National Trust Uses Sheep’s Wool To Cut Energy Bills
The National Trust is helping to reduce energy bills in old properties on Jersey and in Coleshill, a village in the Cotswolds, by using sheep’s wool as insulation.
The National Trust is installing sheep’s wool as roof insulation in a 17th Century cottage on Jersey and Grade 2 Listed buildings as part of a project in Coleshill.
Sheep have to be sheared every year but the money farmers make from their fleeces barely covers the cost of the shearers. The fact that there’s now a new use for sheep’s wool can only be good news for sheep farmers.
The National Trust hopes that by using sheep’s wool, energy bills will be cut by a third and those living in Coleshill have already benefitted from the insulation after experiencing the cold November and December. Many of the properties noticed the difference in the recent harsh winter and it’s hoped that they will also see the benefits of cheaper energy bills.
Prior to sheep’s wool products such as Rock Wool would be used to insulate houses. However, the benefit of sheep’s wool, especially for old houses, is that it reduces condensation, it’s fire retardant and it’s a sustainable product. However, the downside of sheep’s wool over Rock Wool is that it’s more expensive – but it will last much longer.
As well as saving energy the National Trust says the sheep’s wool will help to reduce carbon emissions. The Jersey Green House project aims to make the National Trust in Jersey greener and the chief executive, Charles Alluto, said the house being insulated in Jersey will save about a tonne of carbon dioxide each year.
So using sheep’s wool as insulation is not only good for farmers because it gives them an outlet for their fleeces but it’s good for homes because it will cut gas and electricity bills.
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Leaked Report Says Inaccurate Gas Meters Mean Households Are Paying For Gas They Have Not Used.
A leaked report from the National Grid has revealed that due to inaccurate gas meters millions of households are being overcharged for their gas.
The leaked National Grid report says that as many as one in six meters were over-registering and that nearly all of the older meters tested had problems with accuracy. The news means that some customers could be paying around £26 a year too much for their gas.
There’s normally a 2% leeway for meter errors but the report suggests that in some cases 88% of a particular 1983 gas meter model and 69% of a 2000 model were over-registering.
Unfortunately, the majority of errors involve households being overcharged – less that 1% were found to be undercharging.
The report comes after National Grid tested almost 5,000 of their oldest and least reliable meters back in 2007. It was only then that they found one in six didn’t meet minimum regulations.
As a result of this leaked report energy suppliers are being urged to replace old and unreliable meters as soon as possible. A former director of the Gas Consumers Council, Ray Cope, said “The scale of the problem is disgraceful and it is clear from the report that there are potentially millions of defective meters out there”. He added “Regulators Ofgem and the National Measurement Office must take immediate action to sort out this mess and replace defective meters”.
It’s frustrating that people are paying for gas they have not used a time when families and households are being hit by rising energy prices, food prices and are suffering as the result of spending cuts in general.
Consumer Focus represents gas customers and their director of external affairs, Adam Scorer, said the issue would be raised with the regulators. He said “If people have been overcharged we would expect the regulators to ensure that customers are fully compensated and suppliers replace meters that are inaccurate”.
While National Grid says that around 500,000 meters are replaced every year there’s a suggestion that this figure has slowed because smart meters are on the way in. There are plans for over 27 million homes and businesses to have smart meters over the next ten years.
Meanwhile a spokesman for National Grid said “This report is a business management tool and the meters tested were selected as being older or identified as being potentially inaccurate so that they could be prioritised for replacement. It is not representative of meters in the UK generally”.
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Ovo Energy To Begin New Marketing Campaign To Attract More Customers
The green energy company, Ovo Energy, is looking to gain more customers in the coming year by increasing its marketing campaign to attract customers from the big six energy companies and smaller competitors.
Ovo Energy came into being in 2009 and since then it has gained 40,000 gas and electricity customers. However, with plans to have 1 million customers by 2019 Ovo is to increase its marketing this year in order to attract more customers.
Ovo’s boss, Stephen Fitzpatrick, wants to brighten up the energy sector which he says is seen as a dull industry. He said “We are in an industry where there isn’t much attention paid to brand awareness or emotion, it’s seen as a dull industry and we are trying to breathe a little life into it by using creativity”.
