Scots man forced to choose between eating and heating after energy bills soar to £300 a month

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Glasgow man has been forced to choose between heating his home or eating this winter after his energy bills jumped from £50 to almost £300 a month.Gary Proudfoot, 39, from the Somerston area of the city, has been locked in a near 11 month battle with Scottish Power after a new heating system was installed in his building.

The Maryhill Housing Association resident says his mental health has been destroyed with him left unable to even dry his own clothes because of fears over energy costs.Speaking to the Daily Record Gary said: "It's so cold in my house that I can see my own breath, but I can't afford to put the heating on. "I'm on benefits and this is absolutely hammering me.

I'm sitting here in tears and I only have £15 left in my bank account. I'm stuck in a position of heating or eating. "I can't even wash my clothes, because I can't dry them."Gary, who has lived in the home for two years, says that the huge price hike in his bills came after Maryhill Housing Association installed Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) in January to replace the old electric storage heaters.But despite the new systems promising to be more cost and energy-efficient, Gary says his bill increased fivefold overnight after it was installed.He added: "They came and installed the new carbon heat source pumps which are meant to be more energy efficient and cost-effective and ever since then my bill has gone from £50 a month on the old system to easily £300 a month on this new one. "Heating just one room for four or five hours is costing around £6.

It's just not cost-effective."Turner Heating Solutions, who installed the heat pumps, said we needed to get our meters changed too, but I've now made over 30 calls to Scottish Power.