| > And that matches my assumptions about US vs UK and EU -- US makes energy really cheap for consumers. It's hard to judge, prices here spiked 3-5 times in two years; I'm pretty sure they more than doubled last year alone. I don't think the US was affected as seriously by the Ukraine situation. Government negligence has allowed a lot of price gouging by energy companies. Further incompetence has led to renewable suppliers being paid a rate based on the inflated costs of running a gas power station. > That could explain the OP, the cost-benefit might make more sense with US energy prices? Or is that right, should it be the opposite? The OP seemed to know what they were talking about, do you think they were wrong? I'm figuring they were right for US prices but maybe not UK. Cheaper energy makes capital intense investments a less sensible. As an extreme example, if your energy bills are only $50/year spending even $1k on a device that cuts your bills in half would be a poor financial decision. The other major factor is the ratio of electricity to gas prices. It sounds like in some places they're nearly equal. Heat pumps are a much more sensible option in those places.
If a heat pump is 3x as effective as heating with gas, 1kWh of electricity needs cost you less than 3x that of gas before you begin to see a financial saving. Another is that UK homes are almost universally heated by circulating hot water through radiators in each room. Comments from others seem to indicate that these setups are typically more expensive than the air based systems typical of the US. > My impression is that the "supply choice" thing is all a neoliberal scam. The price structures are super confusing, and a LOT of people, especially poorer people who can't afford it, get really taken for a ride. Often there's a cheap "teaser" rate, then the rates balloon to something hypothetically "market-based" but who really knows where the numbers on your bill come from. I have stuck with the traditional/legacy supplier myself. Private energy companies feel like a joke. Cheap energy is fundamental to the health of the economy and the population's quality of life. Seeing as any kind of shock require government intervention, I don't see the benefit of allowing private companies to siphon off profit when times are good. We have similar-ish systems. The majority of people are on a fixed tariff with top rate capped by the regulator. "Agile" tariffs allow people to opt in be billed at half-hourly market rates. If you can shift your usage to the cheapest hours you'll sometimes find yourself being paid to use electricity. In a stable market with battery storage and solar you can save a lot of money. During the crisis there were 2-3 months periods where people were paying 1-3x more than the capped rate though. |