Ovo Energy was set up by Mr Fitzpatrick when he became fed up with dealing with large energy companies with complicated and confusing tariffs. He said “I just couldn’t understand why the energy business was so complex and service so poor”. He decided to start his own company to make energy cheaper, greener and simpler. The company uses UK based service centres and uses more renewable energy.
Now the company is trying to build its customer base Mr Fitzpatrick is looking to appoint a marketing director, head of communications and an online marketing manager to help Ovo Energy compete with the big energy providers.
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Energy Provider Price Changes Will Hit Poor And Low Energy Users
Energy companies have introduced pricing changes which will be felt hardest by the poorest and those most careful with their energy use.
Pricing changes by energy companies will hit the less well off and careful energy users because they have increased the amount of energy which is charged at a higher rate.
Energy suppliers often charge more for the first amount of electricity or gas that is used and once this limit has been reached they then lower the rate. For example, British Gas used to charge a higher rate for the first 125 kilowatt hours of electricity used for each quarter but they have increased this to 180 kilowatt hours. This means that users will pay more and low energy users in particular will be hard hit because more of their bill is made up of these expensive units of electricity.
Meanwhile British Gas isn’t alone in making these changes. Scottish Power has increased the amount customers initially pay for gas by 26% but it has dropped the next level of charges by 4.5%. In contrast E.ON has increased the price of gas units in the first level by 11.3% but has kept the second tier at the same rate.
British Gas said “The first tier is designed to reflect fixed costs such as transport. The regulator, Ofgem, estimated these costs had risen by 6% in six months last year”.
However, an energy expert at Consumer Focus, Dave Dawson, said “This change will leave many customers paying more than British Gas’s headline price rise of 7%”.
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Ofgem Investigates Objections To BES Gas & Electricity Supply Licence Applications
Ofgem, the energy regulator, is looking into objections raised over the application for new gas and electricity supply licences by Andrew Pilley, the man behind Commercial Power, an energy broker and Business Energy Solutions (BES), an energy supplier.
Objections have been raised over the request by Mr Pilley for new supply licences so that he can offer gas and electricity under two company names.
Mr Pilley has applied for an electricity supply licence for BES and a gas supply licence for BES Commercial Electricity but a number of objections have been received by Ofgem. Ofgem won’t say who has objected to the licence requests but it’s unusual for Ofgem to receive any objections for such applications. It would therefore be significant if Ofgem was to reject the applications.
An Ofgem spokesman said “We submit all applications to thorough checking procedures and would not hesitate to reject an application if there were sufficient grounds”.
Meanwhile Mr Pilley said “The licences will improve the service we offer our clients by providing them with the option of receiving both gas and electricity from either company and receive one bill for their services”.
Business Energy Solutions was taken to court in 2009 by Bokum Chan, an hotelier. He said that the energy deal with BES was more costly and different from the one he agreed verbally with Commercial Power. He said he had agreed a fixed rate deal but when the bill arrived it was almost twice the agreed amount and a variable rate. The matter was eventually settled out of court.
Small businesses have been cautioned in the past over a few unprincipled energy brokers pursuing small businesses although Mr Pilley denies taking part in mis-selling. The Forum of Private Business (FPB) and the Utilities Intermediaries Association have campaigned against the practice of mis-selling and Phil McCabe of the FPB said “Ofgem is simply ineffective against this type of utility company and it is outrageous that with the demise of Consumer Focus, any remaining protection for small businesses is being taken away”.
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BP In Trouble Again Over Allegations Of Fixing The Gas Market
BP is in trouble in the United States again as the oil giant is being investigated by U.S. regulators over allegations that BP influenced the gas market.
There are allegations that BP controlled the gas market and the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission informed BP of its finding in November.
Since then BP has been served with a notice of intent to recommend charges over these allegations. The notice was served on BP by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The allegation relates to trading in Houston between October and November 2008.
BP has stated in its defence that it had sent a detailed response to both of these organisations and added it “did not engage in any appropriate or unlawful activity”.
BP is currently trying to repair its image since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April last year and this news will not help it to do that.
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British Gas Reports 22% Decline In Gas Consumption As Homes Become More Energy Efficient
Despite an exceptionally cold December being blamed for the rise in Centrica’s profits, according to a British Gas report, there’s been a 22% decline in gas consumption as an increasing number of homes become more energy efficient.
