British Gas - Tariff Check

DistortedVision

I just did the Tariff Check today and it says on the cheapest tariff we would be £300 better. If I switch as a result of the Tariff Check do I receive a guarantee from British Gas that I won't pay any more for the next 12 months than if I had not switched?

If there is no guarantee then I feel that it is an unfair marketing ploy as you are trapped in a 12 month contract leaving you unable to move to another provider.

macman

Any comp site will tell you this, just put in your annual kWh figures and postcode.
£300 is a huge saving-what tariff are you currently on and what is your usage?

Wywth

Distorted_Vision wrote: »

I just did the Tariff Check today and it says on the cheapest tariff we would be £300 better. If I switch as a result of the Tariff Check do I receive a guarantee from British Gas that I won't pay any more for the next 12 months than if I had not switched?

If there is no guarantee then I feel that it is an unfair marketing ploy as you are trapped in a 12 month contract leaving you unable to move to another provider.

No.

But if you choose a fixed tariff then you know the rates won't change for the duration.

A variable tariff can go up or down. You can normally avoid early exit fees if you are adversely affected by a price change to your tariff.

Note: British Gas tariff check only checks the prices of British Gas tariffs.
Better to use a comparison site and check the whole of market

DistortedVision

Thanks for the replies.

Usage per year:

Gas - 35490 kWh
Electricity - 11650 kWh

We are with on British Gas Standard Tariff. I checked USwitch and MoneySupermarket and the tariffs are only slightly cheaper with NPower. However, I've had a previous bad experience with them a few years ago when they lost the initial meter reading after I bought a new house. Thankfully it was settled by the regulators strongly in my favour.

I think I'll just switch to the cheapest British Gas tariff - Online Variable 2014.

SwanJon

Thats' quite high consumption - Ofgem's national average is 16,500 for gas and 3300 for electricity.

As well as choosing the best tariff/supplier for you (and checking again regularly) you should be able to make decent savings by reducing your consumption.

MillicentBystander

SwanJon wrote: »

Thats' quite high consumption - Ofgem's national average is 16,500 for gas and 3300 for electricity.

As well as choosing the best tariff/supplier for you (and checking again regularly) you should be able to make decent savings by reducing your consumption.

Beat me to it - unless you are royalty (or Cardew ) that consumption seems very very high. Have you ever looked into the reasons why it is as high as it is, OP?

DistortedVision

We live in a large 5 bedroom house which would explain it. We had a new Veismann boiler installed few years ago with a weather compensation controller. This reduced the gas consumption significantly. We also had a new bathroom installed last month so the 13kW electric shower has been replaced with a thermostatic mixer shower so our electricity consumption should reduce a little.

I'd be interested in what the average energy consumption is for a typical 5 bedroom house. I know we have alot of lighting and I've only replaced some of the bulbs with energy saving ones because I dislike the light quality.

MillicentBystander

Distorted_Vision wrote: »

We live in a large 5 bedroom house which would explain it. We had a new Veismann boiler installed few years ago with a weather compensation controller. This reduced the gas consumption significantly. We also had a new bathroom installed last month so the 13kW electric shower has been replaced with a thermostatic mixer shower so our electricity consumption should reduce a little.

I'd be interested in what the average energy consumption is for a typical 5 bedroom house. I know we have alot of lighting and I've only replaced some of the bulbs with energy saving ones because I dislike the light quality.

Not really. I live in a large-ish 4 bed house and used less than a third of your gas consumption last year. Granted, our electric consumption is a bit daft (we are gadget freaks and plasma TV fans! ) but that was still less than half of your consumption.

Wywth

Typical high consumption values: Gas - 23,000 kWh, Electricity - 5,100 kWh

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/domestic%20energy%20consump%20fig%20FS.pdf

DistortedVision

I think the main reason our gas consumption is high is because the heating is on during the day because my father is retired and always home.

Our house is filled with gadgets but I think the high consumption is due to the fact the washing machine, dishwasher and oven seem to be constantly on. Also two en-suite bathrooms with electric showers plus the lighting as mentioned above doesn't help.

We were able to get free cavity wall insulation but my mum objected to having holes in the walls outside all over the house. I think reducing our electricity consumption would require major changes in our lifestyles.

MillicentBystander

There is always at least one person home in our house 24/7. Look at ways of only heating the one room your father is mainly occupying through the day. If you have radiator TRVs set them low in all the other rooms for the day time. It's very wasteful (and expensive!) heating rooms that are seldom used.

PS If your oven is constantly being used for heating up small amounts of food (like in many households these days kids just come in at differing times and get their own meals) then look at spending just £30 on a halogen oven (Costco price). Approx a third of the cost of using a large oven to heat a small portion! It all adds up! We have one and it's definitely paid for itself in a very short period of time.