BG free weekend power

molerat

For me £8 per week dearer:rotfl:

csgohan4

they target it to Cannabis farmers

Cardew

csgohan4 wrote: »

they target it to Cannabis farmers

Who claim a rebate because they already get it free by bypassing meters.

[Deleted User]

BG now have their smart prepayment meters up and running. Of course they are paying the highest rates, standard/variable, similar to the free weekend tariffs BG are offering so they would find it worthwhile for a one seventh at least reduction, as would people who like to pay through the nose on standard/variable tariffs. That is around 50% of consumers who would see a benefit from a free day.
If its possible to use the free weekend tariff with prepay meters it would be very viable for the prepay user. I can t see any reason now why these sorts of tariffs are not available to smart prepayment meter customers. Ofgem came out with an announcement last week about helping prepays to get access to lower tariffs, this would be a start, and an encouragement for dumb meters to be switched for smart meters.
Over in Northern Ireland they are ahead of the game to the rest of the UK with smart prepays being very popular .Budget Energy, the "Ryanair " of the energy market supplier over there offer the cheapest prepayment tariffs in the UK at the moment . Smart prepay meters are so efficient one day we may all be using them.

Rubidium

BG now have their smart prepayment meters up and running. Of course they are paying the highest rates, standard/variable, similar to the free weekend tariffs BG are offering so they would find it worthwhile for a one seventh at least reduction, as would people who like to pay through the nose on standard/variable tariffs. That is around 50% of consumers who would see a benefit from a free day.

It is not "a one seventh at least reduction" - eight hours out of 168 hours in nowhere near one seventh!

If its possible to use the free weekend tariff with prepay meters it would be very viable for the prepay user.

Why "very viable" when they could simply change to a supplier with a cheaper rate for every hour of every day of every week. If the smaller energy companies can offer much cheaper rates, then why does BG try to hoodwink it's customers with rip off restrictive tariffs such as this!

I can t see any reason now why these sorts of tariffs are not available to smart prepayment meter customers. Ofgem came out with an announcement last week about helping prepays to get access to lower tariffs, this would be a start, and an encouragement for dumb meters to be switched for smart meters.

BG will have to do much better if they really want to encourage savvy people to switch to smart meters! If they really wanted to help prepay users, they could simply reduce the rates like the numerous other cheaper suppliers have already done, without foisting smarts on customers and restricting this tariff to supplying both gas and electricity.

Over in Northern Ireland they are ahead of the game to the rest of the UK with smart prepays being very popular .Budget Energy, the "Ryanair " of the energy market supplier over there offer the cheapest prepayment tariffs in the UK at the moment . Smart prepay meters are so efficient one day we may all be using them.

As for Budget Energy, do you really believe that tariffs like this are the way forward:



Anyone thanking the OP for his foolhardy, ill-considered, nonsensical battery storage idea, must surely be from the same distant planet that he is from!

...................

[Deleted User]

Budget Energy is easily the cheapest prepay prices in the UK, you are showing only their TOU tariffs, not that appealing I must admit.
Average use of 3100 kwh for the cheapest prepays in mainland UK is isupplyelectricty at £475 a year, with Budget Energy in N.I. cheapest tariff is £412 a year..with no standing charges.
There is very little difference in prepay rates with Isupply, the cheapest, being only £30 a year cheaper over BG prepayment rates .
There is a large section of users who stay with BG on standard tariffs and they won t change their ways it seems by switching around where they could save £150 a year on a standard tariff. For them the Freetime tariff could easily save £150 a year depending how much they hammered the free 8 hours. Charging an electric car and mobility scooter ( that is a bank of batteries ) and doing full washing and drying for the week , say 4 washes, and a weeks ironing for the week on Saturday/Sunday plus electric fire heating for 8 hours, I think that could be beating Isupplys rates over the year . There is a fair use policy,( it is not set at 11 % ), but usage of say, 30 kwhr in the 8 hours or more would not be considered excessive . BG s new tariff could possibly be the cheapest in the UK for stubborn standard/variable users who will not move.
BG and others do not want to help prepayment meter users because the ancient old key meters are very expensive to run and even now their tariffs are subsidised down to standard/variable prices.The true costs of these meters would be much higher. Budget Energy are showing the worth of their smart keypad prepay meters with a rate of 13.3 p kwh and no standing charges. The same running costs can now be achieved now with the new smart prepayment meters .Budget energy are rumoured to be starting up on the mainland UK and with rates like they show in N.I. they will clean up.

silverwhistle

Bear in mind that everybody needs to consider their own consumption and consumption patterns, not anyone else's. For example I use Ebico for gas which is 4.95p + VAT per kWh. People sometimes tell me there's a cheaper tariff because they're only paying x p a unit. They always forget the standing charge, and currently my annual gas bill is less than any standing charge available.

