I just dont understand!

matt1987

Hi all, I am all new to this Electric malarky!

Me and my partner move into our very first house on Friday, and we need to start shopping around for electric!

Now, we both work during the day, so there wont be much usage during these times, however we have electric storage heaters so during the colder periods, most of our usage will come from these.

I dont know where to start with shopping around, and I am really worried that if I sign up to something, I will be hit with a huge bill every month!

Can I just pay a standard amount every month, and if I dont use as much as I am paying for, get cashback at the end of the year? Or does it have to go by how much you use every month?

Any help appreciated!!

Andy_WSM

Hi Matt, firstly, if you are using storage heaters then make sure you have signed up to an Economy 7 tariff - this provides cheap electricity at night to "charge up" the heaters.

If you are not around much during the day then make sure the "output" dial of the heaters is turned right down and turn them up when you return from work and need the heat.

There are numerous different provisions for payment, the cheapest is likely to be a Direct Debit scheme whereby you pay the same amount every month regardless of consumption and this amount is reviewed at regular intervals to make sure your monthly payments match your annual consumption.

You probably need to budge for around £100 a month for an all electric property, although you may get some change from this if you are careful to turn things off when you go out.

matt1987

Eeek, wasnt expecting to spend £100 a month on leccy! Uswitch website is so wrong if thats the case as they were quoting somewhere around £600 annually for a high user! That was with Scottish Power on a Economy 7 plan!

Andy_WSM

matt1987 wrote: »

Eeek, wasnt expecting to spend £100 a month on leccy! Uswitch website is so wrong if thats the case as they were quoting somewhere around £600 annually for a high user! That was with Scottish Power on a Economy 7 plan!

Look here

Whilst that is an exceptional case, £50 a month for an all electric property would be equally exceptional (i.e. too low). It would be far better to pay more and be prepared for the worst - especially as we head into Winter, which is when you will use the biggest part of your annual consumption anyway.

matt1987

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Look here

Whilst that is an exceptional case, £50 a month for an all electric property would be equally exceptional (i.e. too low). It would be far better to pay more and be prepared for the worst - especially as we head into Winter, which is when you will use the biggest part of your annual consumption anyway.

Yeh true, well I did put aside £40 for gas and £40 for electric every month, but seeing as we wont be using any gas then £80 for electric sounds ok.

Premier_2

matt1987 wrote: »

...I dont know where to start with shopping around, and I am really worried that if I sign up to something, I will be hit with a huge bill every month!

Can I just pay a standard amount every month, and if I dont use as much as I am paying for, get cashback at the end of the year? Or does it have to go by how much you use every month?

Any help appreciated!!

If you don't want to pay the supplier every month, you would be best setting up a savings account and paying what you want into that. Better the money in your account than a multi-million pound's company account. Then use that to pay what the quartly bill is. If you got it right, you should have enough otherwise you'll have to find the balance.

That way, you can access the 'cashback' from your account whenever you want

Whilst paying monthly by DD is often a cheaper deal, it's not always.
e.g. SP pay £50 prompt payment discount to those paying quarterly - could be a good deal if you are a low user.

Premier_2

matt1987 wrote: »

Eeek, wasnt expecting to spend £100 a month on leccy! Uswitch website is so wrong if thats the case as they were quoting somewhere around £600 annually for a high user! That was with Scottish Power on a Economy 7 plan!

Uswitch say they use 4,950kWh of electricity and 28,000kWh of gas a year for a high user - these values come from ofgem

Sounds about right, but for an electric only property they appaer to assume 9900kWh of electricity ... which does seem a low for a 'high user' , I would think this is low to medium user at best.

There is only one supplier that charges £630 (based on E Midlands area I chose at random) ... average price for this area would seem to be about £800 for that usage.

Edit: It should strike then as something being wrong.
A high user with gas and electric would spend about £1200 - how an electric only equivilent (on E7) could be so much cheaper should ring alarm bells.

matt1987

Are there any more websites where I could get quotes from? I think in the winter months we would be classed as a medium to high user, but obviously during spring and summer, probably a low user.

Scottish power do seem to be the cheapest, but im sure there is more websites out there that I could get quotes from - realistic quotes!

Premier_2

Martin lists a choice of about half a dozen comparison sites with cashback/wine in his article

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity?dd

But they are all only as good as the data you input. If you don't know what your annual usage in kWh is likely to be the outputs can be rather suspect.

What you really are probably looking for is a supplier of cystal balls to inform you how much energy in kWh you will use in the next 12 months.

matt1987

Ha Premier, thats exactly what I am looking for!!!

I have no idea on the kind of usage I would be using, as I have never paid an electric bill in my entire life!!! I could base it on my partners mothers usage where three of us live, however this would be highly inaccurate because of the gas central heating instead of the electric heaters!!!

eamon

Without any history of usage either set up a savings a/c for X amount or D/D the same amount and pay per quarter. For whats it worth I pay £70 per month on a D/D plan (gas & elect). From late Spring until about now I'm in credit and it probably balances out when Winter kicks in.