Are your streetlights on?

[Leicester_Numan]

Polarised views as i'm sure you know means the extreme ends of the argument. I, as you can clearly see am somewhere in the middle advocating common sense. Like I said though it wont matter in the end as the power companies will put their prices up to cover the drop in profits. The councils bill will be right back to where it was and our bills will be higher. We're not going to save money it's going to end up costing us all more

[Captain...]

Polarised views as i'm sure you know means the extreme ends of the argument. I, as you can clearly see am somewhere in the middle advocating common sense. Like I said though it wont matter in the end as the power companies will put their prices up to cover the drop in profits. The councils bill will be right back to where it was and our bills will be higher. We're not going to save money it's going to end up costing us all more

You do know that the power companies are heavily regulated and can't put up prices because their profits have dropped, they have tried, as well as price fixing, but what will actually happen is, as demand goes down prices will drop as competition creates a price war as the companies strive to get more customers to cover the shortfall in profits.

It will also subsequently decrease the demand on the suppliers, on the big energy firms and so the cost of the raw materials needed to generate the power will also drop, so the factors on supply and demand will even out and result in a lower price overall, and energy reserves lasting longer.

[21st Century Fox]

I'll tell you who needs to conserve energy! Gary Numan!

Always driving around, wasting petrol and he wasn't even sure if his friends ran on electricity.

Gary Numan's carbon footprint has a lot to answer for.

[Leicester_Numan]

Well, he's got a smaller light show for this tour

[Leicester_Numan]

You do know that the power companies are heavily regulated and can't put up prices because their profits have dropped, they have tried, as well as price fixing, but what will actually happen is, as demand goes down prices will drop as competition creates a price war as the companies strive to get more customers to cover the shortfall in profits.

It will also subsequently decrease the demand on the suppliers, on the big energy firms and so the cost of the raw materials needed to generate the power will also drop, so the factors on supply and demand will even out and result in a lower price overall, and energy reserves lasting longer.

Yeah right. How many times have we all heard that. Don't see any prices going down and they never have. Ofgem are a waste of time

[Captain...]

Yeah right. How many times have we all heard that. Don't see any prices going down and they never have. Ofgem are a waste of time

Of course prices aren't going down, demand is going up and supply is going down, that is why prices are going up, that is why we are contemplating going back to the dark ages (pun intended) by switching off street lights when they are not needed, amongst other actions to reduce the rapid rate at which our natural resources are being consumed so we can light up empty streets and control non existent traffic.

Energy prices will keep on rising until we can find an alternative source of energy, preferably renewable/inexhaustible, or we seriously reduce our energy consumption.

[Leicester_Numan]

My electricity bill has shot up from 150 a year to 650 a year in the last 15 years and i'm using less in kwh. You may buy the politicians crap about competition reducing prices and regulations keeping them under control but personal experience tells me different

[Captain...]

My electricity bill has shot up from 150 a year to 650 a year in the last 15 years and i'm using less in kwh. You may buy the politicians crap about competition reducing prices and regulations keeping them under control but personal experience tells me different

Because supply is running out, that is why we are screwed if we don't find an alternative, or reduce our usage.

Edit: And global demand is increasing, the amount you have reduced your bill by will not make a jot of difference on the global scale.

[Leicester_Numan]

If you wish to believe that prices will come down after we've increased our energy reserves then feel free to do so. It will never happen. Competition is supposed to decrease prices but actually seems to have the opposite effect. Regulations are supposed to keep companies in check to stop price fixing and profiteering and they come up with a plausible excuse to get round them. It doesn't and never will work the way it's supposed to for us consumers and not just with the power companies. It sickens me when companies make hundreds of millions in profit and then announce job cuts and price rises and provide less for your money. I always end up thinking WTF? How do they get away with this BS? People just believing it? Government watchdogs allow them to? Backhanders? Everything is about making more and more profit. That's never going to change in my lifetime

[AoWW]

People spouting so much hot air - that's what's caused this country to be in the mess it's in!

