ecotricity/Good Energy/Green Energy UK?

amosworks

Hi folks,

I'm switching my suppliers today and really feel I must switch to a green leccy supplier. Part of my criteria is that I also want to avoid "green" energy from the big bully boy suppliers and try out a smaller more honest company, which has narrowed it down to ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy UK.

Unfortunately switching to either of these three will actually mean more expensive leccy bills for me but I've just switched my gas to Ebico's Equigas which will save me about £90 a year now, so I will simply use the gas saving to offset the increased leccy costs. So ok I won't be making a saving, but for no more money each year I can become much greener and support smaller competition to the energy giants and this is important to me also.

But here in lies my problem: who to switch to? The increased cost is roughly the same between them (I'm not going to quibble over a few quid a year TBH). Unfortunately USwitch doesn't give me any statistics on these companies and there are no real user reviews because they are too small. USwitch say they withold stats for companies without much feedback as there is a large room for error, and I appreciate this.

So I'd like to tap MSE know-how for the 411 from any existing customers to these three as to what's recommended. I did some Googling and am slightly worried about Green Energy UK as their license provider, Opus Energy, seem to have a bit of negative publicity around them.

So basically, anyone a customer of these three or have any experience and could give me their yay/nay. Opinions and advice of MS'ers is a million times more valuable to me than stats on a switch site anyway!! There are lies, damn lies and there are statistics!

Many thanks in advance,
Amos

frivolous_fay

I'm an ex-customer of Ecotricity (was tempted to the devil BG by the seriously reduced bills)

I found them reasonably efficient, their helpline no. was (is?) an 0800 no. and I always found them to be knowledgable. I negotiated a reduction to my direct debit, and they repaid me the amount I was in credit, both without any significant hassle.

I've read here recently that they've had some problems with billing recently - some new system?

straddie

I can't give you any direct input on any of those companies as I don't know much about them, but I recently bought a house and didn't want to go with the existing supplier (Powergen) so looked for a new one... I briefly looked into the whole green thing assuming that green electricity meant the energy came from renewable sources (wind, solar etc) but a lot of the tarriffs I looked at just seemed to involve the supplier paying for the odd tree here and there, which to my mind isn't green energy! We need to reduce oil consumption full stop rather than simply offset it with other things.

So basically my point is, make sure that whoever you choose, their definition of "green energy" meets yours!

amosworks

Yes thanks for the input you guys. Each of the suppliers I've listed does have at least one tarriff that is either 100% renewable energy sources, or partially renewable with funds going towards a program of building future renewable energy sources. Either or is fine for me TBH as obviously I want to think about the future generations too

Norbert_Colon

Ecotricity are OK once you're with them. The transfer is a different matter in my experience - in the course of various house moves I've transferred the supply to them 3 times, and they got the transfer date wrong twice and the initial meter reading wrong all 3 times.

Ken68

Hi Amos, best to find the cheapest supplier with reliable service, than route your green wishes thru a commercial supplier.You never for sure know if they are or not on the fiddle.
Plant a few trees or whatever instead.

caroline1973lefty

I'm a customer of ecotricity, my bills seem to have gone down (might be cos of increased awareness too though), and no hassle with billing or transfer and much much easier to get through to than just about any other energy company i've dealt with. in terms of whether they are green or not, i read an article in the ecologist last year which rated ecotricity and good energy the as greenest.

as i understand it, in essence -
(clearly the energy that comes out of your socket is the same energy, but in terms of who gets payment for it:) currently , because of planning delays building wind turbines, etc, there isn't enough renewable energy to meet demand, and much of what is produced is bought up by businesses, (who are more incentivised to do so through the tax system, climate change levy, etc). so even the green tariffs and suppliers can't provide you with 100% green energy but there are still big differences:

most of the so-called 'green tariffs' that are offered by the big power suppliers might have the odd benefit such as planting some trees, etc, but really they just meet the minimum of what they are legally required to do, in terms of investment in new renewables.

ecotricity is best in terms of investment in new renewable capacity (wind turbines etc)

good energy is best in terms of current renewable capacity.

hope that helps

amosworks

Many thanks to y'all for the most helpful responses, it's highly appreciated. I'm going to give ecotricity a whirl methinks.

Cheers,
Amos

amosworks

Nghaaa I couldn't switch via USwitch because of an error on their site So I phoned them and explained the problem but they said as I was phoning and not using the site, yes I could switch over the phone but I wasn't able to claim the free Champagne offer!! :mad:

So I got him to ask him manager and said I was following the offer from moneysavingexpert.com and they soon changed their tune and did it over the phone and I'm allowed the Champagne. Woots :money: :beer: :money:

esthomizzy

While I was researching what green energy supplier to go for I found this article http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/acrobat/JeremySmith_articleJune05.pdf
as a result I changed my original intention to go with Good Energy or Green Energy and instead decided to change to Ecotricity as these people pledge to spend as much of your money as they can building new Wind farms instead of just using existing power which would have gone into the grid regardless of whether you or someone else bought it and the inflated "renewables" price. I can't comment on how it going yet though because I only received the paperwork so far and they promise to change me over on the 28th Dec so if I have any bad experiences I'll report back.