Current Elec/Gas Deals + COVID-19

[Ferdinand]

I see that I can leave my current long term fixed rate deal from 12th April.

 

My current annual bill is approx £1100 for both fuels on a long-term fix. Usage about 3200 kWh elec, 16000 kWh gas, for a 2000 sqft house. Should be falling as mum passed away last November.

 

I am with Co-op Energy, who have just been taken over by Octopus. The best offer they have for me is about £970 excluding energy use reductions. 1 year fixes. Some with no exit fees.

 

The best offers I am seeing are about £830 from the minnows (Orbit, Yorkshire Energy etc), and £890 from British Gas. 1 year fix. No exit fee.

 

Does anyone have any hyperintelligent opinions about how to play this? (*)

 

(I am probably inclined to go with British Gas, so I have a big player but cans still jump both ways depending on what happens as we come back on stream after the current restrictions.)

 

Ferdinand 

 

* I would ask a Hoovooloo, but my sunglasses are filtering it out.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Ferdinand
Irrelevant and gratuitous Hitchhiker reference

[epsilonGreedy]

Bulb were competitive when I looked a few months ago and @Jeremy Harrishas set up an introduction link with leads to a welcome £ bonus.

 

 

 

[AliG]

I tend to go with the best deal I can get from someone I have heard of, so I probably would go with British Gas. I was with So for a while and they had v good customer service and in reality I doubt there is a big reason not to go with the cheapest deals unless you have heard that they have really bad customer service.

 

As there is no cost to change you can easily move again if it gets cheaper. I move all the time due to our high usage. I would tend to stick with a fixed price because if the price falls you can always move but if you go variable and the price rises then all prices will probably be higher by that point.

 

Don't forget to go through Quidco to get cash back.

[SteamyTea]

As a few small players have failled recently, I would go with the big boys.

Not sure how easy it is to find out how well financed the mid field players are, but look if you can.

I suspect that we are going to see some nationalisation in the energy market.

[Ferdinand]

Tend to think that BG is the wise option here.

 

Martin Lewis has been arguing for a few months that it is fairly unique to have such competitive offers from the big players.

[SiBee]

My deal with octopus is due to expire so we have signed up to another fixed deal with them. I prefer the idea of a fixed monthly outgoing especially in these uncertain times.

I like Octopus because:

I am not forced to have a smart meter, it’s optional

Which magazine top rated for supplier and customer service - online chat, issued refund of money accumulated instantly 

very easy to manage the account online - we reduced our dd instantly on line

Competitive rates.

No exit fees and they are very flexible and quick to alter payment changes issue refunds etc 

You are probably right to stick with one of the big suppliers.

 

Every year we set up a spread sheet and do the comparison game using all the well known websites which is not that easy. In the last few years we picked two suppliers and both went bust which was a pain. Guess they were cheap for a reason eh! We wanted stability after this so the best deals for us came back as eon, bulb and Octopus. We get twitches when we see low tariff deals now.

BG didn’t make our list but Octopus normally have a new client offer or I can refer a person and split £100 or £200 if it’s a business.

Guys in work have made a few bob referring friends and family. I won £1 on the monthly Octopus spin the wheel offer?

 

[ProDave]

I am with Octopus as well. (if anyone wants to join them I have a referral code to save you £50) I was transferred to them when Iresa folded.

 

They are not the cheapest but not far off.  I have stayed with them as I like the way they operate. They let YOU set the monthly amount, you can easily make one off extra payments of your usage is temporarily high rather than change the monthly payment, and if you build up too much credit you can request some of it back.  It's easy to submit your monthly reading and they give you a clear statement each month.

 

Their website is a bit of a unique design though.

 

 

[joe90]

I too am with Octopus fir the reasons given above ?

[Hobbiniho]

just had a look at octopus and for me they are 0.95p/KWh, £11/annum standing charge more expensive than bulb who i am currently with the difference for me would be about £8/month, and thats using the new slightly dearer rate that bulb have just changed to at the beginning of april

[Jeremy Harris]

23 minutes ago, Hobbiniho said:

just had a look at octopus and for me they are 0.95p/KWh, £11/annum standing charge more expensive than bulb who i am currently with the difference for me would be about £8/month, and thats using the new slightly dearer rate that bulb have just changed to at the beginning of april

 

 

Same here for us, Bulb are still a better deal than Octopus.  I also found Octopus an annoying company to deal with, and their "love and peace" crap on all their correspondence gets pretty irritating.

[Ferdinand]

Interesting, for me Bulb are nowhere - £7 a month  more than British Gas, £12 more than the cheapest minnow.

Ferdinand

 

[MikeGrahamT21]

Have a look at going with individual specialist suppliers, worked out cheaper for me.

 

Zog energy for Gas, and Symbio Energy for Electricity. Both have been good for me, especially Zog. Symbio have a weird way of charging, they charge you based on what you estimate to use in the year, divided by 12, and then the following month, if you've used less, they refund you the difference.

 

[joe90]

This thread made me look at my usage with Octopus energy, all electric with 4KW ASHP, two people, passive (esc) type of build, including being busy in my workshop with many tools, last two months works out at £7.50 per week!,,!, probably double that in the mid winter (to include UFH). 
 

edit to add Octopus are very good to deal with.

Edited April 14, 2020 by joe90

[MikeGrahamT21]

6 minutes ago, joe90 said:

This thread made me look at my usage with Octopus energy, all electric with 4KW ASHP, two people, passive (esc) type of build, including being busy in my workshop with many tools, last two months works out at £7.50 per week!,,!, probably double that in the mid winter (to include UFH). 
 

edit to add Octopus are very good to deal with.

I take you've not got any Solar PV?

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

I take you've not got any Solar PV?

no, the pay back was too long at my age ?(just missed fits) although the last three weeks makes me wonder whether I should have ?.

 

(I spent the money on my classic car)

Edited April 14, 2020 by joe90

[MikeGrahamT21]

2 minutes ago, joe90 said:

no, the pay back was too long at my age ?(just missed fits) although the last three weeks makes me wonder whether I should have ?.

 

(I spent the money on my classic car)

Yeah such a shame they dropped the FIT, though spending money on the classic car sounds a good idea!

 

From my experience, the savings for electricity alone were far higher than was ever predicted, so really glad I went down the PV route. I'd love a Battery too from a self sufficiency perspective, but they just aren't feasible at the moment, cost wise.

[joe90]

As our usage is so low most of the year (when the sun is shining) it did not add up fir me (and I love my classic car ?).

[MikeGrahamT21]

1 minute ago, joe90 said:

As our usage is so low most of the year (when the sun is shining) it did not add up fir me (and I love my classic car ?).

All about value for money in my eyes, and I think you've got more value from the car ?

[ProDave]

I am working on the basis that we self use about £250 worth of electricity per year from out 4kWp solar pv, which should give a payback time of 6 years.

 

I really must tackle our general energy use as we use 2-3 times as much on "stuff" as we do heating the house.

[joe90]

10 minutes ago, ProDave said:

really must tackle our general energy use as we use 2-3 times as much on "stuff" as we do heating the house

if remember correctly Dave you have separate meters fir DHW and heating, what’s the split?

[SteamyTea]

@joe90

 

Here is my day/night split foe the year so far.

The crossover is where I was using the steamer to get paint off the wall.  COVID-19 is ruining my percentages.

The gap is where the batteries ran out on the sensor and toy can see where I turned the storage heaters off.

 

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

if remember correctly Dave you have separate meters fir DHW and heating, what’s the split?

Looking at the last 12 months.  26% of my electricity usage is heating, 17% of my electricity is DHW, 57% is everything else.