Bought our first house, how do we sort the electric out?

chrish12345

Might be a obvious question but I have no idea! we have exchanged contracts and are completing on the 16th..

Do i need to find a electric supplyer now ready for then? Or will it just carry on with the current supplyer?

Im concerned about getting tied into a long term contract without having chance to properly shop around?

hethmar

In theory the seller will contact the supplier to let them know they are leaving on that day and give them a reading. Can you ask them who the current supplier is? Obviously if you dont agree to a company supplying your electricity you cant be tied in with them. Have a look now at a comparison site.

Good luck with your new home.

macman

You are in a deemed contract with the existing supplier, so take opening readings on day one and register for an account with them. Once that's done, you can use a comp site with your estimated annual kWh readings to find the best deal. A switch will then take 4 to 5 weeks.
You won't be locked in, as the default tariff you will be placed on, unless you request otherwise, is Standard, which has no minimum term..

chrish12345

Thanks guys, I have tried to use the comparison sites and there all a bit of a minefield with all the different sorts.. I know the house has economy 7 heaters so im guessing ill need a plan that benifits those, but then my evening usage will probably be quite high, pc on all eve, tv sky xbox etc.. so I have no idea what will be the best tarrif!

harz99

Can the people your buying off not supply you with that information? At least you'll have a starting point then.

dogshome

To get the most accurate answer from a Switch site, you have to enter your Annual Use in Kwh (Kilowatt hours)
You won't know what these are, so phone the encumbant supplier and ask what these figures were for the previous occupier and then use them on a Switch site.

Each family in any given home will have a different lifestyle, and different bills - So take monthly meter readings so that you build up your own history ( If you double up your useage between now and next July 16th, you will have close idea of what you are using a year).

chrish12345

Ok thanks, they are quite an elderly couple, they dont own a PC and i didnt see any eletrical devices really bar a TV so I imagine my usage will be higher.. but then they are at home in the day so maybe not!

Is there a site where you can stick in all your electrical divices and it tells you roughly what you would use?

EG TV 4 hours per day
washing machine 1 wash per week

etc etc?

macman

chrish12345 wrote: »

Thanks guys, I have tried to use the comparison sites and there all a bit of a minefield with all the different sorts.. I know the house has economy 7 heaters so im guessing ill need a plan that benifits those, but then my evening usage will probably be quite high, pc on all eve, tv sky xbox etc.. so I have no idea what will be the best tarrif!

If it's E7, you'll need to know the approx annual % split between cheap and peak rate consumption. Typically you need to be using 33% on cheap rate to make E7 pay
You can't have a tariff that 'benefits' E7 storage heaters-you are either on E7 tariff or you are not. The downside is that all your other usage is charged at a premium rate.

macman

Stop worrying about usage on a PC and TV etc-it's minimal. With an all-electric house, the vast majority of your energy usage (and hence cost) will be for heating and hot water, both of which can be run on E7. Pensioners at home all day will have much higher heating bills.
However, if you are out in the day, you'll find storage heaters of limited use, and you'll possibly have to supplement them on peak rate power in the evenings with standard convectors or similar. No form of all electric heating is cheap compared to the alternatives.
If you really want to know what power your devices use, look at the rating plate-every electrical item carries one. Then multiply that by your kWh cost.

hethmar

Storage heating is very expensive and not very convenient. Is there a gas supply available?

Glitzer

We had storage heating and found it very expensive as we were both out working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week during the day time so when home in the evenings we had to supplement using the premium rate, I think that winter (about 3 years ago when we had lots of snow all over the country) our bill was about £700 for the quarter!