Wouter: ‘I sometimes feel like the only one who benefits from the high energy prices’ | Energy bill

How do you live?
“I live with my fiancee and a Ukrainian refugee in a terraced house in Alkmaar. It is a terraced house from 1981 with 100 square meters of living space. When I bought it in 2017, I immediately decided to get rid of the gas. I already knew quite a lot about sustainability because I worked for an installer of solar panels and heat pumps. That’s why I couldn’t justify having solar panels connected everywhere but not having one myself.

I was able to install them cheaply through my work for a nice purchase price. I was able to get a few colleagues to help me for a good crate of beer and a nice allowance. Everyone around me thought I was crazy and now, five years later, everyone thinks I’m right.

We immediately stripped the house bare, emptied it and started again. Because it is actually very easy to get your house off the gas. It’s just major surgery. We have installed underfloor heating, installed a heat pump and installed solar panels to become energy neutral.

We now have 29 solar panels, about 275 Watt peak (WP) each. On the roof of our shed are eight more of about 400 WP each. In addition to the heat pump, we have had the floor and the cavity walls insulated extra. The windows inside are made of HR glass (insulating double glazing, ed.), which were replaced by the previous occupants.”

“We have a variable contract with Engie. We pay 10 euros per month. Can’t go lower. Over the past year we got back 1500 euros.

It feels very mixed, but those high energy prices are actually positive for us. We consume 5000 kWh on an annual basis and generate 7000 kWh. We therefore earn from the higher feed-in compensation. Normally I don’t switch energy companies either, that wasn’t interesting. But now we choose the party with the highest compensation.

Everyone is panicked by the high energy prices and sometimes I feel like the only one who benefits from it. That’s the curve. It feels crazy. I therefore think that the two times 190 euros compensation is a wrong arrangement. Everyone gets it: millionaires, but me too, while I don’t need it. I think that is a big mistake by the government. They could have distributed that much better.

I don’t see it as my job to just give it away. We have made a separate piggy bank out of it. We spend it on local entrepreneurs with energy-intensive production processes. Such as the local baker, a fishmonger or a butcher. Or we buy flowers from it. We never did that before, but those guys with the greenhouses are also having a hard time. Of course it is an apparent advantage for us, because it also gives us a more luxurious life. I understand that.”

“Actually nothing at all. Ultimately, it is a sport to focus on the end of the net metering arrangement. So we are now trying to turn on the dishwasher when the sun is shining. We try to be smart about that. We also pay attention to the energy label when purchasing appliances. Also simply from our sustainability heart. The dryer broke down at our place recently and we haven’t replaced it. We hardly used it anyway and the laundry also dries on a rack.

We have of course discussed this situation with our Ukrainian refugee. She had block heating there. But that is connected to a grid and that grid will only be switched on at the end of the year. So if it’s cold outside before that, it’s good that it was only 10 degrees in her house. They don’t know heat pumps, let alone central heating boilers. She was amazed that we organized it this way.

She heard from other refugees that energy prices had risen so much here. She likes to shower longer, so she wondered if she couldn’t do that anymore. Then it is difficult to explain that we are not bothered by it. They are also completely unaware of things that are very normal for us, such as recycling and separating waste. This makes you aware of how good we actually have it here.”