UK Gas Crisis 2021 – How can you protect yourself from rising bills
During the year 2021 in the UK, we have seen natural gas prices rocket up by over 250% since the start of the year with a 70% rise in prices over August, according to Oil & Gas UK. This sharp and historic hike in prices has been attributed to a number of factors, including but not limited to, a cold winter last year, lower incoming supplies and energy companies going out of business.
The harsh reality of the situation is that the inevitable is happening, we have become dependant on fossil fuels to literally keep us alive and now those fuels are running out, and now the world is panicking. It is estimated that there are only around 50 years worth of gas left globally at our current usage rate, this means that the price of gas and other fossil fuels are only going to go up as supplies diminish.
How does the gas crisis affect me?
This leaves us, the consumers, in a state of confusion and fear of unpayable bills. Can you imagine what happens if gas rises another 250% in a year?
The solution to this problem is very simple and it’s something we should all do now while we can. We need to switch to renewable alternatives. Electricity, for example, is becoming greener by the day with an average of 43% being generated through renewable sources (wind, wave, solar, etc) and that number is growing month by month as the UK invests more and more into these alternatives.
For your central heating, this leaves you with an obvious choice if you wish to avoid the soon to be massive winter gas bill every year (until we run out of gas altogether) and that is to install an Air Source Heat Pump.
Air Source Heat Pumps are the future of British central heating…
Air Source Heat Pumps are powered by electricity, which as explained above, can be produced through renewable sources. Down to the point, we will never run out of electricity because we have ways of generating it through renewable means.
Not only that, green energy will most likely get cheaper as much less investment is needed to produce it. For example, to generate electricity from fossil fuel, let’s say coal, you first need to buy the coal, burn it, and run a turbine to convert the energy to electricity.
With solar power, you install it and leave it, maybe maintain it once a year at minimal cost, and from that small investment, you get electricity, essentially for free as you don’t need to buy fuel to make it. It is believed that this means that the prices of electricity will plummet. So why shouldn’t we power our homes with it?
Are there other alternatives?
Some people have said that they would prefer to wait for hydrogen boilers to emerge and save the day, but this will be the same situation as gas. To make hydrogen gas you need to use a process called “electrolysis” in which you use a huge amount of electricity to essentially electrocute a large amount of water which strips it of its hydrogen molecules.
This process that we use still requires electricity to produce the fuel, meaning that it will be more expensive, possibly by a drastic amount. On top of this, the UK only plans to use a “blend” of natural gas and hydrogen, the blend will only feature 10 – 20% hydrogen, the rest will be the same old highly-priced gas that we use now. As you can see, this will not be a financially viable option.
