Energy bills in Great Britain forecast to jump by £276 a year from January
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/sep/30/energy-bills-great-britain-forecast-to-rise-iran-warOpen linkView original on programming.devSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on programming.devhttps://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/sep/30/energy-bills-great-britain-forecast-to-rise-iran-warOpen linkView original on programming.dev
8 replies
Our overlords think we still have too much of their money in our pockets.
The increase is tiny if you electrify your home which I did immediately on buying it. Replaced the entire central heating system including the pipes and radiators. Was like £7k after the grant.
I guess if you can afford a house and 7k in upgrades this increase isn't probably have a significant impact on your finances. Good for you though, this is the way to go with renewables getting better and better.
The alternative was no heating. The boiler was fucked, radiators were shit and the pipework was mostly clogged microbore. Got a couple of home improvements in the process as well which was nice.
Just checked the quotes I had for it, there was very little price difference between getting a new heat pump or a new gas boiler, large part because all the heat pump install stuff was no VAT and the grant covering most of the cost.
What we talking here? Solar? Battery? Heat pump?
The whole central heating system. So remove boiler, all hot water pipes, all radiators. Install heat pump, new hot water pipes, new radiators, hot water tank.
Old radiators and pipes were really bad and inefficient so even if I got a new gas boiler they should have been replaced either way.
Sounds like a massive job. I just bought an old house and replacing the sprawling pipe layout would make me die inside. Luckily it has a newish thermal store for a biomass(!) boiler.
Well every room had several floorboards lifted for it but I just got to sit back and watch them do it. Part of the benefit that it was a newly bought house, didn't care about the carpets as we were replacing them and used them to catch paint splatter from our painting at the same time they were doing the pipework.
Said they can just flop the carpets back vaguely where they were but don't bother putting them in properly. I'll admit it would probably be a bigger job if you do it to a house you have been living in for a while as there is likely more stuff to move.
Biomass boilers and large thermal storage tanks do interest me quite a bit though tbh. Obviously heat pump is better but I would probably look at something like that if I was to live off grid.