Island Echo always welcome letters to the editor, which may of course not reflect the views of the publication and its staff.
Letter to the editor – 30th September 2022
“Wednesday the 21st of September saw the third meet-up of community group ‘Together for Mission Zero’. This group is comprised of local residents and experts concerned with climate change who meet on a quarterly basis to share ideas and progress updates related to the task of cutting carbon emissions. At the event speaker Colin Palmer from Wight Community Energy spoke on the universally important matter of energy bills and their relationship to housing quality.
“The energy price cap has been reduced from £3,500 per year to £2,500, and fixed for two years. That’s a huge relief – with the way things were going there would have been very widespread hardship with winter. Now it will still be tough for many households, but not the disaster it might have been. After all, a bill of £2,500 is still twice what it was just last winter.
Article continues below this advertisement “But when is a cap not a cap? When it is a cap on the cost per unit of energy, not a cap on the size of people’s bills. In the small print it says that the £2,500 cap will apply to an “average household”. So, if your energy use is average, your bill will come in at around £2,500, but by definition, half of properties are above average, and will have above average energy bills. This is because the cap applies to the cost of the units of energy that we buy, which will be 10.3p/kwh for gas and 34.0p/kwh for electricity (a kWh is what we also call a unit). Back in 2020 they were just 3p and 17p/kWh. As the majority of home are heated by gas, this means their heating bills will increase more than three times.
“We need to be as frugal with the energy we use, but these prices mean that even the most conscientious will be faced with substantial cost increases. Many things influence the energy use in a house, but there are three that matter most: the size of the house, whether it is terraced, a semi or detached and the EPC rating.
“The EPC rating is a standardised measure of the energy efficiency of a house and ranges from A (the best) to G, the worst. The difference in energy bills between A and G is very large. For example, a G rated detached house may have bills that are more than 6 times those of an A rated house. Now, A rating is very rare – it is very high-end eco-house level, but a C rating is readily achieved in many properties, and B is possible. Unfortunately, the great majority of houses on the island are much lower rated, mostly D or worse.
“What does this mean? It means that two outwardly identical houses in the same street can have widely different energy bills, depending on how much the householder has invested in energy efficiency. A C rated 3 bed terraced house might have bills of around £2,000, less than the average, but if E rated the same house will have bills of £3,000 or more. For a large 4 bed semi detached house with an E rating, bills may climb to more than £4,000. For a 5-bedroom detached house they could exceed £5,000!
“These are very much average figures, and will vary from house to house depending on occupancy, lifestyle and concerns about energy saving, but the trends are clear. The lower the EPC rating, the higher the energy bills, and most D or lower rated properties are likely to have bills that are higher than the “price cap”.
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Colin Palmer
Isle of Wight
Its a well known fact that virtue signaling and taxation control the climate, volcanos and other natural events are rascist and dont happen..
Why are many lights left on at night in the council office in Newport?
Green energy is far more expensive than fossil fuels. Making fossil fuel cheaper won’t advance the green energy transition. Making oil and gas as expensive as green energy, makes the argument to switch simpler, as there is no pain for the consumer
get used to high oil and gas prices from here on in – this is an orchestrated plan to ensure the world pays far higher prices for oil and gas to accelerate the green energy revolution. This is not a quick thing this is the next step in a multi decade process
the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones. The oil age will end, but it won’t be because we ran out of oil
The future is a combination of wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, nuclear, minimal oil and gas. Get used to it
Reply to isle of wighter
1 hour ago
“Green energy is far more expensive than fossil fuels.” Really? Do explain.
But, yes, it’s an orchestrated plan – by OPEC Plus (ie OPEC plus Russia).
And our honest, upfront government has been very careful to avoid telling us the unit costs that Dr Palmer defines above.
So not quite sure what point isle of wighter is making?
Helen – green energy has been consistently more expensive than fossil fuels for many years – you can do the research yourself. Costs have been coming down, however, I made the point quite clearly – the push to ensure that oil and gas prices stay high, is primarily aimed at making the green tech more appealing and easier for nations to move further towards
That is probably because English isn’t your first language.
Turn off the lights in that **** hole of a building in Newport
The elephant in the room.
Population!
Less people, less carbon emissions. Discuss.
Fewer people.
You will never convince the tree huggers that overpopulation is killing this planet long before climate change ever will. They are far too blinkered to see anything other than their own flawed ideas.
The two are obviously linked overpopulation is driving climate change. More humans= more burning of fossil fuels plus more consumption. In 1800 there were 1 billion people on earth by mid November were set to hit 8 billion.
Of course no mention of the fact that it is the climate change scam and the obsession with ‘net zero’ that has destroyed the nations energy security in the first place and left us at the mercy of imported energy and ‘technology’ that is both unreliable and hideously expensive without the billions of subsidies used to prop it up – asking ‘eco’ groups to solve the problem their quasi-religious ideological meddling has caused in the first place is like asking an arsonist to look after your matches
Climate change is a science. It is a science that seeks to understand how the climate changes. Has nothing to do with who or what changes it. Global warming is the view that the current changes in the climate are the results of mans activities. If you’re going to cling to conspiracy theories at least get your terms correct.
Anthropocentric climate change is proven.
So instead of attacking the government for not preparing for this, where as the EU has been and is in a good pace, the comments sections seems to be spouting rubbish about climate change being fake. Anthropocentric climate change is proven! Get over it!
The government must be loving it that you’re all focused on the wrong issues here. This is the governments fault and nothing at all to do with the climate debate.