HELP COPING WITH TERRIFYING ENERGY BILLS
About 14 months ago, as Bank Job was being shown in cinemas and Dan and Hil were doing the usual publicity rounds for such a thing, the seeds of POWER were planted.
We were very worried about The Climate Crisis and the world their children would grow up into. We could see that there was no path to Net Zero without a retrofit program for the UKs housing stock. And we could see that this would also help to address those in fuel poverty - well, everyone really - with reduced energy bills. It seemed like an obvious win / win.
It was also obvious that there was no appetite to do this from the powers that be and we wanted in our own small way to address this from the bottom up, do something practical, whilst also making the arguments for doing so on a national level in a - hopefully - compelling, and possibly even entertaining way.
Fast Forward a year to this summer and the Climate Crisis, Energy Crisis and Cost of Living Crisis could all not be more obvious and escalating. We are living through a time of intertwining OmniCrises, our PM is on gardening leave and both the candidates for his replacement are largely engaged in economic magical thinking that is woefully unfit for the challenges of 2022 and beyond. There's little right now in the way of tangible hope or help on the horizon.
As we progress towards our goals with the street we are learning a lot and coming up with ways for others to get together as a community and replicate this but the clear fact is that a lot of people are in trouble right now. It’s great if we can start to build POWER STATIONS on every street and we are hearing from a lot of members who are keen to move in that direction. We still think it’s a great plan. But these aren’t going to all happen overnight, and we are also hearing from a lot of members who are at their absolute wits end right now, or have family members or neighbours who are already struggling to stay afloat and who are absolutely terrified of the coming winter.
So I wanted to take a step back from our grand vision and look at some very simple things that might just make the difference between coping and not coping over the coming months. I don’t have all the answers – some might say I don’t have any of them! - but here we go………….
REDUCE BOILER FLOW
This “hack” has been reported by a number of installers and media outlets recently. If you have a combi boiler. Reducing your Boiler Flow Temperature to 54 degrees (most are installed preset at 60 to 80 degrees) apparently improves it’s efficiency and is said to reduce energy consumption by 6-8%. This is NOT changing the “thermostat” temperature and it is reported that you should not see any noticeable difference in room temperatures from doing so.
The story doing the rounds appears to be based on ongoing research by Nesta. Based on a read of their methodology it seems to be based on a very low population sample but the reasoning seems sound. I’ll certainly be giving it an experimental go myself. As mentioned above this is really only for Combi boilers.
There is a simple Boiler Efficiency tool on the Nesta website you can click on.
There is also a nice summary of how this works and how to experiment on The Heating Hub which has additional useful information about the risk of Legionella if running the boiler at too low a temperature.
ENSURE YOU ARE RECEIVING / APPLYING FOR ALL RELEVANT GRANTS AND BENEFITS
The Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Money Saving Expert have a useful list of the various payments you may be entitled to. This includes local energy grants that will vary depending on where you live and hardship grant funds – surprisingly - run by many energy suppliers.
ATTEND OUR POWER SURGERIES WITH TOM FROM HEET
Tom from local charity and one of our partner organisations The HEET Project will be running monthly online workshops / surgeries with us. The HEET Project is dedicated to helping struggling households to save money on fuel bills, save energy and stay warm and healthy.
HEET themselves operate within the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Enfield - but the monthly surgeries will be open to all members of POWER.
We’ll be adding details of the monthly surgeries in the very near future, please watch this space
THE DON’T PAY UK MOVEMENT
We have conflicted feelings on this. Civil disobedience can be a valid, sometimes the only, option. It is easy to imagine how millions of people withholding payment could force a change from the government and from energy companies.
In practice it might prove a high risk strategy. One possible punchline is coming out of it with a “prepaid” meter (if you aren’t already on one) which actually puts you on an even higher tariff for energy. Another is finding interest added to already unaffordable debt. Having railed against The Creditocracy in Bank Job, for obvious reasons we cannot with all due conscience explicitly invite people to take action that *may* further ensare them in debt traps.
