'I've given up eating hot meals to pay for equipment to keep my son alive'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j2ep13le2o

55 points · 12 comments · view on lemmy.world

12 Comments

Armand1@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 78d

That's why we're cutting disability benefits

- Conservatives, (Forced) Labour

danielquinn@lemmy.ca · 16 pts · 78d (1 reply)

She says at one stage her energy company called to suggest she doubled her direct debit to £845 per month.

Even in the dead of winter, my all-electric house with three people in it had a bill of £171.73. How the hell does anyone get up to £845??

Are these ventilators really so inefficient, or are electricity prices in Yorkshire something like £3/kWh?

Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 78d

Yeah, short of starting a bitcoin mine or running a hot tub/heated pool I don't even know how I could reasonably get my energy costs over £200 a month.

manualoverride@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 78d

With a 13% price hike incoming, I can see a lot of people dying due to the government inaction on the energy transition.

Krill@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 78d (8 replies)
[ removed ]
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 78d (7 replies)

The article is about the cost of electricity to have the equipment running which is not covered. How expensive is electricity in the UK anyway?

stsquad@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 78d

Currently ~20-30p per kWh. Depending on your tariff night time can go down to 7p per kWh.

Codpiece@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 78d

For me currently (pun intended), it’s a flat rate of £0.20772 per kWh.

Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 78d (3 replies)

Not much, makes me wonder how much power these things use. Surely they can't take multiple kW, it's not like you are running a CT scanner at home which at least probably does take a good chunk of power.

KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 78d (2 replies)

An oxygen concentrator and a ventilator running 24/7, alongside the other things mentioned such a humidifier and suction machines. I can certainly see how that would add up quickly. Let's say all the equipment together consumes 600W, which is probably very conservative. At a price of 24.67p/kWh (which is the average price, so she could very well be paying more) that's £3.55 a day on top of regular household energy use.

Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 78d (1 reply)

To get to over £800 or so a month you need to be using like 5kW constantly.

KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 78d

The over £800 was what the energy company suggested she pays, which to me sounds like she's in debt with them and £800 a month would be partly paying it off

Krill@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 78d

The title is "to pay for equipment", which isn't fair, and is almost certainly wrong. "To use equipment" would be fairer. The article is a bit of a hit piece.