My energy bill

I got a letter from my energy supplier last week. I opened it when it arrived and when I saw it was about the new energy prices I will be paying from October, I simply put it to one side and forgot about it until today. So when I read it this morning, I was surprised to learn that my estimated bill was only going up £180 a year for both gas and electricity. And once the £400 from the energy support scheme is paid, I will actually be paying less than we were before the price rises earlier this year. Our monthly dual fuel bills from October to March will be less than £40.

We generate most of our electricity from our solar panels and any surplus goes onto a battery that can often keep us going through much of the night. We heat our house from a wood burning stove the fuel for which we gather on our farm. The gas and electricity we buy in is back up.

Being as sustainable as possible on fuel is part our our plan to be as self-sufficient as possible. We aren't fully there yet, hence the need to be on grid for gas and electricity but we are getting closer to the goal of full self-sufficiency. A by-product of pursuing this course of action is that my cost of living is much lower than that of most other people. My self-sufficiency lifestyle is often sneered at by Labour opponents but what I've shown is that it is possible to live in a way that reduces our impact on the environment and slashes living costs.

If I am able to achieve this, just about anyone can. But it does rather throw into the spotlight the way the government's energy support system operates. The fact I will be paying for the next six months less for what energy I need to buy in than I was before the cost of living crisis started suggests the support is poorly targeted and not going to those who most need it.