. > Not to mention the winds are much slower there than in North Germany. For the c…

This is a weird angle I’ve seen appear in the past few days as I’ve re-engaged with online discourse.

Why the heck are people arguing about energy markets in the EU?

And that too, specifically, Germany ?

Is it targeting green energy? Is it targeting Germany ? What, why ?

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#316

Post by pfdietz »

lowsong wrote: post #285
pfdietz wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you switch to heat pumps you'll get AC for no extra capital cost.

Unfortunately not. Most houses in the UK are heated using a 'central heating' loop. A closed loop of water that circulated through pipes run through the house and through large radiators in each room. A central boiler, usually a gas boiler, burns gas to heat and circulate this loop to provide whole-house heating, while also typically using a heat exchanger to heat the intake cold drinking water supply into a whole ho…

Good point, my mistake.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#317

Post by Amezarak »

jorblumesea wrote: post #96
smeeger wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you have to admit english people have a weird tick when it comes to poverty. you worship poor people. and yes, you guys willingly live like you are poor when you guys are definitely not poor

I'm not english at all. Just pointing out that no American should ever be criticizing anyone for how their government and society is setup. The only reasons Americans need to be "rich" is because health insurance is a scam, a car accident can bankrupt you, the tax code is entirely for the wealthy, and social services are poor at best. It's a fake wealth, one where you can have 3M in investments and not be able to ret…

> The only reasons Americans need to be "rich" is because health insurance is a scam, a car accident can bankrupt you,

92% of Americans have health insurance. About a third have insurance through the government. Rather than being a scam, most Americans don't understand just how much it costs because of the employer subsidies. At any rate, given the existence of both auto and health insurance, it is hard to go bankrupt from a car accident. Medical bankruptcy gets a lot of attention because it should never happen, not because it is common.

> the tax code is entirely for the wealthy

This makes no sense coming from the UK. The US taxation system is remarkably progressive. Marginal tax brackets, a large standard deduction, and CTC/EITC mean about ~40% of American households pay no federal income tax, or even pay a negative tax (eg., they get paid.) Meanwhile, the UK has the insanely regressive 18% VAT. This would never pass muster in the US because of its regressiveness.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#318

Post by laurencerowe »

moooo99 wrote: post #245
fakedang wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, Bavaria isn't the ideal place for wind power imo, WHEN THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES. Braindead Germany just woke up and decided that they want to do away with nuclear and suck the icy cold teats of Mother Russia. Wind isn't suited for inland Germany, especially in a place like Bavaria, which has the frickking Black Forest ecosystem and a mountainous terrain. Not to mention the winds are much slower there than…

Your comment really is a prime example of what is wrong with this discourse. > which has the frickking Black Forest ecosystem Bavaria has forests, but not the Black Forest. The Black Forest is in Baden Württemberg. > and a mountainous terrain Bavaria is more mountainous than northern Germany for sure, but not all of Bavaria is the alps. > Not to mention the winds are much slower there than in North Germany. For the c…

> Of course offshore wind is always going to have a lower LCoE than onshore wind

While offshore wind has gotten cheaper over time, onshore wind is still cheapest. Danish LCOE in 2018 for onshore wind is 30 Euros/MWh while offshore is 46 Euros/MWh. https://ens.dk/en/press/danish-energy-agency-launches-improv...

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#319

Post by ajb »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #314
ajb wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way it only cost £15 in total to install a smart meter. The cost of the meter has to be at least that much and then you have paying a guy to actually install it (which in my case took 3 attempts and caused a gas leak, which took 4 or 5 guys several hours to fix - although hopefully that's unusual).

15 pounds cost per year, 11 pounds saving per year, for an average user. Not sure how many years the cost is assumed to be spread over and what the ongoing running costs are but that's the per average customer cost apparently.

Ah, my bad. 15 per year is more plausible

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#320

Post by ninalanyon »

Already__Taken wrote: post #228
gambiting wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be the only person in the UK that has had an abysmal experience with Octopus, where they gave me a quote in writing, I attempted to sign up for it, couldn't due to "technical difficulties" on their end but got another email promising that the quote will be honoured once the difficulties are resolved....and of course once they finally fixed their system a month later they refused to honour it. I kept forwarding…

Are you in the north of the N/S smart meter divide? I wonder if that has a lot do with experiences.

Why does the UK have such trouble with smart meters? Everyone here, Norway, has one because they are required by the government. I haven't heard of any significant troubles and we've had them for years.

See https://www.nve.no/norwegian-energy-regulatory-authority/ret...

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