New home and extremely confused with all the utility lingo?

SamanthaJane

My partner and I have just moved into a rented house. It is currently with British Gas for both gas and electricity.

At our old place we were with BG for Gas and EON for Electricity.

What are the differences with the companies? Should I get electricity from an electric company (British gas are surely gas as their main concern?) Or am I better to stick with one company for everything?

When I was with EON I was on the economy 7 tarriff which was good for doing laundry in the night etc but I can't find anything similar with BG? Also, do they have to fit another meter for that tarriff? If so, what are the issues with this being a rented property?

I'm so confused! Maybe I should stay with BG because it's easier that trying to change it? :-s Is changing suppliers a complicated business?

Thanks for any advice

SamanthaJane

dogshome

Hi SamanthaJane - If you don't know already, be aware that as a 'new' account BG will have put you on an expensive 'Standard' tariff, and you will stay on it till you change it, either by Switching or contacting BG to swap to a cheaper tariff - Is usually the one with D/Debit payments & Online billing

You won't know yet what your annual use will be, so to get comparitve prices from the Switch sites, enter an annual use 3,500 Kw Elec. and 18,000 kw of Gas

ECO 7 meters are primarily designed to deliver heating via Storage radiators so it is unlikely that you have one if you have GAS C/heating, but if you do, post it here and 'Premier' who's another site regular will tell you how to get the best out of it.

t0rt0ise

SamanthaJane, it isn't difficult to change suppliers. You simply apply online to the supplier and tariff of your choice and they do the rest. They will contact your old supplier and close your old account. The new supplier will ask you for meter readings at some stage and you read the meters and give them to them.

davidgmmafan

Forget about the gas company and the electricity company. Most providers do gas and electricity and usually give some kind of discount for having both with them and/or paying by direct debit.

Economy 7 is usually only worthwhile if you are using 20-30% of your electricity hours. This is realtively difficult to do unless you have storage heaters or work unusual shifts. The E7 time is usually somewhere between 12 & 7 am.

The difficulty you have is you have no way of knowing what your consumption is so you can only do a rough comparison on the price per unit. The figures quoted by dogshome are a decent estimate. The only way you might get more accurate figures is if the previous occupants were similar and the supplier has figures for this. Even then they may have been frugal or had it on all the time so it might not be accurate

Just to confuse things further a lot of suppliers have x amount of units at a higher rate and the rest at a lower rate. This is why knowing the consumption is important, as otherwise you don't know how many you will use at the lower rate.

Best bet therefore try to find a company who is cheaper than the current supplier on both rates. Look out for tie-ins and avoid them, at least until you've had chance to get a feel for what you are using.