Energy Comparison - Switching

[bri]

Just looking at switching now, can save about £550 on the annual bill if we move to Eon, Gas and Elecy combo

 

How often do you switch as we generally don't

[Rico1304]

My advice would be to make sure you are comparing based on actual usage, get an up to date bill using acual meter reads. If not you may not qualify for the deal that's on offer - and face a large bill from your original supplier.

 

Always try to have both fuels with the same supplier and pay by DD - that's the cheapest tariff as it's the lowest risk (regular payments coming in rather than 3 months on credit).

 

Also, in general people's elec usage stays pretty flat during the year, but gas obviously increases during the winter and tails off during summer. If you are paying monthly (depending on when you start) your gas account may be in credit when you get a statement. Don't be tempted to take that credit out as you'll just finish up owing them at the anniversary.

 

Sorry if all that sounds a bit obvious but you'd be surprised the number of people who aren't aware.

[Champ]

And another thing, dont forget to check whether comparison prices include any standing charges. The whole thing's a complete racket. They all seem to have such different pricing structures that its almost impossible to compare.

 

Made the first moves about looking to switch to a fixed rate deal a couple of weeks ago but then noticed that there's some loyalty bonus attached to my current deal, with a discount accumulating on both gas and electricity usage over the year and if you switch within the 'discount year' you lose the discount....in my case upwards of £150, so you can see I'm pretty much stuck with them

[King Emlyn]

I never bother switching, it's a cartel. Scandalous what they're allowed to get away with.

[gumps]

I don't envy you guys on the mainland.

 

I'm on oil for heating and water (gas not an option due to locality) and only have a choice of 2/3 suppliers for electricity, so it's pretty easy for me to compare.

 

But you lot with a multitude of suppliers and their hundreds of tariffs!

 

Which? magazine recently did an article into prices and they had professional accountants who found it difficult to work out the cheapest.

 

The advice given here earlier is sound. Don't be swayed by the headline unit price. You need to know what your usage has been over the last few years to get a reliable average.

 

If you have your usage figures then there are tools on the web to find you a good deal.

 

This links in to the enrgy price fix thread. It really is a stitch-up/cartel. If it really was a free market, each supplier would have 2 or 3 different rates at most.

 

I'm hoping that this racket will be the new banks misselling scandal.

[Rico1304]

It isn't a cartel, but we've benefitted from years of cheap energy thanks to the North Sea oil. That's gone and now we are victims of the market. We've got poorly insulated homes, waste energy (because it was always cheap) and seem to be happy to pay £100 a month for Sky but not for electricity.

 

Smart metering will make a difference to us all, time of use tariffs, no estimated readings and the ability to have full visibility of bills will make it easier to save money. There are some new products on the horizon that will 'revolutionise' billing, allowing you to have a much clearer picture of your consumption patterns plus Remote Heating Control which allows you to operate your central heating from your iPhone...Christ, I'm going to stop because I'm boring myself.

[Champ]

Who do you work for? ;)

[Rico1304]

Ha - busted!!! I think I've mentioned before I work for BG, I'm in the Smart Metering part of the business. It's as close as you can get to energy being exciting.

[Champ]

Ha - busted!!! I think I've mentioned before I work for BG, I'm in the Smart Metering part of the business. It's as close as you can get to energy being exciting.

You're all right.....when I saw you post I remembered you posting in a thread a while back about something energy-related. And none of the following is 'a go' at you....you must be another one who keeps what they do to themselves?

 

There just is no getting around it, energy is expensive now and only going to get more so, I expect. I take your point in making the comparison with what people pay for a Sky package (I feel ripped off by that too but take the hit to watch things, sport mostly, I would otherwise miss) but I, for one, do not get the same fun from fuel as I do from what I watch on tv....well, just in a different way)

 

And I hate to say it but its the 'smart' metering thing that gets me and the way that it is presented. I know my tumble dryer is a high energy user but that's not going to stop me using it or my hairdryer. And I confess, I feel the cold in winter and it doesnt seem unreasonable, when we are both hardworking, to want to be able to put the heating on when you're cold

[redheart]

In between my A Levels and degree I worked in the planning department from British Gas at Gould Street, Manchester.

