MSE News: Millions on standard variable tariffs for over three years
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A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »I am puzzled how this works. NPower comes nowhere near cheap or cheaper for me against Scottish Power's online fix. I have just checked and NPower will be approx £50 a year more expensive. NPower's standing charge is over 15p per day for a start against SP's 8p per day so how can NPower possibly be cheaper?
Caddyman's post indicated he switched to a 2 year fix in June 2016. Tariffs from 15 months ago will not be available now.0 -
Caddyman's post indicated he switched to a 2 year fix in June 2016. Tariffs from 15 months ago will not be available now.
Thank you for pointing that out. To be honest, I thought it was clear in my post.
Indeed, Npower would no where near be the cheapest at the current tariff rates, hence why my foresight of fixing when I did, has proved very beneficial.
Even if I wanted to leave now, which clearly I'd be incredibly stupid to do, I wouldn't even have to pay an exit fee.0 -
A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »I am puzzled how this works. NPower comes nowhere near cheap or cheaper for me against Scottish Power's online fix. I have just checked and NPower will be approx £50 a year more expensive. NPower's standing charge is over 15p per day for a start against SP's 8p per day so how can NPower possibly be cheaper?
As per Cardew's explanation.
I still check monthly the tariffs using the Moneysavingexpert Energy Club. Absolutely nothing over the last 8 months has come anywhere near my Npower tariff. At the time the two year fixed tariff I'm on came into play, I actually managed to convince 4 other households (family and friends also on Npower) to switch to the same Npower tariff at the same time. They've quite literally saved hundreds of £££££'s. To be honest, we're all dreading when the fix ends!
My wife and I are also relatively low energy users. We live in a relative new build house (2002) with very well glazed windows and good all round insulation. Our heating is off completely, usually from the middle of April through to the end of October. Gas only being used to heat the hot water and the odd bit of cooking, as we eat mostly salads/cold meats during the summer months. Electricity, just standard evening TV and lighting and light tumble dryer use.
One of the best things we did a few months back, was have HIVE from BG installed. We're not BG customers, just paid the one off fee to have it supplied fitted, £210 from Amazon and BG fitted it. We can schedule our water/heating whenever we like from anywhere in the world. Brilliant for when you're on holiday and want to switch everything back on the day before you get home. The convenience factor of it is excellent.
Our combined dual fuel energy use, comes to around £670 a year, so we pay £56 monthly direct debit as things currently stand. This is in comparison to a close friend of ours living alone who lives in a 1912 built house and is currently on one of EON's tariffs. Our friend pays £92 a month.0 -
A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »Out of interest which providers do people on this thread use and which tariff are you on?
IRESA Flex4 12 month Fixed, it's the joint cheapest for me on cheapenergyclub & it has no exit fee (the economy energy tariff has one).One of the best things we did a few months back, was have HIVE from BG installed. We're not BG customers, just paid the one off fee to have it supplied fitted, £210 from Amazon and BG fitted it. We can schedule our water/heating whenever we like from anywhere in the world. Brilliant for when you're on holiday and want to switch everything back on the day before you get home. The convenience factor of it is excellent.
I think I'll keep the £210, the heating is turned off and the hot water gets turned on when I need it. People going on holiday for a week could just leave the heating and hot water on, it would take years to make back the hive cost. At which point it will probably break
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.....I think I'll keep the £210, the heating is turned off and the hot water gets turned on when I need it. People going on holiday for a week could just leave the heating and hot water on, it would take years to make back the hive cost. At which point it will probably break
In my defence, I've saved so much money by being fiscally savvy enough to fix at the right time, HIVE is merely a nice to have play thing!
As for leaving the heating and water on when going away, personally, I wouldn't and I don't. I isolate the mains supply every time I go away. A very close relative of mine discovered after two weeks away, on his return, an upstairs cold tap water pipe had split and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage. It was heartbreaking and moreso because he wasn't insured....:(, even worse, he is on a water meter!0 -
In my defence, I've saved so much money by being fiscally savvy enough to fix at the right time, HIVE is merely a nice to have play thing!
As for leaving the heating and water on when going away, personally, I wouldn't and I don't. I isolate the mains supply every time I go away. A very close relative of mine discovered after two weeks away, on his return, an upstairs cold tap water pipe had split and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage. It was heartbreaking and moreso because he wasn't insured....:(, even worse, he is on a water meter!
The SP Tariff I am on is fixed until January 2019 and is:
8.22 p per day standing charge for gas and electric so that is about £60 a year for both standing charges.
Then 3.558p per kwh for gas and 14.350p per kwh for Electricity. I use about 1800 kwh a year for electric and about 4,500 for gas.0 -
Do people still heat hot water in cylinders? Thought combi boilers were taking over from tha and people just heat the water they use.0
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A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »Do people still heat hot water in cylinders? Thought combi boilers were taking over from tha and people just heat the water they use.
I suspect, though I can obviously not be totally sure, that by far, the vast majority of households have a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard.
I imagine, that quite a lot of new development housing has gone combi boiler. Personally, I'm sticking with stored hot water. If I lose the GCH during the winter, I can at least still heat the hot water via immersion heater.
A good friend of mine has just recently had their hot water cylinder replaced with a mains pressure tank. The water tanks in the loft have been removed. I quite like the idea myself. I'm not however in the fiscal mood for having a perfectly good working conventional boiler removed along with my hot water tank. It would cost me the best part of about 3 grand, and I've got better things to spend my money on.0 -
A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »Do people still heat hot water in cylinders? Thought combi boilers were taking over from tha and people just heat the water they use.
Over the years there have been countless threads on the merits/demerits of conventional HW systems(with tank) and Combi boilers.
No point in rehearsing the arguments. However I, and many others, are firmly in favour of the conventional HW system. This is especially so if you have a pressurised HW tank that produces hot water at mains pressure; and at any temperature you require.0 -
A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »The SP Tariff I am on is fixed until January 2019 and is:
8.22 p per day standing charge for gas and electric so that is about £60 a year for both standing charges.
Then 3.558p per kwh for gas and 14.350p per kwh for Electricity. I use about 1800 kwh a year for electric and about 4,500 for gas.
I've just compared my kwh useage for both gas and electric using Npower's excellent tracking App, put the figures into CheapEnergyClub and if I were to go onto Npower's SVT from the Feel Good Fix 2018 tariff I'm currently on tomorrow, my annual bill based on my regular useage, would increase by £310 per year! If that isn't a good enough incentive to ensure I keep on top of things when my current fix ends, I don't know what is!
The cheapest tariff I could possibly move to if my current tariff ended tomorrow, would be with OneSelect energy company and I would be paying about £15 a year more than I'm currently paying.
There are currently 14 independent energy companies that beat all of the big six tariffs based on my usage. The first of the big six energy companies that come in with the cheapest tariff based on today's tariff offerings, is my current supplier, Npower (30 Sept 2018 Online Fix) The difference between that tariff inclusive of their current cashback offer and the cheapest of the independent energy suppliers, is around £60 per year more than OneSelect. That's still not enough for me to risk swapping from Npower to a company I've never heard of. The only energy company out of all of the cheaper ones than my current provider is offering that I would definitely consider swapping to if my current tariff ended tomorrow, is Bristol Energy who are owned by Bristol City Council and their current 12 month fix is around £64 a year more than I currently pay.
The other thing people need to get their head around as well, is with some of energy companies, you can't swap to them if your gas is supplied by an Independent Gas Transporter as ours is. Lots of newer housing developments come under IGT.0
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