We mention this option as it’s already out there and gaining publicity. If you choose to go down this road then all power to you - but please do ensure that you are fully aware of the risks before doing so.
A few selected articles on the pro’s and con’s.
https://dontpay.uk/resources/faqs/
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/aug/12/people-give-their-views-on-dont-pay-uk-fuel-bills
FORM AN ENERGY CLUB
Energy Local have a brilliant scheme to club together with neighbours in order to support local renewable generators and negotiate cheaper energy prices. For little more effort than changing supplier.
It’s not specifically designed for the energy crisis we are moving into, and will be more of a band aid over the problem than a full solution, but every little helps. If you live near a local renewable generator – or even just a school or similar public building with sufficient solar panels – this might prove a relatively easy way to get your bills down a little, whilst also helping the local generator / school.
WRITE TO YOUR MP
It might seem – often justifiably – that MPs don’t particularly have your interests at heart. But the fear of losing their seat in an election is something that gets them right in the feels. So tell them how you feel about the direction things are taking. If you are scared or depressed about the coming winter tell them. Tell them that you cannot and will not with a clear conscience vote for anyone who is visibly not standing up and trying to do the right thing right now.
I think that Westminster – across the political spectrum – has MASSIVELY misread the public mood right now. You can help them get back on track. DEMAND that they get back on track and stop horrifying percentages of the population slipping into Fuel Poverty.
https://www.writetothem.com/ is a great way to contact your MP, your local councillors etc. even if you aren’t sure who they are. You just need to know your postcode.
WARM THE BODY NOT THE ROOM
Martin Lewis has a useful guide to keeping warm if you cannot afford to properly heat your home.
It goes without saying that in a civilised society none of this should be necessary. And it’s quite a sad indicator of where we are that the man who used to tell us how to get the best deals on phones and home insurance is now having to campaign to keep people alive. But his advice is solid.
DON’T BE ASHAMED TO USE LOCAL WARM BANKS
Many councils are putting plans into place to ensure warm public spaces are available to those who need them as we move into winter. So check out where these are well in advance if you think you will need them – and don’t for a second feel ashamed of having to use them. Maybe there’s a chance to add a positive spin here, and form a sense of community. Book Clubs, Craft Circles, whatever. Hell, get a group together and start crocheting voodoo dolls of the heads of energy companies.
In short, see if you can find a safe warm space, and see what you can do about using that space to build something positive and community focused out of this whole mess. It can be something more than a group of individuals huddling against the cold.
If your council isn’t making plans for these then demand that they do, and if you have the capacity to do so see if you can get together with a few other people – maybe using parish halls, churches, mosques – whatever is local and willing to come on board - and try and come up with some Warm Banks of your own if they are not already being provided.
USE - OR FAKE! - HOME AUTOMATION
A member of The Powerful has written an interesting blog about Home Automation. If you are slightly techy minded - or know someone who is - this is a relatively inexpensive way of monitoring and taking greater control of your energy uses, which should come with some real savings. It can be quite an eye opener once you look at your energy usage in fine detail.
Many will be put off by or simply cannot afford the technology to do this. !!!BUT!!! you can put a lot of the underlying principles into place manually if you get in the habit. Things like only heating the room you are in, being aware of plugged in devices using “Phantom Power” and so on. If you have a smart meter (and it works!) you already have a great tool to start doing this manually - keep an eye on the usage at various points in the day and notice when it stars shooting up. What are you using at that point? Is there a way of doing that with the device using less electricity, or doing it without using the device at all?
IF YOU ARE NOT COPING, PLEASE SEEK HELP
There is no shame in being at the end of your tether. The way you feel is a perfectly rational response to a crazy situation.
You haven’t failed, you have BEEN failed. Across the country many many many people are in the same terrifying position as you. All of them, like you, essentially the victims of a robbery in progress.
If you are struggling to cope with your feelings in this awful time, if you feel your mental health is suffering and taking you to a dark place, then please don’t be too proud to seek help from someone who will non judgmentally listen to you when you are at your lowest and help you through the darker hours.
Let’s try our best to come together as communities and get through all of this together.
Best Wishes
Mark
