New "green" car taxes will hit hundreds of thousands of the poorest families, new figures show, as Labour backbenchers told the Government it was heading for a repeat of the 10p tax revolt.
About 400,000 of the lowest earners will pay an average of £80 a year more following changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), according to calculations based on official Treasury data. Of those, 140,000 will pay at least £100 a year more in car tax and for some, bills will increase by up to £245.
This means that in total, Britain's poorest families - defined as those on an income of £15,000 or less - will pay a total of £32 million extra in VED in the next two years.
full article
Friday, 11 July 2008
Thursday, 10 July 2008
'Hundreds wasted' on energy bills
Households are wasting hundreds of pounds a year on gas and electricity bills - despite Government efforts to cut energy consumption, the Whitehall spending watchdog has warned.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said that while the Government is currently spending £2.6 billion-a-year on energy reduction programmes, household consumption has risen by 19% between 1990 and 2004. The increase came despite a 19% increase in household energy efficiency over the same period.
While energy consumption has started to fall since 2005, the NAO estimated that households could cut average bills by at least 30% - around £280-a-year for the typical household - if they adopted all the available cost-saving measures.
It pointed to recent surveys by the Energy Saving Trust which found that 71% of households leave electronic appliances on standby, 63% forget to turn the lights off in empty rooms, and 28% leave the heating on when the house is unoccupied.
At the same time, the NAO said that as the growth in consumer electronics, the emergence of more and smaller households and the tendency of people to keep their homes warmer had all helped to offset the gains in energy efficiency.
full article
The National Audit Office (NAO) said that while the Government is currently spending £2.6 billion-a-year on energy reduction programmes, household consumption has risen by 19% between 1990 and 2004. The increase came despite a 19% increase in household energy efficiency over the same period.
While energy consumption has started to fall since 2005, the NAO estimated that households could cut average bills by at least 30% - around £280-a-year for the typical household - if they adopted all the available cost-saving measures.
It pointed to recent surveys by the Energy Saving Trust which found that 71% of households leave electronic appliances on standby, 63% forget to turn the lights off in empty rooms, and 28% leave the heating on when the house is unoccupied.
At the same time, the NAO said that as the growth in consumer electronics, the emergence of more and smaller households and the tendency of people to keep their homes warmer had all helped to offset the gains in energy efficiency.
full article
Energy Saving Tips to cut fuel costs
With household energy bills on the rise, insurance broker Confused.com, is offering the following tips to help consumers to reduce their monthly payments for energy in their home:
Consider capping: the wholesale cost of energy is almost double what it was last year - Centrica's Interim Management Statement on 12 May 2008 admitted, "On average the month-ahead prices for gas and power were 92% and 100% respectively above those for the same period of the previous year. Against this backdrop all major energy suppliers increased residential energy tariffs during the first quarter of the year. Further increases in gas and electricity prices are expected, which means that now could be the time to switch to a capped-price tariff. If utilities companies up their prices again - and rises of between 10% and 20% have not been uncommon - that mediocre capped rate from your energy supplier could suddenly be very reasonable. If you need some consistency in your monthly spending, consider capped rates.
Check your appliances: if you are looking to buy the latest plasma screen, or American- style freezer, take a moment to read the booklet that comes with it. Some household appliances guzzle up electricity so it is worth having a look around your home to see if there are appliances which might be significantly increasing your energy bills.
Check your meter regularly: energy suppliers are only legally obligated to read your meter every two years, which means that your gas and electricity bills are based on what they think you might use up. Make sure that you check your meter on a regular basis and let your supplier know the reading. Their lines are often open 24-hours-a-day and they will amend your bill accordingly.
full article
Consider capping: the wholesale cost of energy is almost double what it was last year - Centrica's Interim Management Statement on 12 May 2008 admitted, "On average the month-ahead prices for gas and power were 92% and 100% respectively above those for the same period of the previous year. Against this backdrop all major energy suppliers increased residential energy tariffs during the first quarter of the year. Further increases in gas and electricity prices are expected, which means that now could be the time to switch to a capped-price tariff. If utilities companies up their prices again - and rises of between 10% and 20% have not been uncommon - that mediocre capped rate from your energy supplier could suddenly be very reasonable. If you need some consistency in your monthly spending, consider capped rates.
Check your appliances: if you are looking to buy the latest plasma screen, or American- style freezer, take a moment to read the booklet that comes with it. Some household appliances guzzle up electricity so it is worth having a look around your home to see if there are appliances which might be significantly increasing your energy bills.