 

Absolute shambles of a company. I spent most of my time laughing at how shit most people were at their jobs

[King Emlyn]

It isn't a cartel, but we've benefitted from years of cheap energy thanks to the North Sea oil. That's gone and now we are victims of the market. We've got poorly insulated homes, waste energy (because it was always cheap) and seem to be happy to pay £100 a month for Sky but not for electricity.

 

Smart metering will make a difference to us all, time of use tariffs, no estimated readings and the ability to have full visibility of bills will make it easier to save money. There are some new products on the horizon that will 'revolutionise' billing, allowing you to have a much clearer picture of your consumption patterns plus Remote Heating Control which allows you to operate your central heating from your iPhone...Christ, I'm going to stop because I'm boring myself.

 

Yeah, right.

[Rico1304]

No offence taken Champ, none at all.

 

Smart metering will help you though (feel free to stop reading here as it gets dull). As the Smart meter takes a reading every 30 mins it allows Energy companies to offer time of use tariffs - as they'll know exactly when the energy was used. So, putting a timer on your tumble dryer and putting on at night will make it less expensive to use. They'll also be able to give you comparisons and hints and tips based on that usage data. So, if you have high base load of gas or elec in comparison to people in a similar house, they may be able to suggest a more effecient boiler or similar and tell you how much it'll save you.

 

Some of the other products like Remote Heating Control will change the way you use your heating. Most people change the timer on their heating twice a year - winter and then summer. It comes on in the morning, off all day and then on in the evening. Suppose you know that you aren't going to be home til 7 and the heating is normally due on at 5, that's 2 hours of energy heating an empty house. If you had RHC you could change the setting to come on at 6:30. Do that once a week and it soon adds up. It also changes the way the heating operates, setting minimum temps so that the house retains a more stable temperature. At the moment most people have it off and then on so it takes more energy to move from cold up to the thermostatically controlled temp. If anyone is still reading this I am very impressed.

Edited November 18, 2012 by rico1304
I'm thick

[Rico1304]

In between my A Levels and degree I worked in the planning department from British Gas at Gould Street, Manchester.

 

Absolute shambles of a company. I spent most of my time laughing at how shit most people were at their jobs

 

I worked there too!!! When did you work there? Must have been a while ago as the place shut down about 5 years ago.

[VladimirIlyich]

Smart energy will only be as smart as its users!

It will also have a way of jacking up the prices somehow or will just be so expensive as to stop the normal person using it.

If theres no way of making a big profit it will become a 21st century sinclair C5.

[gumps]

I take the point about the North Sea Oil years. I guess nobody really appreciated it then and the good years were wasted and now the UK is being held to ransom, so to speak, by the Russians and it's only going to get worse.

 

That's why this country should have been more far seeing and investing in Nuclear power all these years. In my view it really is the only viable long term solution. They should also be pushing solar panels on houses as well.

[Champ]

No offence taken Champ, none at all.

 

Smart metering will help you though (feel free to stop reading here as it gets dull). As the Smart meter takes a reading every 30 mins it allows Energy companies to offer time of use tariffs - as they'll know exactly when the energy was used. So, putting a timer on your tumble dryer and putting on at night will make it less expensive to use. They'll also be able to give you comparisons and hints and tips based on that usage data. So, if you have high base load of gas or elec in comparison to people in a similar house, they may be able to suggest a more effecient boiler or similar and tell you how much it'll save you.

 

Some of the other products like Remote Heating Control will change the way you use your heating. Most people change the timer on their heating twice a year - winter and then summer. It comes on in the morning, off all day and then on in the evening. Suppose you know that you aren't going to be home til 7 and the heating is normally due on at 5, that's 2 hours of energy heating an empty house. If you had RHC you could change the setting to come on at 6:30. Do that once a week and it soon adds up. It also changes the way the heating operates, setting minimum temps so that the house retains a more stable temperature. At the moment most people have it off and then on so it takes more energy to move from cold up to the thermostatically controlled temp. If anyone is still reading this I am very impressed.

