Smoke and mirrors from power companies fools politicians

it has been reported that Npower will increase the cost of electricity and gas by 9.3 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively from December 1.

In common with millions of other Npower customers, I have received notification of this inflation-busting price increase.

However, to my great surprise, I find that the percentage increases which will be applied to my Energy Online August 14 tariff are in fact 14.6 per cent and 14.5 per cent respectively for electricity and gas.

I wonder which of Npower’s customers will see the published 9.3 per cent and 11.1 per cent increases? Perhaps these customers would reveal which tariff attracts these increases.

Yet again we have a largely foreign-owned conglomerate applying smoke and mirrors in a blatant attempt to fool its customers and our pathetic coalition government.

David Cameron’s solution to avoid these domestic fuel price hikes is to switch suppliers or only heat one room at a time.

What idiotic suggestions 
from a man who is clearly 
totally out of touch with the 
real world.

The huge array of tariffs offered by all the domestic fuel suppliers serves only to confuse existing and new customers and despite the help of comparison web sites it is virtually impossible to identify a tariff which will actually provide legitimate lower cost domestic fuel.

From: Phil Hanson, Beechmount Close, Baildon, Shipley.

there are lots of ways of cutting energy use in both home and commercial environments.

There are grants for boilers and insulation, but the best tip I had was from my installer of a new central heating system.

Put the boiler in the kitchen, i.e. nearest to the point of maximum usage. By putting the boiler as close as possible to the point of use you get hot water faster, using less energy to heat all the water in the pipe between boiler and tap. That is often where the money gets wasted, especially if you have young children.

Moving the boiler 20 to 30 feet nearer the kitchen saved me a fortune and made efficiency of the new boiler even greater. It really does save money both short and long term.

From: Ian Hardy, Conisbrough, Doncaster.

I WAS interested to note on BBC Question Time (October 24) how Caroline Flint, Shadow Energy Secretary and a local MP, failed to either comment, react or support the comments made by Peter Hitchens, columnist for the Mail on Sunday.

He was replying to a question on levying the power companies.

He made the following important point that our country was sitting on piles of coal reserves which we refuse to burn because of global warming policies, while China opens two new coal-fired power stations a month.

He also advocated the reopening of the coal fields by opening new mines and stopping the shutting down of coal powered fire stations, so that we had cheaper self-sufficient energy supply not dictated by the European Union.

The response from Ms Flint, who represents a devastated coal mining area with mass unemployment, was silence!

From: Bernard Robinson, Midland Terrace, Hellifield.

WHY are people surprised at the “Big Six” putting up their prices? When Ed Milliband said he would freeze energy prices if he got into power, the “Big Six” acted before he got that chance.

If the Government put a stop to subsidy on the useless wind turbines, power would be far cheaper.

My wife and I visited the west coast a few weeks ago. From Whitehaven to Silloth we saw hundreds of wind turbines, yet not one of them was producing any power.

Now I see we are about to start importing shale gas from the USA. How stupid is that when we are told we are sitting on loads of our own shale gas?