Energy Suppliers, Suppliers of Energy. Gas / Electric

This panicked me a bit yesterday but when I checked my bulb account they actually doubled my direct debit 9 months ago. Our average billl is <£100 and they've been taking 160 for the last 9 months. Wondered why we had a surplus.

Still not particularly worried about Bulb. I suspect other energy providers will be following suit.

They did the same with us. Pretty sure they’ve tried to build up a bit of a cash pot so you don’t go into debit during the winter, and it probably stops them getting into bulk financial difficulties. It’s a bit annoying though, because they’re sitting on +£230 of our money at any one time.

what any of this fails to mention is unit price and the fluctuations in that in recent times for anyone on a flexi plan

Igloo have gone down, got an email earlier. Guess OFGEM will transfer me 😑

Bulb almost doubled my direct debit.

I was in debit with winter coming up though so not altogether surprising when I looked at the detail.

Octopus wants to double mine. I've gone on their variable plan just for now. Would it be ideal to shift to a fixed then move later. Need to make a move either way

Heating clicked on yesterday and 90 minutes of radiator use added almost £1 to my daily gas use. This place does not hold heat well!

Just did the math on how much a 1.5kw fan heater would cost to run... Under 20p per day. And it would be good enough to heat the room in in.

I feel like this will pay for itself within a couple of months.

What absurdly cheap electricity makes that maths work?

I've been pondering this too for when I'm working from home.

Am I cheaper using an electric heater in just the one room during the day or better having the heating on and heating the whole house? Whole house seems wasteful but it will mean that it's already preheated for the evening when other people are home and I'll need the heating on.

Think I'll need to test it out. I'd think a fan heater would be more like 20p an hour though.

Think I'll need to test it out. I'd think a fan heater would be more like 20p an hour though

Yup, 19.2p per hour

It's a combination of several things... the gas being pricey, the radiators being slower to feel warm (due to single-glaze sash radiating enough cold in to almost neuter the radiators when it does get really cold), the radiators therefore being on for a very long time and increasing the cost on the boiler.

I have yesterday's Nest usage showing 90 minutes, and my Bulb accounts shows about an extra £1 of usage (and my hot water use was consistent and I've not other gas use except for the radiators).

I used this for the electricity cost calculator: https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/energy-cost-calculator.html

And stabbed in the energy of a Duux Stream Cool & Hot https://duux.com/en/product/stream/ which is 1500 watt on peak, 500 on lower output, and has a thermostat based on wherever you put the remote so it can turn off automatically. But I based the calculation on it being on full blast for 1 hour.

Which popper out a cost of 19.2p.

To be clear... an air fan heater you run more than radiators, it makes you feel warm but it's not as efficient at heating large spaces. But for the rooms I occupy during the day and then evening, it's going to be a lot cheaper overall if I just run this and feel warm in those rooms.

And if you do want to buy a Duux, they're hard to find in the UK but the online Fenwick store has them.

You’re stuck with that horrific eyeball-drying heat though.

As someone who used to live in an almost comically cold house - wear a lot of layers. Long johns, ls merino base layer and wrist warmers were a big help.

So are we going to see power outages and fires this winter because people rig stupid shit
to save on gas?

A lot of people would probably save on gas if they just got thier boiler condensing properly

What does this mean and how do you do it?

I live in a house built in 1933, bought it for the location and the garden. Slowly sorting it out but feels like I am surrounded by the vacuum of outer space near absolute zero. Heated by oil and waiting for the price of heating oil to sky rocket.........

What does this mean and how do you do it?

Also interested.

Means a lot of people have condensing boilers that aren't running in condensing mode as they either were incorrectly fitted or just turned up too high to get the rads hotter quicker which is a lot less efficient. For the it to condense it needs the return to be cooler, so you are better running the boiler cooler for longer which can be much more efficient but if your radiators or piping weren't correctly sized then it can be hard to achieve.

A Delonghi oil filled radiator is the best of both worlds.

Nice one, mine was at pretty much max so I have turned it down to somewhere in the middle - will see if that helps.

Was also a good reminder to have a check on it generally as I saw it needed repressurising. Presumably that in turn means I now need to bleed all the radiators and possibly re-repressurise.

Omni switching customers without consent and turning off their customer helpline
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/oct/08/omni-energy-switched-unprofitable-customers-without-express-consent

My fixed rate tarriff expires at the end of next month? Havn't looked about much at deals but not holding much hope of there being much out there. Current suppliers offer is 60-100% more on the unit cost.

Do we think I'm best finding a deal now and locking in before they lift the price cap, or holding off for something else?

There are no deals, you’ll be paying the cap price everywhere

Well there seems to be a slight variation in unit prices still, not saying any of them are a particularly good deal. That said the fixed rate they sent me doesn't actually look so bad comparing it with others, and sticking with British Gas gives a bit of peace of mind I suppose (actually BG Evolve so I could be wrong about them being protected from folding depending on how it's set up)

You’ll be hard pressed finding anyone that’ll take new customers at the moment. Industry seems to have locked down, even USwitch saying it’s better to stay and roll to a variable tariff (at price cap) for now and see what’s in the market in Jan once winter is mostly over (at least from energy buying perspective). Would have though BG is a safe bet if you’re there already