And cows - blame them too!

[Captain...]

1. If you wish to believe that prices will come down after we've increased our energy reserves then feel free to do so. It will never happen. 2. Competition is supposed to decrease prices but actually seems to have the opposite effect. 3. Regulations are supposed to keep companies in check to stop price fixing and profiteering and they come up with a plausible excuse to get round them. It doesn't and never will work the way it's supposed to for us consumers and not just with the power companies. It sickens me when companies make hundreds of millions in profit and then announce job cuts and price rises and provide less for your money. I always end up thinking WTF? How do they get away with this BS? People just believing it? Government watchdogs allow them to? Backhanders? Everything is about making more and more profit. That's never going to change in my lifetime

you are putting words into my mouth there.

1. Prices will come down when we have a viable alternative, at the moment we are so reliant on oil and gas which are running out, that prices will keep on going up as supply contracts.

2. I am with you on that one, the government fvcked up big time when it privatised the energy sector, just imagine how much of the deficit we could have cleared if we were making the profits the energy companies currently are.

3. Regulations have exposed some price fixing scams, but of course profiteering is rife it is the private sector, what else is it going to do.

You seem to think I am some kind of rampant capitalist, I am not, but I understand how economics work, and at the moment the supply of energy is falling driving the price up, if we find another huge reserve of oil than prices will drop again (but not by a huge amount because the government also takes a nice cut) or if we find an efficient new energy source, or cut our reliance, we are so reliant on electricity and oil that unless we can break this reliance we will always be held to ransom by the energy companies.

Regardless of all of that, and ignoring everything else, the one thing that we must be doing as a global effort is stopping this needless excessive and damaging waste of our planet's natural resources. Not to save me money on my leccy bill, but because if we don't we will ruin this planet.

Switching off the street lights when the streets are empty is one very small step towards that, but it is at least a step in the right direction and one I support.

[Leicester_Numan]

Actually I wasn't thinking you're a rampant capitalist and I know i'm sounding like a bit of a socialist/communist. I don't think there's anything wrong with the system. As always, it's the people running it.

[Leicester_Numan]

BTW, I do agree with you on renewable energy as you'll see if you look at the nuclear power station thread

[Webbo]

My electricity bill has shot up from 150 a year to 650 a year in the last 15 years and i'm using less in kwh. You may buy the politicians crap about competition reducing prices and regulations keeping them under control but personal experience tells me different

Wtf are you moaning about. We pay £109 a month for electricity.

[Leicester_Numan]

Wtf are you moaning about. We pay £109 a month for electricity.

It would be a lot more but I choose to live on my own and try to keep my power usage down as much as I can. Before anyone says anything, I love women and do have a girlfriend, I just choose to live on my own. Too much of a lone wolf

[Rincewind]

My combine fuel bills are £57 PM atm had a letter to say it was being adjusted. By going up. The only gas I use is my CH and electric is PC Night TV and the occasional kitchen appliances. I don't see how I am using enough to warrant those charges.

My gas meter also needs servicin. Had a letter to say they've been unable to do it yet the meter is in the entry shared by two houses of flats and also the housing association has a key.

[Leicester_Numan]

My combine fuel bills are £57 PM atm had a letter to say it was being adjusted. By going up. The only gas I use is my CH and electric is PC Night TV and the occasional kitchen appliances. I don't see how I am using enough to warrant those charges.

My gas meter also needs servicin. Had a letter to say they've been unable to do it yet the meter is in the entry shared by two houses of flats and also the housing association has a key.

The cost is disgraceful isn't it? I don't even use my heating, if i'm cold, I wear warmer clothes, if i'm still cold, I get in bed with a hot water bottle. Not very glamorous but saves you loads

[MooseBreath]

You can always generate your own power if you think you are being hard done to.

[act smiley]

If the country wants to reduce it's energy consumption turning shop and office lights off at night would be a better option.

This.

