The combination of energy being charged at too high a rate per MWh and yesterday's report on houses needing to use too much energy on heating & cooling because of bad insulation is a damn potent recipe for really high energy bills, and a big blow to people's cost of living.
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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It's also a potent recipe for huge profits for the every companies.
Or will result in poor health outcomes for those who can't afford to keep their houses at a healthy temperature, come winter or summer.
Natural monopoly: Learn the principle...
There should be a law forcing energy companies to charge the best pricing they have on offer to all customers at all times, instead of the current nonsense of having to ring up the power company every year when the year's pricing deal "is expiring" to avoid being put on extortionately high "default" rates. Not only to save money, but also time, as I am sure I am not the only one who hates having to wade through which "deal" is supposedly the best each year on pain of being given a big bill if I don't want to be bothered.
At that point, we might as well nationalise the whole grid.
Let's nationalise the whole grid...
There seems to be a lot of anti consumer and action against humanity behaviour from multiple industries in Australia: coal, energy, telecom, building, REA, supermarkets, etc
All of them are just pure evil but masking themselves as capitalists. They are buying our politicians and the average citizens are so powerless.
We need change, just like what the Frenchs are demanding
Great idea, don't know how it would work in practice though.
And yeah, my email to my supplier this year was essentially "don't make me faux leave to another supplier again to get the good rate, just give it to me"
I expect the deals would just go away in those circumstances, since they only make money from it because most people (understandably) don't bother with the process. But yeah, the "loyalty fee" price structure is certainly getting tiresome.
Grandfather the rates.
Energy companies be like:
- We need to ensure we price to stay in business, the profit margin is so thin
- We are going to see a record profit, shareholders!
And the ACCC be like:
- Show us your revenue and expenses then
-
adding a line of text because lemmy's markdown formatter sucks
These companies are criminals and should be in prison for crimes against humanity
I dunno about "crimes against humanity". But simple price gouging has been a good enough excuse for the ACCC put people in prison as recently as last year, so it's surely being considered in this case.
I recall Australian power prices already being insane years ago.
I assume you're not in Australia?
Electricity has historically been very cheap in Australia. Even now a lot of people people are paying as little as 15 cents (in USD) per kWh. That's far less than other first world countries - a lot of them pay more like 40 cents.
We also have a climate where people generally don't use much power overnight and where solar panels are especially effective during the day (the angle of the sun is great for solar here) so if your daytime power needs are high you can simply install panels on the roof.
A lot of people in Australia don't pay for electricity at all - cover your roof in solar panels and you'll earn (a tiny bit) of money supplying energy to the grid. You won't become a millionaire doing that, but you will make enough money to cover the cost of installing the panels relatively quickly.
Yes, prices have gone up unacceptably, and it's hard for people to adjust, but they're still relatively low compared to, say, western Europe. We've got coal power stations shutting down because they're too expensive to run at current electricity prices... and we don't even need to import coal. We've got local coal mines which are struggling to find anyone willing to buy their coal so prices are low for that too.
Energy companies are claiming the transition away from coal and disruptions in the gas supply with Russia's war have caused supply chain complexities which have forced them to raise prices. I think they're full of shit, and it looks like the ACCC has found the same thing.
Your overall point isn't incorrect but:
so if your daytime power needs are high you can simply install panels on the roof.
A renter certainly isn't able to do this, given there is no incentive for landlords to install them.
there is no incentive for landlords to install them
According to the QLD government, it is acceptable for landlords to raise the rent by, for example, $15 per week after installing a 5kW solar system.
The math for that works out to about $1000 per year in reduced electricity bills for the tenant and $750 per year in extra rental income for the landlord. $750 per year will make the landlord a profit (after upfront costs are paid back) of several thousand dollars by the time the warranty on the solar panel runs out. (*)
I assume it's similar in other states.
So, yes, there is an incentive. If I was a landlord I'd totally install panels. And if I was a renter, anywhere with panels would be at the top of my list. It's an absolute no-brainer and I could simply place the upfront cost on my mortgage.
It's a better deal for the landlord than the tenant, but it's still a good deal for the tenant. And the tenant doesn't have to pay anything upfront and they can feel better about leaving the aircon running all day in summer... with solar your daytime electricity is "cost" is basically the solar feed in tariff, which is just 6c per kWh.
(* Obviously those are rough figures, install costs depend on the house, and electricity savings depends on the angle of the roof, prevailing weather, time of day for electricity use, etc... but those numbers are based on reliable government funded research so it would be in the ballpark)
That relies on landlords being rational and willing to wait for the income to pay for the panels, which hasn't been my experience interacting with them but hopefully some have the sense. And in this environment, they don't really need any incentive to raise rent, they just do it. Going elsewhere also often isn't an option given the low supply at the moment.
Not to mention the fact that, uh, I've literally lived in rentals where the landlord damned well knew the roof would not structurally support panels due to their poor maintenance
Yeah, housing is messed up in Australia right now. I don't think it's fair to blame landlords though. This is primarily a supply problem.
There were state level legislative changes (in every state, but not all at the same time) around the year 2,000 which resulted in a significant drop in construction. It's estimated we now have 1.3 million fewer houses than we would have if the legislation hadn't changed.
Most of the changes were an attempt to encourage apartment construction and discourage house construction... but what actually happened is they discouraged house construction without any real change on the apartment side.
Not from australia, but I remember EEVBlog talking about his power rates and it was really shocking how high they got, which justified the solar panels easily.
("I heard it on youtube" might be the "but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night", mind you :P )
I'd be interested to know how many people actively choose their energy provider and plan. Renters are usually encouraged to go with something shit - how many of them actually realise they are being ripped off?
is this surprising to anyone?
Fucking duh!
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