[PipKelpy]

Though we're mains gas here, to keep the house at Barbados levels for mum, would bankrupt us and kill off me and dogs with heatstroke!

(So she can cook in her own little room, she has an independent MF stove. The rest of the house is Siberia in comparison.)

We buy smokeless and kiln dried logs to keep both stoves chuckling (I have also been known to cook on them and to smell the Roast Beef burning, window open, me down yard cleaning out...... Got a good nose when it's food!)

We are now "surcharge" on our delivery postcode for logs, been buying them for years never have been before! Not only have the logs gone up but now I'm a surcharge!

More importantly my smokeless. My coalman phoned me a couple of months ago to tell me that a tonne of my usual was now an extra £110. (I buy 2 tonne at a time). I already have that amount in stock as I'm always thinking ahead to the time "I can't afford any". (So buy extra when can. Several years ago, every nook and cranny of storage space was filled with prepacked  fuel. I went into that winter with 7 tonne in stock. If I recall, we used 1.5 tonne on the 1 stove alone to heat the water and 2 radiators, doors open, house was warm, December - March! She never went out!)

SO HEADS UP FOLK!!

IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT BUY IT NOW!!

I was on the phone to CPL yesterday and was told there is nothing they can do, they've been informed it's going up £100 in July, again!

We have wood on the place, they are called trees, good oak trees! I'm not allowed to touch them. I've told mum, she either wears more layers come winter or we have to raid the piggybank!

[sabrina]

My 91 year old mother is already in a panic wondering how she will manage to pay for her gas and electric. She feels the cold badly even though I think her house is too hot. The way things are going people will be out stealing wood to heat their homes !

[chrismahon]

The fuel oil price here went from €1.07 to €1.75 a litre in just a week, followed by a report that a lady had 1000 litres stolen overnight. Now that is pretty serious here, given the extremely low crime rate in the countryside and means breaking into her store room/ garage, because tanks here are plastic and inside, unlike the steel tanks outside in the UK.


As a result of the increase (and it's still over €1.50) we had a serious look at our energy consumption, invested €650 (and a lot of time) and expect to save €650 a year based on current prices. I think everyone wastes a certain amount, which could be saved with some pretty basic measures. Without spending a huge amount more we can't save anything. Our house runs at 17C in Winter and that's as chilly as we can cope with.


So if anyone does stockpile coal, make sure it's secure.

[PipKelpy]

My 91 year old mother is already in a panic wondering how she will manage to pay for her gas and electric. She feels the cold badly even though I think her house is too hot. The way things are going people will be out stealing wood to heat their homes !

That's mum! She's 80 in September with crap circulation and osteoarthritis (will fall down at awkward times, usually when I'm outside or the dog fitting!) which means as she's got older, she's more decrepit! Even fell down last year putting fuel on the stove. (Before comments folks, "I WANTED to do it! she said explaining to another daughter who had turned on me, "You should have done it!" I wasn't even in the house!)

I've made the decision to NOT lamb in winter and to push them later (mid Feb onwards) so that the lights won't be on so long. They may be strip LED, but they still cost money to run. Even thought about shutting down one of the chest freezers but Mum said she wants to eat Effy so "don't even think that!"

 I think unless something drastically changes, this winter, 6 months away, is going to be hard for EVERYONE!

[chrismahon]

One of our chest freezers was consuming an awful lot [member=194324]PipKelpy[/member] , so we changed it when someone advertised a smaller (60% capacity) but better insulated unit. Ours are in a garage that can reach 30C in Summer and need fan assistance to cool the elements at the back. Expect to save €150 a year because of that and the new freezer was €120. So it's a bit cramped but we're managing. Every little is going to count I think.


Yes, Winter will be very difficult because even here we are 27% short of gas and no way of avoiding that, apart from overloading the electricity grid that's already overloaded because a quarter of the ancient nuclear power stations are shut down for maintenance and so many more electric cars. Rumour has it that Boris has done a deal with Russia to make up the 50% gas that the UK will be short, but that's just rumour, same as the British captured soldiers which the French press are reporting about and will be exchanged or sent to work camps in Siberia. Seems it's all going pear shaped. (Sorry I digress- annoys me the censorship of the UK press).

[twizzel]

Kerosene heating oil has doubled too. We paid 92p plus vat last week per litre. Our house is extremely well insulated esp the extension we’ve just built. Still it is worrying, given all the other price increases.

[doganjo]

Rumour has it that Boris has done a deal with Russia to make up the 50% gas that the UK will be short, but that's just rumour, same as the British captured soldiers which the French press are reporting about and will be exchanged or sent to work camps in Siberia. Seems it's all going pear shaped. (Sorry I digress- annoys me the censorship of the UK press).

I'm sure if he was doing that it would leak out here somehow!  He's already wobbling and his opponents will be looking for everything to get him out  - quote from Reuters "By the end of 2022, the UK will end all dependency on Russian coal and oil, and end imports of gas as soon as possible thereafter,"

As to the prisoners in Donetsk, the court is an illegal one, and they risk being shot.

[Glencairn]

Thank you for mentioning this.

I was able to buy a couple of hundred kilos of smokeless ovals locally to fill my bunker.

At that point I think the cost was <£480 per ton.

Now I see prices online of £600 per ton, I know when my local supplier gets more in they will have to pass on the increased cost.

I can see why, the cost of gas, electricity and heating oil couldn't go up without solid fuel following.

[PipKelpy]

I have been following the prices (mum keeps saying don't worry, don't worry etc) but fuel I bought was £50 a tonne cheaper if I had bought it when I wanted to, instead, I waited and ummed and aghed. Then thought sod it, checked my bank account and bought 1.5ton (off a site that I have to shift, 3 half ton pallets). Needless to say my back was killing me for a few days later. Being paranoid, I bought another half ton, foot and back was killing me this time and I was slower shifting it. Mum tutted, as per usual, "not necessary" she says.

The price is now an additional £100 per tonne to what I paid so I am feeling pleased. I have told mum though that it will be rationed as it has to last several years!

I've NEVER known coal come down in price and I cant see it coming down in price. Even logs have skyrocketed. I have offered my sister a lambing shed if she wanted to get in this winters fuel in bulk as her wood store is full and I'm not lambing until February (saying that, the tup is with the girls and no one is interested as yet!) But she says she doesnt want to move it twice (personally I think screw that, I'll move stuff twice if it will save me money!)

We've got our chimneys booked in for sweeping next week, meaning that they will be ready to go and the sweep has said he's had to take help on, he's inundated, folk who have blocked up chimneys are unblocking them!

[chrismahon]

Because oil boilers can only be repaired (if possible) and not replaced, many people here with old boilers have been switching to pellet burners. If your income is modest you can get a percentage grant on the installation and they should cost half as much to run. Unfortunately there has been a run on pellets and the price is now 2- 2 ½ times the price at the beginning of the year and that's if you can find somewhere that has some.


In the meantime the price of heating oil has fallen. It's now €1.60 a litre, which isn't any help to us as we still have a full tank. Unfortunately you can't stockpile heating oil unless you have an extra large tank.


We are now being told that 32 of the 54 nuclear power stations are shut down. 13 have corrosion and 19 are being maintained. We've stocked up with petrol for the generator.


Despite assurances, our gas reserves only reached 90%. Now it seems we are selling some of that to Germany?