energy suppliers

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PreppingPingu
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Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:10 pm
Location: Surrey/Hampshire

energy suppliers

Post by PreppingPingu »

I was one of those stick with British gas types as to move seemed a faff and the big 6 all seemed to be pretty close to each other in cost and customer service. Well I got my finger out and decided to sort it all the other day. I was amazed at how many energy companies there are out there! I have gone for a company called Bulb. They invest in UK made energy from renewable sources. So not only are they cheaper than any of the big 6 suppliers but are helping our economy and talking steps in self sustainable fuel for us. I shudder at being so fuel reliant on other part of the world.

Anyhow, it's surprised me how hassle free it is to change supplier and how much I can save. There was no tie in with this company so if their rate becomes too expensive, I can easily change again with no financial penalty.
"Today is the tomorrow that you worrried about yesterday" - unknown
"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast" - Red Dwarf
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Deeps
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Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:36 pm

Re: energy suppliers

Post by Deeps »

Nice one, I moved to Coop energy over a year ago and it was a bit of a ballache but we had a situation where our electric meter wasn't associated with our house. It was all resolved eventually but after the year tie-in I renewed with them and our bill went up from 45 quid (which was far too low) to a requested 89 quid. I queried it as we hadn't had a meter reading in a long time and as we were apparently 98 quid down over the year it was settled at 83 quid a month (gas and lecky) which is probably still a bit much and I'm pretty sure they don't know we have solar panels so their suggestion that we'd used more lecky (but less gas) than they thought was questionable. I suspect I'll be moving, or at least looking around when the current year expires.
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: energy suppliers

Post by Arzosah »

It's really crucial to move around fairly regularly - since it became possible, I've moved every 2 years or so - it really isn't a lot of hassle.

Couple of things:
- it can be helpful to take your own regular meter readings, just every fortnight or so, and input them onto the site, to keep up with what you're using.
-if you're quite strongly in credit even in summer, it could be a good idea to ask for a refund (of *your* money) - there are exceptions, I know of at least one energy company that pays 3% p.a. interest on all credit balances, and thats a *really* good deal.
- the smart meters they're currently trying to role out - they don't cope well, they don't cope at all actually, with moving suppliers. If you don't yet have one and your supplier tries to offer you one, turn it down. The suppliers have been told to get them rolled out, and we may yet be forced to have one, but I'm holding off as long as possible - they're programmable, which means yet another computer between me and my money, a computer controlled by the supplier - there are inevitably mistakes going to be made. Awful prospect.
- the other thing about smart meters - the second generation is due to be rolled out shortly, I don't know exactly when, but the Mark II *can* cope with moving supplier. That's the main logical reason it's best to hold off having one installed. Nothing disastrous happens with the Mark I - they just lose their "smart" functionality.
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Deeps
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Re: energy suppliers

Post by Deeps »

I've been put off the smart meters myself, heard a few horror stories and the way I look at it is I'm no worse off than not having one. As an aside, if you have solar panels try and resist digital electric meters over the old analogue ones, if you're making loads of lecky the analogue ones get pushed back reducing your 'usage', the digital ones prevent this.
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peejay
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Location: Midlands, UK

Re: energy suppliers

Post by peejay »

Being a bit of a geek/techie I quite fancied the idea of smart meters, and have read about people that can choose a "free electric" day etc. until I discovered that their minute-by-minute knowledge of your usage also means that further down the line they can actually start charging you MORE at your own peak usage times so I've decided to stick with my dumb meters...
jeebus
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Joined: Wed May 18, 2016 2:52 pm

Re: energy suppliers

Post by jeebus »

I signed up to Martin Lewis' Cheap Energy Club a few years back, and can thoroughly recommend it.

It only takes a few minutes to set up but you need to have a decent idea of your actual usage if you want to get the most out of it. All you do is input your gas and/or electricity usage, the name of your supplier and the tariff you're on and you will be told if there is a cheaper option. You will also be emailed in the future if a cheaper tariff is launched. It even considers any cancellation fees you may have when calculating the costs, and you can set your own savings threshold so you won't be told about a cheaper tariff if it only saves you a couple of pounds a year for example.
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Deeps
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Re: energy suppliers

Post by Deeps »

jeebus wrote:I signed up to Martin Lewis' Cheap Energy Club a few years back, and can thoroughly recommend it.

It only takes a few minutes to set up but you need to have a decent idea of your actual usage if you want to get the most out of it. All you do is input your gas and/or electricity usage, the name of your supplier and the tariff you're on and you will be told if there is a cheaper option. You will also be emailed in the future if a cheaper tariff is launched. It even considers any cancellation fees you may have when calculating the costs, and you can set your own savings threshold so you won't be told about a cheaper tariff if it only saves you a couple of pounds a year for example.
I'll look into that, thanks for the pointer.
jeebus
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Re: energy suppliers

Post by jeebus »

peejay wrote:Being a bit of a geek/techie I quite fancied the idea of smart meters, and have read about people that can choose a "free electric" day etc. until I discovered that their minute-by-minute knowledge of your usage also means that further down the line they can actually start charging you MORE at your own peak usage times so I've decided to stick with my dumb meters...
The fact that the energy companies are willing to supply and fit a smart meter at no extra cost, and advertising them quite aggressively makes me think that they may have a hidden agenda, such as the one you've highlighted. I'll stick with my dumb meter too. (Until they force us all to have smart meters of course).