Cost of domestic gas and electricity has gone up by around 15%, becoming the latest in an ominously long list of financial bad news recently.
British Gas, the UK’s biggest energy provider (with around 16 million customers), announced on 18th January an immediate price rise of 15% for its gas and electricity customers. The company has blames rising wholesale prices for the increase. The cost increase translates to an increase of around £130 per year for an average duel fuel bill.
Expert plumbers and heating engineers we interviewed were not surprised by the news, which came on the hills of similar price increased from EDF Energy and nPower, both raising their prices by similar levels.
Experienced plumbers and heating engineers have been encouraging the community to reduce their exposure to such gas price increases by installing more efficient boilers (for example a new high efficiency condensing boiler) and other renewable energy technologies such as solar water heating. When installed by a professional plumber or heating engineer, a modern high efficiency boiler (such as a combi boiler), can reduce the heating bills by around 35%, making the economics of installing such boiler very attractive.
Furthermore, as some of Heating Engineers London’s expert plumbers comment, installing a high efficiency flat plate solar thermal system, not only has dropped in price due to competition in the sector, but also can reduce the water heating bills of a typical household by 50-70%, yet further reducing the reliance on gas for heating water. Heating Engineers London offers further advice on how to save energy and reduce your heating bills.
British Gas has recently announced plans to provide free home insulation to all homeowners over the age of 70 and is offering the same to around 25,000 of its most vulnerable customer.
Heating Engineers London has further information on government grants for energy savings.