The Invisible Robber

In the news today British Gas are said to be putting the price of gas up by another 25%.

Twenty five percent!? Apparently wholesale gas prices have jumped by 75% over the past year, according to British Gas. Woh. 75%? Now, obviously, I'm no expert in this field, but that sounds crazy. Are we heading for a Mad Max-style shortage of fuel already?

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson advised consumers to consider switching suppliers if they were unhappy with rising energy bills. Yeah, right. Then what do we do when they all catch up with each other? Solar panels? Live underground?

Gas is not something I've thought about until we moved in here. Until then the bills I'd received in other houses were never significant enough to warrant concern. Thirty quid a month or whatever. Then we had a shocking £800 bill arrive out of the blue last year. We promptly got ourselves a new boiler and hoped it wouldn't happen again. However, even since the new on-demand condensing boiler we've been paying, on average, £100 pcm throughout the year. That's more than a grand a year, just on gas.

Gas has gone from being something I gave little though to, to being a constant worry. Last November British Gas came and swapped out meter for a metric one. The new meter (in the cellar) started on 000000.000. Whereas before the meter was simply a big number getting bigger I now have a constant reminder of how much we're using each day. I can't go in the cellar without clocking the new reading and working out how much it's gone up by. At one point I was changing the thermostat each day to see what difference it made.

Gas is starting to get on my nerves and I'm starting to get on Karen and Quinn's nerves as a result. If they want a bath why can't they have one without me questioning why they can't make do with a shower. Why can't Karen (who likes to be warm) turn the thermostat to 25c without me secretly turning it back to 17?

I've got enough to worry about without obsessing over gas usage and without hearing about more price hikes. Before next winter I plan on re-insulate the loft and below the floorboards downstairs. It's getting ridiculous.