For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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#1902434
rikur_ wrote:Heating oil however is unregulated .... gulp:

One has to wonder why, if it is deemed necessary to regulate household electricity & gas prices it is not the same for heating oil. I seriously doubt that anyone would opt for oil if mains gas was available. Ergo those on oil have no choice but to stick with oil.

What is the situation WRT bottled gas (ie those submarines at the bottom of the garden)?

I'm currently 50% through a 3,300 litre tank; the Aga is being removed at the end of the month (Woo Hoo) so consumption should fall significantly. I had wanted to top the tank up so that I could monitor & compare before and after use, but at over a £1 / litre I may well wait it out for a few months.
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By T6Harvard
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#1902438
rikur_ wrote:
JonathanB wrote:
AndyR wrote:I was day dreaming about looking at an EV, now not so sure. Lots of the economy figures (per mile) of EVs seem to be based on . ....


My instinct had actually been the opposite - i.e. rising gas/oil prices would bring forward the case for electric?Presumably the price gap between electric and petrol/diesel is only going to increase as oil and gas prices increase globally, but the cost of wind/solar/nuclear electricity generation is largely fixed, so a sizeable proportion of the cost of electricity shouldn't rise as fast as oil/diesel? I may have missed a key point somewhere, and in the short-term other factors are in play.


Ahhhh, the COST (of production) maybe pretty much fixed but the price they sell it at is a whole other thing.

We are dependant therefore the economic principle is 'name your price', as witnessed by the almost instantaneous raising of the prices at garage forecourts, way before the more expensive crude oil had made its way through the refinery. Same thing with domestic energy. Whatcha gonna do about it? Shrug.

They have us over a barrel.
#1902440
Colonel Panic wrote:
I'm currently 50% through a 3,300 litre tank; the Aga is being removed at the end of the month (Woo Hoo) so consumption should fall significantly. I had wanted to top the tank up so that I could monitor & compare before and after use, but at over a £1 / litre I may well wait it out for a few months.


Dipstick?

That’s how I monitor stocks in all my bulk tanks at the farm ( and in the aeroplane tanks :wink: )
#1902445
Colonel Panic wrote:
rikur_ wrote:Heating oil however is unregulated .... gulp:

One has to wonder why, if it is deemed necessary to regulate household electricity & gas prices it is not the same for heating oil. I seriously doubt that anyone would opt for oil if mains gas was available. Ergo those on oil have no choice but to stick with oil.


When I looked today at Boilerjuice, they were quoting 17p pl more in Wales than in England. Within the past 2 years at its low, you could almost buy it at that difference. It hit about 20p pl.

There has to be some serious profiteering going on at the moment. I would be very interested to hear @MikeB 's more experienced thoughts on this.

Our tank is low. Thank goodness for the Woodburner.
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#1902447
Charliesixtysix wrote:Dipstick?

Why make it simple when you can add some power and make it complicated? :oops:

I have a Raspberry Pi intercepting the 433 signal from the 2 Watchman widgets (one on the heating oil tank, another on the red diesel tank), the data is then manipulated within Home Assistant and the output shows within a dashboard, along with warnings when low.

But the occasional gross error check of a full-to-the-brim delivery never goes amiss.

Code: Select all### Depth Remaining (L) ######
- platform: mqtt
  name: "Oil Remaining"
  state_topic: "home/rtl_433"
  value_template: >
    {% if value_json is defined and value_json.id == 136628653 %}
      {{ (173 - (value_json.depth_cm)) * 21.34 | int }}
    {% else %}
      {{ states('sensor.oil_remaining') }}
    {% endif %}
  unit_of_measurement: 'Litres'



Image
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By rikur_
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#1902480
Colonel Panic wrote:
One has to wonder why, if it is deemed necessary to regulate household electricity & gas prices it is not the same for heating oil. I seriously doubt that anyone would opt for oil if mains gas was available. Ergo those on oil have no choice but to stick with oil.

I think the answer is in the origins of regulation.

Back in ~ 2010 (?) there was an investigation into the heating oil supply market, and in general it was found to be a competitive market with relatively transparent pricing and most customers having a choice of supplier, and lots of evidence of customers successfully shopping around.

The on-grid gas/electricity market was found however to have opaque tariffs, and many customers being quietly moved onto non-competitive tariffs. Therefore regulation was introduced with the intention to control non-competitive tariffs, rather than to protect consumers against increases in the underlying wholesale price.

What is the situation WRT bottled gas (ie those submarines at the bottom of the garden)?

I'm not close to it - but my understanding from our relatively few neighbours daft enough to go LPG, is that they've been having issues getting supplied at all for the past 6 months or so, due to some staffing issues at Calor that are impacting the market more widely. That said, I don't believe the price has gone up in the same way as heating oil.
Last edited by rikur_ on Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1902489
rikur_ wrote:
.... I'm not close to it - but my understanding from our relatively few neighbours daft enough to go LPG, is that they've been having issues getting supplied at all for the past 6 months or so, due to some staffing issues at Calor that are impacting the market more widely. That said, I don't believe the price has gone up in the same way as heating oil.


If you look at the history of Calor they are far from being fair and equitable towards their customers ....
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1902494
avtur3 wrote:
If you look at the history of Calor they are far from being fair and equitable towards their customers ....

Indeed, particularly lock-in issues with subsidised bulk tanks. I continue to be amazed of the number of people that don't realise that Calor is just a brand and distributor and that other suppliers of off-grid gas are available. We use propane for cooking and use a local independent distributor, others speak positively of flogas.
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By kanga
#1902543
Bill McCarthy wrote:How much do Clydesdales cost these days !


.. and fuel for them (or does grass suffice ?) ? :)

[carabao can be used both for draught and, finally, for supposedly healthy meat; but BMcC's area may not count as their preferred 'hot and humid' :wink:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabao ]
By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1902641
I've just received a revised forecast for my energy bills post 1st April, £5,200 per year, that is half my (soon to be received) state pension ... It seems my twilight years will be just as painful as my working years ... :(
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By OCB
#1902733
Sorry to hear that @avtur3 :(

There are some clever folks on here who I’m sure can offer good advice, have you done everything economically viable to reduce your costs?

On a broader note, my jaunts to the local supermarket (5 min drive) will now be by electric bike when it’s just to pick up a few small items, and will strictly only be doing a proper once per week shop. At 2 euro per litre for diesel, and about 8L per 100km for little trips, I reckon I could easily save 15% even 20% by planning better, using the bike and not just jumping in the car on a whim.
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