Check your meter regularly: energy suppliers are only legally obligated to read your meter every two years, which means that your gas and electricity bills are based on what they think you might use up. Make sure that you check your meter on a regular basis and let your supplier know the reading. Their lines are often open 24-hours-a-day and they will amend your bill accordingly.
full article
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Hydrogen refuel station unveiled
A hydrogen refuelling station which could be installed in the home as an alternative to visiting a petrol station has been unveiled.
Users will need a hydrogen-powered car to go with it although the system can also be used for heating and cooking.
Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels.
One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fuelling stations.
To be used as a fuel, hydrogen must first be produced using another energy source.
While some scientists are hopeful of the fuel uses of hydrogen, many others are sceptical because it is inefficient to produce, expensive to transport and to convert into electricity.
A home refuelling station could provide much needed infrastructure to kick-start a hydrogen-based economy, thinks Sheffield-based ITM Power, the firm behind the system.
Hydrogen fridge
The hydrogen home refuelling station works via an electrolyser which produces the gas from water and electricity.
An internal combustion generator converts the gas back into electricity to provide power for the home.
ITM Power has set up a showcase hydrogen home in Sheffield, where the gas is used for heating, cooking and to operate a fridge.
In terms of producing hydrogen to power a car, the unit can make enough gas overnight to provide fuel for 25 miles.The hope is eventually to have higher-pressure refuelling units in public places which would be capable of offering enough hydrogen for cars to travel 100 miles.
Such units would be more expensive as they would require a hydrogen compressor which costs around £20,000.
But ITM thinks its system has the potential to revolutionise the move to more green energy.
"Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter," said Jim Heathcote, chief executive of ITM.
David Hart, a research fellow at Imperial College, London studying hydrogen energy, questioned the cost involved and how energy efficient it would be.
"The critical element of this is how much it would cost to put such a refuelling station in your home. The technology is very plausible but there are some issues about public acceptance," he said.
The fact that the refuelling station uses electricity meant it would not be a much-sought after zero emissions system unless the electricity itself is produced in a more green way, he added.
According to Mr Heathcote, the unit - which is currently only a prototype - could be commercially available as soon as the end of this year.
If they were mass produced he estimates they would initially cost around £2000.
He see the first market for the product as being large companies which use a lot of vehicles such as the Post Office.
But eventually it will become common in homes, he thinks. He said that the next stage of the firm's work would be to produce a liquid fuel.
full article
Users will need a hydrogen-powered car to go with it although the system can also be used for heating and cooking.
Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels.
One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fuelling stations.
To be used as a fuel, hydrogen must first be produced using another energy source.
While some scientists are hopeful of the fuel uses of hydrogen, many others are sceptical because it is inefficient to produce, expensive to transport and to convert into electricity.
A home refuelling station could provide much needed infrastructure to kick-start a hydrogen-based economy, thinks Sheffield-based ITM Power, the firm behind the system.
Hydrogen fridge
The hydrogen home refuelling station works via an electrolyser which produces the gas from water and electricity.
An internal combustion generator converts the gas back into electricity to provide power for the home.
ITM Power has set up a showcase hydrogen home in Sheffield, where the gas is used for heating, cooking and to operate a fridge.
In terms of producing hydrogen to power a car, the unit can make enough gas overnight to provide fuel for 25 miles.The hope is eventually to have higher-pressure refuelling units in public places which would be capable of offering enough hydrogen for cars to travel 100 miles.
Such units would be more expensive as they would require a hydrogen compressor which costs around £20,000.
But ITM thinks its system has the potential to revolutionise the move to more green energy.
"Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter," said Jim Heathcote, chief executive of ITM.
David Hart, a research fellow at Imperial College, London studying hydrogen energy, questioned the cost involved and how energy efficient it would be.
"The critical element of this is how much it would cost to put such a refuelling station in your home. The technology is very plausible but there are some issues about public acceptance," he said.
The fact that the refuelling station uses electricity meant it would not be a much-sought after zero emissions system unless the electricity itself is produced in a more green way, he added.
According to Mr Heathcote, the unit - which is currently only a prototype - could be commercially available as soon as the end of this year.
If they were mass produced he estimates they would initially cost around £2000.
He see the first market for the product as being large companies which use a lot of vehicles such as the Post Office.
But eventually it will become common in homes, he thinks. He said that the next stage of the firm's work would be to produce a liquid fuel.
full article
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