Gas and Electricity for 6 Students Sept, 2012.

GiffGaffUser

Good evening MSE forums

I'm moving into a house in September with 6 other house mates and need to sort out the Gas and Electricity in case the current providers are maybe expensive or whatever. (I'm not sure what they have at the mo...)

I'm looking for help to what you think is best for us to take, what have good rep and what is known to be good amongst students. I've been browsing but haven't found anything solid - If there is a sticky thread please do link it to me.

Also, if we change from the current ones that are at the house already, how long does it take to swap over etc? New to all of this and hoping to learn for later life!

Thank you in advance, will reply to any replies in the thread.

Cheers. :beer:

victor2

Was the house student accommodation last year, and occupied by a similar number?
If so, you might be able to get a ball park figure of what the annual usage was from the current provider. If you can get an idea, put the annual kWh usage for each utility into a comparison site, such as uswitch. Then look at the suppliers that come out near the top. You might feel more comfortable sticking with one of the big well known suppliers.
You might want to consider a fixed tariff for a year, so that you'll be paying the same amount per kWh for the duration of your stay. They often have a penalty if you leave the contract early though.
Switching is a fairly quick (like around 4-6 weeks) and painless process. You just approach the new supplier, give them current readings and they handle the rest.
Do make sure you get meter readings from the first day of occupancy and agree them with the landlord. Take a photo of each meter if you can. You don't want to inherit somebody else's bill!
It's going to be difficult to estimate the usage with 6 other house mates, all with their own lifestyles. Heating through the winter is likely to be the highest user of utilities by far. Although, if you have electric shower(s), they can run up quite a bill.
Read your meters weekly at first and get an idea what the cost is going to be, to avoid any nasty surprises.

Cardew

A big problem with student houses is that the bedrooms tend to be used as single 'bedsits'.

Now 'normal' residential houses with Central Heating have radiators specified so that with the heating in the downstairs living areas at say 20C, the bedrooms will be considerably cooler; OK if in bed but not really a comfortable temperature to sit and study.

The solution is these students all get big electrical heaters for their rooms and electricity bills soar.

This is exactly what happened in my son's student digs. Four bedrooms upstairs were simply not warm enough when the two downstairs 'bedrooms'(converted living rooms) were at a comfortable temperature. It caused endless arguments.

Terrylw1

Switching takes 21 days after your cooling off period ends.

Remember you will be in a Deemed contract with the current supplier.

Be very careful when sharing, everyone on the tenancy agreement is equally liable so if one of you doesn't want to pay, your supplier won't care as its a third party dispute. Try!to!protect yourself from this.

chris1973

I'd also take a reasonable deposit from all 6 students as a buffer against one or more of them suddenly upping and leaving without paying their share of the utility bill!.

So often you read stories of those who are listed as the bill payer at the property, being left to single handidly foot a huge utility bill when their flatmates have suddenly skipped town.