02-03-2022, 06:52 PM
"Many people still think that electricity is expensive to use. This, however, is definitely not the case. At the present time electricity for general purposes other than lighting is available at 1d. per unit or less to 10½ millions out of the 11½ million homes in Great Britain. Actually more than 40 per cent. of these homes have electricity available at ½d. per unit, or 70 per cent. of all the homes in the country can have a supply at ¾d. per unit, or less. " - Belling Electric Fires and Cookers catalogue, 1938-9. Considerable inflation since then of course, despite the forecasts from some quarters that when nuclear energy arrived it would be so cheap as not to require metering.
We're in a large listed flat with no gas and no fireplaces, hence stuck with being just such an all-electric home as Belling back then were doing their best to encourage. We had only been using three of the eight installed storage radiators (another three phase feed) in the couple of winters we'd been here, then when we came to start using them this winter none would work - failure I presume of the 100A controller used to switch them for Economy 7 working. On establishing that replacing that would be likely to cost several hundred pounds, we decided to see how we would fare using just the fleet of Belling Champion heaters as required, and I think we've been quite as comfortable as in the previous winters at somewhat lower cost. Our tariff is fixed until the middle of next year, so we're fortunate in that. Presumably everyone with such an arrangement will be supplied at prices well below breakeven while it lasts. I hope suppliers are somehow hedged against such hikes in wholesale costs as we've seen, as otherwise they'll be having to punish the folk on flexible tariffs to compensate.
Paul
We're in a large listed flat with no gas and no fireplaces, hence stuck with being just such an all-electric home as Belling back then were doing their best to encourage. We had only been using three of the eight installed storage radiators (another three phase feed) in the couple of winters we'd been here, then when we came to start using them this winter none would work - failure I presume of the 100A controller used to switch them for Economy 7 working. On establishing that replacing that would be likely to cost several hundred pounds, we decided to see how we would fare using just the fleet of Belling Champion heaters as required, and I think we've been quite as comfortable as in the previous winters at somewhat lower cost. Our tariff is fixed until the middle of next year, so we're fortunate in that. Presumably everyone with such an arrangement will be supplied at prices well below breakeven while it lasts. I hope suppliers are somehow hedged against such hikes in wholesale costs as we've seen, as otherwise they'll be having to punish the folk on flexible tariffs to compensate.
Paul
