If you have a gas fire that hasn’t been in good order over the winter, now is the perfect time to do something about it. By having gas fire repairs carried out now, you can be sure you have it in working order again once the days start to get cold again.
However, there is a question that is bound to cross your mind at this point; is it actually better to dispense with your gas fire instead and replace it with an electric one?
Some would argue it is, partly because of the need to shift away from fossil fuels for environmental reasons. To that may be added the situation in Ukraine. The West does not want to be dependent on Russian gas and, while the UK imported very little from that country before the war, the impact on global prices has still hit the cost of energy here.
All that might make it seem like it makes a lot of sense to move on from gas. A few years from now it may be the thing to do, because by then Britain will use far less gas, and electricity produced via a mixture of renewables and nuclear power will have taken up the slack.
However, in the meantime, gas is likely to play a big role in Britain’s energy mix for some years yet, and it appears likely the price shock caused by the war is abating. As City AM reports, experts have been predicting day-to-day prices on the wholesale market could drop close to zero his summer.
Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, explained: “Overall, the European gas market remains well supplied and gas storage sites continue to fill at a rapid pace.”
However, while this means there is no present sign of a surge in wholesale prices, it doesn’t means consumer prices will drop to zero, nice though that would be.
Nonetheless, the government has said that it will scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas companies if prices continue to fall below a certain level, suggesting it has strong expectations that the situation will continue to improve.
This has not yet fed through into consumer confidence in prices. The Department for Energy Security’s Public Attitudes Tracker survey, conducted in the spring, still found two-thirds of consumers were “very worried” or “fairly worried” (29 and 37 per cent respectively) about energy bills.
Apart from all this, there are constraints on consumer prices. The Energy Price Cap prevents them from rising above a certain level, but it is a common complaint (whether justified or not) that prices can rise like a rocket but fall like a feather. Given the persistence of inflation in the wider economy, however, the government and consumers alike will want to see prices drop overall.
However, as electricity prices are linked to gas, it will not make a major difference to bills to have electrical appliances instead of gas. So while any drop in the cost of gas will bring everyone’s bills down, it is certainly not a reason to get rid of your gas fire.