Ferdinand

I suspect that the difference above will be quite negligible in terms of the internal insulation you need to apply. BTW I made it 1.41.

Money Saving Expert are saying avoid switching until it stabilises a bit. Personally I think it will all be very different in just a month or so. I (think - this needs translating https://www.nationalgrid.com/incidents) the burnt down interconnector is about to come back on with 1GW capacity. And the Norway Interconnector comes on stream in the next month at 1.4GW. Plus obvs we are now in autumn wind (sky blue) for Electricity Sources: Since we use a lot of our gas in producing electricity (though the total gas we use per pop is around Euro average), pivoting perhaps 25% of our electric demand to non-gas will have a significant impact on gas demand, and the amount we have to buy at inflated prices. That's even if we buy Norwegian Gas (which is getting on for half of it) at spot prices.

Building Control are usually quite approachable for a phone chat, and if it is a flat they may have dealt with it before. If you are nervous, you could chat without telling the address in general terms, or even (I did not say this) mention the address of another identical one (eg one for sale) so it does not go on your record. In my area, the general stance is "better something than nothing, even if it does not quite meet regs". Though I would not get that in writing. Remember that air tightness with controlled ventilation is very important. One trick is to trim slab doors, or look or secondhand ones that can trim more, or look for doors with a bigger trimming margin. There are doors out there with trimming margins of up to about 65mm, which would alone give you 50mm of celotex at a squeeze. You may not want to replace them, but it can be a good option. F

No he won't; I think you have your answer from the t'others. ? It might be worth dropping an email to the Council making clear that you do not agree to extensions unless you do it in writing on each occasion.. There are lots of ways to distract yourself from this. One is to jump over the banisters with rope attached to your underpants (or your under-crotch safety harness), and dangle in mid-air for a bit. At least one person on BH tried it, and reported that the wedgie provided a noticeable diversion. Presumably if you do it daily you get a bit more used to the sensation. I am now going to run away and hide, before a man in a microlight appears over my house, bearing rotten eggs. Ferdinand

OFGEM are clear that credit amounts are protected.

Well, my new supplier Avro just went bust, along with Green. Supply started on September 13th ? Presumably I now hope that it takes some time to move me to the next supplier for a bit, so I get the current fix for as long as possible.

I don't see that. I see backing being given to the ones taking over from bust suppliers, as we have a very strong mechanism to protect continuing supply. To back the smaller non-hedged suppliers who have taken too many risks with their business models would be to give money to people who have built dodgy business models. It seems better to let the failed operators pay the price, rather than profit from their risky behaviour, and support the more cautious operators. That is far more in line with a free-market philosophy, which seems to me the correct way to do it - since we have a market. However we should have half (=1GW) of our burnt French interconnector back up this week (worth about £10m a week to France, so Mons. Macaron unlikely to tantrum about this one), plus wind becoming more autumnal, which should make the supply crunch in the UK potentially / less serious than the media are winding themselves up about. It is interesting that the support mechanism for fertiliser is only in place for 3 weeks, which seems a good call. Here's pasto-Pesto gubbing on about the end of the world in 3 weeks as he usually does, and my comment.

Depends on your assessment of your chances at Appeal. You could also withdraw to keep the record unblemished then resubmit. Not sure if you would be charged twice in that case.

If you want to share epecifics, the thread can be hidden afterwards.

Let's put that one in perspective. Cats actually top the list when it comes to annual bird deaths in the United States. (Image courtesy of National Audubon Society.) https://www.evwind.es/2020/10/01/the-realities-of-bird-and-bat-deaths-by-wind-turbines/77477 Similar data for the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48936941

To me at present this is no 48 in the parade of microwind red herrings. I have seen nothing so far that suggests it will be practical.

Pendant mode, but original FIT was 25 years, which then became 20.

Yes I would be interested too. Mine went in in 2016 I think, and is 20 years.

Nah. That's Manchester.

Just a note to energy analysts. Our World in Data now have some really good tools for this. https://ourworldindata.org/energy

When did you start? I thought the first FiTs in UK were ending in around 2033-34 (2008 - 2010 plus 25 years)).

Unlikely for solar panels now. So cheap subsidy is no longer required. Grants currently are under the ECO programme I think for basic stuff. There ay be others around. For switches at the moment, I would consider the "big suppliers" (there's a filter on MSE Cheap Energy club) as they are most likely to be fully hedged wrt immediate market turmoil. But I would sit on it for a few days, as it feels as if there may be some Govt intervention or guarantee of some sort, since media are being rather hysterical. Ferdinand

I see the Utility Point and People's Energy have gone through. This email received by one customer in another group I am in: https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=69D0560CC54123FE!2025&ithint=file%2cdocx&authkey=!AMba7-6gjkaYfPw TL:DR seems to be: You may be aware last year OFGEM announced that all suppliers where required to offer extended payment terms and be more lenient with the collection of debt due to the pandemic, something they are asking to continue into this winter. Utility Point has always supported all its members and understands the variability of vulnerability and that it is not static, supporting many of our members through hard and uncertain times. Unfortunately, this extra support has meant an increase in debt and deficit. On top of all this the price cap on default tariffs which was introduced to limit the amount suppliers can charge customers has not been covering the costs of supplying energy which means that every supplier is undercharging for energy and that the fair cost for energy that OFGEM was trying to encourage is actually well under the value at which it costs to supply. Although the rise in the level of the price cap is set to increase by £139 from October to reflect rising wholesale costs, bringing the average dual fuel bill to £1,277, this is still over £200 below the cost to supply the energy and it has been impossible to hedge in line with the way the price cap is calculated making the whole market unsustainable to operate in. Indeed, in most cases the only reason that suppliers end up charging more for energy than it costs is to offset the cost of debt and the collection of debt which is a major issue in the industry and one that requires a rethink as those that can, and do pay, end up paying for those that don’t pay. This toxic mix of circumstances and lack of commercial understanding from the certain powers has made it impossible to continue, indeed the only real outcome for consumers, which will be felt in the coming year, is that prices will rise for the very people that they are trying to protect.

Well, we are about to be having a sensitivity / resiience test on the gas price. The fire this morning having knocked out the IFA1 2Gw electricity interconnector for the next month.

I have a friend who has just switched to Octopus. Are they OK & will they survive? And is it a bad decision? Do I need to warn to take care?

Good conversation. Go failsafe? Why do people store things in their toolbags with batteries attached? I can't remember whether I do or not. Will have to check

TBH 50mm isn't very much either :-). IMO 50mm is just the smallest thickness that won't snap when you sneeze on it. I think one criteria to think about is self-educating enough that you can have nearly equal-to-equal conversations with your 'tect on this sort of issue, so you are confident enough to say "No, I want to do *that*" and explain why to your own satisfaction. So you get to make the mix of compromises you need.

Why 25mm? That's not a lot of insulation. I'd also argue that 25mm EPS is very fragile to handle. So I would suggest 50mm. Your call. F

Don't confuse with Extruded Polystyrene, which is a different, tougher and heavier, thing. EPS is the stuff they fill beanbags with.

I'm having a associational morning. You reminded me of this. And "Chrisk" reminded me of "Tomsk", the womble. Suspect Tomsk was kidnapped by @Onoff decades ago, and is still trying to catch up.