Plugging in the new April price caps and prevailing war driven spikes this is roughly how many kW hours £1,000 buys you. Gas and electricity will be fixed until July but oil and LPG will certainly remain volatile. Oil, for example, has shot up to £1.31 a litre (good chart on Boilerjuice) so if you are living in a big old leaky house, like the red one below, your heating bill will be over £4,000. Extrapolating from the bar of your particular fuel will give a good bills prediction with the orange house giving targets for most people using around 25,000 kW hours a year. As usual, at the extremes, a direct electric resistance heater is the worst thing to turn on (even half as good as oil) while the best strategy is to harvest cheap rate energy with a heat pump and store it in a tank for later use. While that heat pump trumps everything it is notable that off-peak electricity is currently better than oil or LPG; maybe night storage heaters are due for a comeback.

Trying to find a filling station that had any diesel left at all was a bit of a wake-up call; an electric car, with attendant cheap night rates, could lower heating and fuel costs while giving some protection from energy crises. Bi-directional chargers? Still ‘on the way’ but could be just months now so choose your car with care.

If these prices persist into next winter the Government will no longer be able to support the price cap so expect some unpleasant changes.

If this sudden price shock is prompting you to take some action you might take a look at ‘Absolute ultimate heat pump system’ where there may be one or two useful ideas for your heating strategy.

Meanwhile, solar panel prices continue to fall and make even more sense. They pair especially well with a mini-split heat pump which is not only cheap to install (£2,000 ish) but gives a welcome addition of air conditioning during these hot summers.

Cheaper batteries are worth considering although payback times still look long. While export rates are falling the idea of giving access to your battery when the grid is stressed is looking tempting. Check out ‘Axle’ who will pay you £1 for every kW hour they take. For that money they can hammer your battery as much as they like. N.B. Check out their compatible inverter/chargers before you install your PV.