Luke Marsden: The heat is on and it will cost a fortune… now where are those candles?

Well, it literally was the first day of autumn this week and I think it is safe to say the weather has caught up.

I made the annual ritual of texting my friends to confirm I had switched the heating on, only to then sit and watch my smart meter like some form of energy Squid Game.

Like most people, my energy bill has tripled over the last few months and nothing shows this more than being charged nearly £3 for two hours’ worth of central heating.

I played a game of energy Russian roulette a few months back and fixed on a higher tariff than what the government fixed is going to be.

Thankfully EDF are not being mercenaries and are lowering my tariff to the government backed one.

This winter will be one of the hardest for a generation, according to many doom and gloom media outlets, and if my now self-imposed central heating restrictions are anything to go by, it will be.

I jokingly said to a fellow dog walker that we should arrange a communal fire, not just on Bonfire Night but weekly, similar to banging the pans in the COVID days.

She replied: “Tell me when and where and I’ll be there”. I don’t think she was joking.

The government’s monthly energy rebate will help but to those who live alone like myself, it really will be a drop in the ocean.

Ironically, as you are reading this column, I will be in Malaga, a trip booked as a long weekend getaway for some sunshine, booked long before my monthly heating bill cost more than the entire long weekend.

It will be warm and sunny in Malaga and I may just have to stay there or take a bunch of solar charging devices with me to stockpile.

I won’t be making hay in the sunshine, but I will be absorbing those extra moments whilst trying not to think about how much the equivalent heat would cost me at home.

On the plus side, candles really have come back into fashion.