Energy Suppliers, Suppliers of Energy. Gas / Electric

My place is 17-18C at the warm end and I'm still getting high bills so I just turned the heating off at the fusebox out of distrust for the thermostats. Mocked for being fat but wait for the coming nuclear winter, bitches, you'll be begging me for heat. Mwuahahahaha

Because even though it’s “renewable” all energy produced in the U.K. ends up going into a central pool and this is what sets the market supply. At the moment gas is still the greatest contributor to energy produced, so the market price goes up when gas goes up.

Many renewable tariffs are based either on REGOs (a certificate to say you agreed to buy x amount of solar energy, and this has been produced) or increasingly PPA’s where a supplier has a dedicated feed from a wind farm/solar farm etc which is a more transparent way of showing that the suppliers energy comes from renewable sources.

So you'd need to be off-grid and DIY to see any real savings from renewable like solar, but we can still feel smug about killing the planet slightly less quickly than other people?

Pretty much… home/micro generation schemes are the only way for now to guarantee you’re 100% renewable. Maybe it’ll change as the fuel mix to generate electricity changes in the future

Largely, yes.

Largely yes but the more renewables get scaled up and other forms of backup rolled out to reduce the overall amount of gas in the mix, the less the price will be driven by wholesale gas prices

My fixed rate is ending on April 6. Could I, and I won’t do this by the way, submit a reading in early April that’s well over what the meter actually reads (it’s a non-smart meter) and be charged for energy I’ve not yet used at a lower rate? Then when I submit my pathetically small readings in a month or two’s time, I’m paying for less? Or are there ways they can track that?

Can someone riddle me this? E. On Next energy advise I could save money by swapping from fixed to variable. When I click on the link it shows my current rate and cheapest variable, which is more than I'm paying?

I don't understand!

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When does the Fix end?

Sorry its actually variable I'm on, and that ends 5th April. So looks like I have to choose a Fixed tarrif. Which explains increase I guess

You don’t “have” to choose a fixed tariff. Suppliers really want you to as these aren’t covered by the price cap, and if you value certainty then certainly one to go for. But there’s still a fairly large (but decreasing) delta between the fixed tariff prices and even the new price cap that will be there come April.

Suppliers have to offer the variable rate, but don’t have to make it easy. If you’re on variable already then doing nothing will just mean your unit costs will increase in line with the new (higher) price cap that comes into place in April.

Good to know thank you ✊

So, I'm on the Bulb variable tariff. Victorian end of terrace and washing machine seemingly on 24/7 means a fair bit of usage.

Should I just stick with them? I put it through a price comparison site and everything seemed to come out way more expensive but not sure whether that is comparing pre or post price rise prices.

As an aside, I went on Bulb and saw this suggesting I reduce my direct debit. Did it in about 10 seconds but only saw it through going on the website.

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You’ll be hard pressed to find a company taking on new customers at a lower unit cost than you’re currently paying. The price cape price (variable tariff) is still cheapest in the market at the moment even with it rising next week from £12xx to £19xx for an average household.

If you value certainty then getting a fixed rate at or around +15% of current variable price isn’t a bad shout for a year, means you’ll be protected from Octobers price increase as well.

Best bet at the moment though is to try and reduce elec usage any way you can. Sunak announced VAT cuts on green home improvements in yesterdays budget so may be worth exploring.

20% off the Green Homes system that the Government abandoned a while ago?

So no builders still interested in it any more.

Government mismanagement of the Greener Homes Grant really typifies their approach in so many maddening ways.

No, seemed just to be a zero rated VAT product now. No real mention of grants/loans for it

Homeowners installing energy efficiency materials such as solar panels, heat pumps, or insulation will see VAT cut on these items from 5% to zero for five years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60849054

Having solar installed in May, haven't seen the details yet as to whether batteries are likely to be included in the zero rating.

Cheers. I was thinking I'd probably stay put but the constant coverage of this got me thinking that I should really be looking into doing something.

Oo would love to hear more on how you’ve found it so far and what you needed to do. I want to do the same, south facing roof and south east facing garage make it prime location.

Definitely good to keep an ear to the ground, just might not be much movement or change till… summer?

bulb website experiencing high traffic, queue to get on

Can you not enter a meter reading tomorrow but dated as today? I've not tried yet. Was going to do it after a ceremonial last blast of radiator tonight.

Can you not enter a meter reading tomorrow but dated as today? I've not tried yet. Was going to do it after a ceremonial last blast of radiator tonight.

Yup. At least you could on octopus last time i checked. Get the feeling a few suppliers' websites will be crashing under demand today.

i submitted mine on tues luckily
it was only a 30 second wait to access the website in the end