The 22% decline in gas consumption comes after gas use has increased steadily over the last 30 years.
The report, the British Gas Home Energy Report 2011 was carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The research is the largest analysis of natural gas use in homes and involved 40 million British Gas meter readings over four years.
According to the report, those British Gas customers who implemented energy saving measures such as insulation and new energy efficient boilers, saved on average £322 a year. Not only that, but they saw their gas usage drop by 44% between 2006 and 2010.
Despite these findings the report also concluded that some homes took no action at all. Therefore British Gas has announced a major new programme to provide free insulation for its dual fuel customers. These customers will benefit from a free home insulation survey after which they will be able to choose between loft insulation or cavity wall insulation.
The Managing Director of British Gas Networks, Gearóid Lane, said just because global energy prices were rising it “needn’t mean higher bills for households”. He added “This report shows that many homes are already reducing their energy consumption and cutting bills, but we want all British Gas homes to enjoy the same benefit”.
So if you are a British Gas dual fuel customer and have not insulated your home, now may be a good time to get it done. You can register on the British Gas website.
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Start Collecting Nectar Points Today With British Gas
British Gas customers will be able to collect Nectar points from today as the energy giant has replaced EDF Energy as Nectar’s energy partner.
Nectar points allow collectors to benefit from money off at Sainsbury’s and Homebase and they can also get cinema and rail tickets.
British Gas has 12 million customers who will now be able to collect Nectar points for the energy they use, however they will also collect points for maintenance and repair contracts. According to British Gas they will add more ways to collect bonus points throughout the year.
The Managing Director of British Gas, Phil Bentley, said Nectar was a way of thanking and rewarding their customers. He said “Nectar’s reach will help our customers to benefit from the points they can collect using our services and those of the other great partners in the programme”.
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Centrica Set To Announce 20% Increase In Profits In February
Centrica, the owner of British Gas could see its profits increase by 20% by the end of February which is likely to result in a call for an investigation by the Competition Commission.
It is expected that Centrica will announce profits of around £2.1 billion at the end of February compared with profits of £1.68 billion a year ago. These expected profits look set to persuade the Competition Commission to investigate the biggest energy supplier in Britain.
Utility Exchange has reported that Ofgem is investigating recent price rises to ensure that energy suppliers are not abusing their position. British Gas raised its prices by 7% in October and there are concerns that these price rises (which came just before the coldest December for 30 years and resulted in a massive increase in consumption) are the reason for Centrica’s increase in profits.
Ofgem is due to report on its findings in March just after Centrica is set to announce its profits. Many analysts think that profits from business energy users and residential customers will have increased by over 20%. This is because Centrica has benefitted not just from a cold December but also from high wholesale gas prices. This has helped to increase profits from its gas production sites in the North Sea and the Irish Sea. Not only that, but Centrica has several power generation facilities which are also likely to see an increase in profits as a result of the cold weather.
It’s believed that Centrica’s results will compel Ofgem and the Competition Commission to act. The chief executive of Ofgem, Alistair Buchanan has rejected requests to scrutinise competition within the energy industry and has said in the past that the energy market was working properly.
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Npower Customers Should Claim Their Refund Says Consumer Focus
The consumer group Consumer Focus is encouraging npower customers to claim back gas overpayments dating back to 2007.
Utility Exchange reported in October that npower had overcharged its customers £70 million and now Consumer Focus is advising customers to claim their refund. Around 1.8 million people are due to get about £35 back but Consumer Focus says as many as 700,000 have yet to receive their refunds.
The issue of refunds emerged when npower was criticised by the regulator Ofgem over changes it made to the way it charges customers. Npower began charging customers a fixed monthly number of initial gas units called primary block units which were priced higher than previously. Before this, customers were charged a varying number of primary units depending on the time of year. Npower argued that at the same time as they made these changes they also lowered prices and brought in various discounts so households should have received cheaper bills.
While 1.2 million customers have received their refunds there are still thousands who are owed money. One problem could be that eligible customers were sent letters to their last known address. If they have since moved they won’t have got the letter which is only valid for six months. Consequently customers should contact npower if they have moved and think they are eligible for a refund.
The chairwoman of Consumer Focus, Christine Farnish said “We want to encourage all those consumers still entitled to a refund to get the cash that’s rightfully theirs”.