It is definitely no secret that the UK population is being rung dry for more money out of their households, especially on electricity.
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Hello everyone!
Happy New Year!
This is Amy’s Hot Topic of the week.
This week we will look at the recent flooding in the UK. I’m sure many of you will have seen it, I have had to drive through some of it! If you’re local to Reading, you may have seen the River Kennet has spilled over into the remains of the Christmas market by the Oracle Centre.
To lots of people, such as myself, I have not been too affected (other than having to turn around on country lanes because my little car can’t make it through ☹). However, the flooding has affected lots of people horrifically, flooding homes, businesses, and fields alike.
This has caused home insurance to rise, even more so than it was originally. There have been four storms in the last few months – Babet, Ciaran, Debi, and Henk. The combined force of these has created £352mn in claims for damaged homes, according to the Association of British Insurers. But they said it is too early to calculate the number for the recent flooding, but I can bet it will be high! They have said there needs to be more done to “support communities up and down the country to be more resilient”.
There is heavy scrutiny on insurance already, amid the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. It is definitely no secret that the UK population is being rung dry for more money out of their households, especially electricity. And with the recent flooding and onslaught of storms, we are definitely seeing the effects of climate change with this unpredictable weather. It won’t stop here. This may be new to us now, but it is the new normal and more will come.
Therefore, reducing our energy consumption by using alternative methods like solar panels is very important. Not only is it the direction we need to go for our precious planet, but it reduces electricity bills (which is much needed in this cost-of-living crisis).
If a person is living under 2kWh a day, the cost would be much reduced. And if you’re using solar panels, damages to electricity mains wouldn’t be as deadly. These storms would become a tiny bit more manageable. The average consumption for a 2–3-bedroom house with 2-3 people is 2.95kWh a person every day, (Ofgem.com). Starting from there, doing other things would help along the way. Such as, generating your own energy with portable solar panels; take control and measure and manage your energy creation and consumption. Not only would this reduce overall cost, which would help you in other areas, it helps the planet too (and she needs a lot of help).
We are all on a journey to improve things and we have to do it together. In times where things don’t look great, with floods and storms alike, we need to do what we can. Something very simple is turning your laptop off when it is not used. A laptop uses 0.05 kWh per hour, so for an 8-hour workday that is 0.4kWh, 20% of our 2kWh a day! Simply turning it off when you have lunch or go for a walk will save some of that consumption. It is little steps like this that make the difference, and when broken down it doesn’t look so daunting.
I hope everyone is having a lovely year so far, and I will see you next week for another Amy’s Hot Topic.
Bye! #2kWh #undertwok
Article Sources:
Financial times – Floods Will add to rising UK home insurance bills – Ian Smith – 5th January 2024