 

I read it all and, you're right, maybe smart metering does have more to offer than the crude little devices the energy companies have been sending out telling you how much you're using overall..pointless in my view

 

However, I do feel a bit like one of those very overweight people trying to kid themselves and others that they really dont eat a lot....but I dont see where I can make real savings on our consumption without it really hurting. The boiler is pretty old so I imagine that's costing us but we simply cant afford the cost of replacing it while its still working. Equally, I dont think we're massively wasteful of energy and have thermostats on all the radiators and I do fiddle about with the heating controls with changes in the weather and yet and yet...

[Tyler Durden]

Yea I can just see the average poor family shelling out thousands for British Gas to come out and fit smart boilers that connect to their iPhones.

 

Won't really make much difference anyway because if a pensioner is stuck in the house all day then they would like to at least be warm throught that day without spending their entire pension on heating the house.

 

Suppose they could always lower it with their iPhones though...

[Rush 346]

It isn't a cartel, but we've benefitted from years of cheap energy thanks to the North Sea oil. That's gone and now we are victims of the market. We've got poorly insulated homes, waste energy (because it was always cheap) and seem to be happy to pay £100 a month for Sky but not for electricity.

 

Smart metering will make a difference to us all, time of use tariffs, no estimated readings and the ability to have full visibility of bills will make it easier to save money. There are some new products on the horizon that will 'revolutionise' billing, allowing you to have a much clearer picture of your consumption patterns plus Remote Heating Control which allows you to operate your central heating from your iPhone...Christ, I'm going to stop because I'm boring myself.

 

here we go...why has this not been done years ago then? criminal lack of transparency in the market, british gas been ripping people off for years

[Strontium]

And another thing, dont forget to check whether comparison prices include any standing charges. The whole thing's a complete racket. They all seem to have such different pricing structures that its almost impossible to compare.

 

 

The evil coalition government are forcing them to simplify their tariffs considerably.

[Rico1304]

Yea I can just see the average poor family shelling out thousands for British Gas to come out and fit smart boilers that connect to their iPhones.

 

Won't really make much difference anyway because if a pensioner is stuck in the house all day then they would like to at least be warm throught that day without spending their entire pension on heating the house.

 

Suppose they could always lower it with their iPhones though...

 

No new boiler needed, its a module that fits to existing boilers. It won't be the answer to everything but for most people it'll save money.

 

It won the Stuff magazine gadget of the year and isn't exactly aimed at pensioners but I'd imagine that a hell of a lot of people needing to save cash have a smart phone.

[Rico1304]

here we go...why has this not been done years ago then? criminal lack of transparency in the market, british gas been ripping people off for years

 

Quite simply the technology didn't exist and the appetite wasn't there. The government mandated this change. Obviously its counter intuative for a Supplier to provide a customer with a means of reducing their consumption. Also think of the capital investment, each meter costs over £100 and that doesn't include the infrastructure, fitting costs and stranding of other assets.

 

Our Smart meter programme is the most advanced in the world, other countries have some Smart meters but by 2019 everyone in the country will have one. The rest of the world is waiting to see how we do it and will then follow.

 

Now, if you read to the end of THAT I am fucking impressed. Grab a coffee you'll need waking up.

[Champ]

Quite simply the technology didn't exist and the appetite wasn't there. The government mandated this change. Obviously its counter intuative for a Supplier to provide a customer with a means of reducing their consumption. Also think of the capital investment, each meter costs over £100 and that doesn't include the infrastructure, fitting costs and stranding of other assets.

 

Our Smart meter programme is the most advanced in the world, other countries have some Smart meters but by 2019 everyone in the country will have one. The rest of the world is waiting to see how we do it and will then follow.

Now, if you read to the end of THAT I am fucking impressed. Grab a coffee you'll need waking up.

 

You underestimate me, especially where there's self interest involved

[VladimirIlyich]

 

The evil coalition government are forcing them to simplify their tariffs considerably.

 

Forcing? More like asking them nicely before being told to do one.

[Strontium]

No, forcing is accurate. But I'm sure there's a good reason Labour never got round to it during their 13 years in power...

[Remmie]

Tough on energy companies, tough on the causes of energy companies. I'll remember this almighty battle come the polling days Stronts, a real victory for the Coalition that will be remembered for many, many days.