First time buyer needs connecting!

neilb1977

Hello

I am just about to move into my first flat and now have the wonderful task of sorting out my gas, electricity, water, phone, internet suppliers.

I have looked at a couple of comparison sites for my gas and electricity and both have leaned towards npower....

To be honest, i would of phoned up BG and got them to be my supplier except someone I know said I could save money by looking at these sites.

However I notice on here from some recent threads that these sites aren't always as straight forward as they seem.

So I thought I would just politely ask whether anyone here had any suggestions.

For info I have bought a small studio flat (one bedroom, one bathroom/ toilet and one lounge-kitchen which has an electric cooker/oven and storage heating (never had any experience with this....)

I apologise in advance if this post breaks any of the forum rules, but i am actively searching this site (and others) for info on this.

thanks in advance

neil

Cardew

If you have storage heating and an electric cooker what do you use gas for?

You have no choice of water company. You should determine if have a meter or not. If you have a meter there are no options open to you. If there is not a meter you should consider if this is viable, or should you switch. It will largely depend on the Rateable Value of your flat.

With storage heating you should be on Economy 7 tariff. The best company will depend on where in the country you live and how much electricity you use. Bear in mind that because a company is the best value today, it might not be next month. I suggest you look at the current crop of fixed price tariffs as well.

neilb1977

blimey, thanks for the helpful advice!
You can tell I am a first time buyer as i assumed my boiler would be gas!??!?! I know i must sound pretty stupid, but i havent got a clue!

With regards to the heating, where can i find out about Economy 7 tariff? once again i dont have a clue.....I live in margate, in kent.

It looks as tho i have a lot of investigating to do over the next couple of days!!!

thanks again for the help!

greytroot

ask for a quote using uswitch. I am also moving into my new flat 14 april. I was quoted (single lad) £25 gas and £25 electricity per month (£600 per year). Using those figure uswitch came up with a great deal, £399 a year.

neilb1977

hey greytroot....thanks for the reply.

how come uswitch saved you £200???? i'm confused!

Curry_Queen

As you're moving into a new property, and don't have any past consumption figures to work on, the best that the comparison sites can do is to estimate what your usage might be compared to the national average of a single person living in a one-bed flat.

Obviously this can vary enormously from person to person depending on what electrical appliances you use, how long you're at home for etc so your best bet might be to go with whoever is offering the cheapest tariff in your area at the moment, and then start taking weekly readings of your own and monitor your own consumption. Once you know what your average usage is (remember it will vary in summer/winter due to heating, or lack of) then you can start using the comparison sites to see if there's a better deal out there for you, and switch if necessary.

HTH

Cardew

neilb1977 wrote:

blimey, thanks for the helpful advice!
You can tell I am a first time buyer as i assumed my boiler would be gas!??!?! I know i must sound pretty stupid, but i havent got a clue!

With regards to the heating, where can i find out about Economy 7 tariff? once again i dont have a clue.....I live in margate, in kent.

It looks as tho i have a lot of investigating to do over the next couple of days!!!

thanks again for the help!

Economy 7(E7) means that you get very cheap electricity for everything in your house for a 7 hour period. The times of this period vary but are normally between the hours of Midnight and 8am

Storage heaters are designed to switch on at the start of that period and(as the name suggests) store the heat. They have settings that allow them to release that heat at the time you want. The problem with older storage heaters is that they are OK if you are out all day and use them only in the evenings, but if you use them all day they 'run out' of heat; modern heaters are better.

During that 7 hour period your immersion heater heats up your water in the hot water tank.

You should also take advantage of any other electrical appliance you can run on a timer in the 7 hour period, eg washing machine, dryer, dishwasher. Although in a small studio flat noise might be a problem.

Assuming that Margate is in the Southern Electricity area, the following BG standard prices will give you an indication of the prices you can expect to pay.(all prices include VAT @5%)

Tier 1 21.995 pence per kWh(unit) this is for the first 225 kWhs per quarter.

Tier 2 11.911 p per kWh this is the rest of your consumption except E7.

Tier 3 2.330 p per kWh this is for your E7 consumption.

With carefull use you should be able to get your E7 useage to above 60% of your total consumption.

greytroot

Had a flat before, same circumstances with same sized flat.

It was just a rough guide and the obvious savings were on an estimated use.

For my initial estimate I used Britsh Gas.

Then using those details Uswitch let me know how much i would save, i did use the links on mse.