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'I've given up eating hot meals to pay for equipment to keep my son alive' (www.bbc.com)

submitted 5 days ago by Veserr@sh.itjust.works to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 13 comments

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[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That's why we're cutting disability benefits

- Conservatives, (Forced) Labour

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

She says at one stage her energy company called to suggest she doubled her direct debit to £845 per month.

Even in the dead of winter, my all-electric house with three people in it had a bill of £171.73. How the hell does anyone get up to £845??

Are these ventilators really so inefficient, or are electricity prices in Yorkshire something like £3/kWh?

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, short of starting a bitcoin mine or running a hot tub/heated pool I don't even know how I could reasonably get my energy costs over £200 a month.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

With a 13% price hike incoming, I can see a lot of people dying due to the government inaction on the energy transition.

[+] Krill@feddit.uk 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (4 children)

The article is about the cost of electricity to have the equipment running which is not covered. How expensive is electricity in the UK anyway?

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Currently ~20-30p per kWh. Depending on your tariff night time can go down to 7p per kWh.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Not much, makes me wonder how much power these things use. Surely they can't take multiple kW, it's not like you are running a CT scanner at home which at least probably does take a good chunk of power.

[–] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

An oxygen concentrator and a ventilator running 24/7, alongside the other things mentioned such a humidifier and suction machines. I can certainly see how that would add up quickly. Let's say all the equipment together consumes 600W, which is probably very conservative. At a price of 24.67p/kWh (which is the average price, so she could very well be paying more) that's £3.55 a day on top of regular household energy use.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

To get to over £800 or so a month you need to be using like 5kW constantly.

[–] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 8 points 5 days ago

The over £800 was what the energy company suggested she pays, which to me sounds like she's in debt with them and £800 a month would be partly paying it off

[–] Codpiece@feddit.uk 1 points 5 days ago

For me currently (pun intended), it’s a flat rate of £0.20772 per kWh.

[–] Krill@feddit.uk 0 points 5 days ago

The title is "to pay for equipment", which isn't fair, and is almost certainly wrong. "To use equipment" would be fairer. The article is a bit of a hit piece.