I work in an office block that's 8 floors high, 5 of which are used by the company I work for. The floor where people work shifts is the only one that ever had the lights off, because the person on the late shift would have a checklist to tick off that went "lock up the remote access cards in the safe, check the room is locked, turn off the system monitors, turn off the lights". All the floors where people leave in dribs and drabs never have the lights switched off simply because nobody thinks to do it.

[Guest]

When I first left Leicester to come to France I lived in a very rural area. The contrast between light and dark was amazing. However it's rare to have a completely dark night where you can see nothing. Even when there are clouds obscuring the stars and moon your eyes adjust so that you can see.

Living in a city like Leicester you really have no idea about the number of stars in the sky.

[davieG]

Bright idea has saved thousands

[Captain...]

After vociferously defending the idea, I have since moved to an area where this happens, I didn't realise it because I generally walk back from town on the main road, which still has it's lights on, but I was coming home the back way at 00:30 and suddenly realised that the lights were off, I thought it was a power cut, but it has happened a few times now, and it turns out I live on the cusp of the area where they switch off the street lights at midnight.

Whilst I do support the idea, fvck me it's dark, there are very few commercial properties with lights still on, and everyone in the houses are in bed or have the curtains shut. I always have to take my headphones off as being unable to see or hear is very unnerving, I have never met anyone whilst walking back in the dark, but I think it would put me on edge if I did.

Whilst I do still support the idea, and it has taken me 4 months to notice, so it is not a common problem as I am normally in bed by midnight, I would question why they switch them off at midnight on a Friday or Saturday night, when people are often coming back from pubs and bars after that time, a bit drunk and perhaps not in the best state to navigate dark narrow roads.

[AoWW]

After vociferously defending the idea, I have since moved to an area where this happens, I didn't realise it because I generally walk back from town on the main road, which still has it's lights on, but I was coming home the back way at 00:30 and suddenly realised that the lights were off, I thought it was a power cut, but it has happened a few times now, and it turns out I live on the cusp of the area where they switch off the street lights at midnight.

Whilst I do support the idea, fvck me it's dark, there are very few commercial properties with lights still on, and everyone in the houses are in bed or have the curtains shut. I always have to take my headphones off as being unable to see or hear is very unnerving, I have never met anyone whilst walking back in the dark, but I think it would put me on edge if I did.

Whilst I do still support the idea, and it has taken me 4 months to notice, so it is not a common problem as I am normally in bed by midnight, I would question why they switch them off at midnight on a Friday or Saturday night, when people are often coming back from pubs and bars after that time, a bit drunk and perhaps not in the best state to navigate dark narrow roads.

Wuss.

[sphericalfox]

After vociferously defending the idea, I have since moved to an area where this happens, I didn't realise it because I generally walk back from town on the main road, which still has it's lights on, but I was coming home the back way at 00:30 and suddenly realised that the lights were off, I thought it was a power cut, but it has happened a few times now, and it turns out I live on the cusp of the area where they switch off the street lights at midnight.

Whilst I do support the idea, fvck me it's dark, there are very few commercial properties with lights still on, and everyone in the houses are in bed or have the curtains shut. I always have to take my headphones off as being unable to see or hear is very unnerving, I have never met anyone whilst walking back in the dark, but I think it would put me on edge if I did.

Whilst I do still support the idea, and it has taken me 4 months to notice, so it is not a common problem as I am normally in bed by midnight, I would question why they switch them off at midnight on a Friday or Saturday night, when people are often coming back from pubs and bars after that time, a bit drunk and perhaps not in the best state to navigate dark narrow roads.

Sounds like you need to pack a piece!

[AyewJoking]

Ours are on but they've been in a dimmed state for months which is a more common sense approach. I wouldn't want to be walking the streets with all the lights off. Too many nutters and eventually they too will realise the lights are off. I also expect a rise in muggings, rapes and murders. As far as councils are concerned, money is more important than peoples lives.

+1