As for Rubidium's question:

As for Budget Energy, do you really believe that tariffs like this are the way forward:

They may well be. I've got solar panels and although their figures might not suit me and I'd have to do some extensive number-crunching to see, but it's entirely a possibility that a similar tariff might be worthwhile to me.

As a PV user I'm pretty aware of my usage, and most in my position have usage peaks when the sun is shining. The whole point of the tariff is to dissuade usage during the peak when wholesale costs are higher. You wouldn't necessarily have to have a large battery installation to game variable rates although the speadsheets would be beyond me!

Rubidium

sacsquacco wrote: »

Budget Energy is easily the cheapest prepay prices in the UK, you are showing only their TOU tariffs, not that appealing I must admit.
Average use of 3100 kwh for the cheapest prepays in mainland UK is isupplyelectricty at £475 a year, with Budget Energy in N.I. cheapest tariff is £412 a year..with no standing charges.
There is very little difference in prepay rates with Isupply, the cheapest, being only £30 a year cheaper over BG prepayment rates .
There is a large section of users who stay with BG on standard tariffs and they won t change their ways it seems by switching around where they could save £150 a year on a standard tariff. For them the Freetime tariff could easily save £150 a year depending how much they hammered the free 8 hours. Charging an electric car and mobility scooter ( that is a bank of batteries ) and doing full washing and drying for the week , say 4 washes, and a weeks ironing for the week on Saturday/Sunday plus electric fire heating for 8 hours, I think that could be beating Isupplys rates over the year . There is a fair use policy,( it is not set at 11 kwhr ), but that usage would not be considered excessive . BG s new tariff could possibly be the cheapest in the UK for stubborn standard/variable users who will not move.
BG and others do not want to help prepayment meter users because the ancient old key meters are very expensive to run and even now their tariffs are subsidised down to standard/variable prices.The true costs of these meters would be much higher. Budget Energy are showing the worth of their smart keypad prepay meters with a rate of 13.3 p kwh and no standing charges. The same running costs can now be achieved now with the new smart prepayment meters

Surely if discussing this BG TOU tariff it is only fair to compare it with a similar offering from Budget Energy in NI as quoted above.

This is definitely a "BG needs to fit more smart meters" tariff because if you get a quote stating that have smart meters installed it states "Sorry you can't get our Home Energy Freetime tariff but we are working on it"

If however you get a quote stating that you do not have smart meters, then magically you can get this Freetime tariff and are given your quote!

I do not believe that the average user could easily save £150.

It states in the terms that "Your Personal Projection also assumes that each week 11% of your electricity usage will be during the free period (Saturday 9am - 5pm)"

Taking your quoted annual consumption of 3100kWh this would be 6.5kWhs during the 8 hours, therefore you could possibly save a maximum of:

3100 x 0.11 = 341kWh x 0.1321 = £45 which is nowhere near the £150 that you state can easily be saved. Remember that if you exceed their quoted 11% figure by a large margin, they can simply charge for the "Free hours" saving you nothing!

BG also state "Our HomeEnergy FreeTime tariff is not yet available for Pay As You Go customers" which really is laughable for the supplier with the largest market share.

You say that BG do not want to help prepayment meter users but to get this TOU tariff you have to take their smart meters and both gas and electricity but the price is still very high, yet Budget Energy obviously still make a profit selling electricity from the grid!

BG could do much better if they really wanted to but maximum profit is their goal!

[Deleted User]

At the moment this HomeEnergy Freetime tariff is not yet available to prepayment customers but it sounds like it will be eventually by their inclusion of the word "yet "
Ofgems announcement last week said they would force suppliers to offer different tariffs to prepays, and this Freetime tariff would be an excellent start. They are probably the least well off and paying the highest prices because their meters cost so much to run. If Budget Energy can do it using smart keypad meters ( Liberty Secure meters I believe ) then others can but only smart meters will allow this to happen. Prepay customers are being held back and hit in the pocket by their outdated unreliable and costly to run meters.
I would have thought that anyone going on this Freetime tariff would be trying to make the most of it and using as much as possible and not taking any notice of a "personal projection " of 6.5 kwh nonsense. My washing machine and dryer and iron would all be used to the max for a start. BG don t state how much you can use but they obviously don`t want people abusing it.

Rubidium

sacsquacco wrote: »

At the moment this HomeEnergy Freetime tariff is not yet available to prepayment customers but it sounds like it will be eventually by their inclusion of the word "yet "
Ofgems announcement last week said they would force suppliers to offer different tariffs to prepays, and this Freetime tariff would be an excellent start. They are probably the least well off and paying the highest prices because their meters cost so much to run. If Budget Energy can do it using smart keypad meters ( Liberty Secure meters I believe ) then others can but only smart meters will allow this to happen. Prepay customers are being held back and hit in the pocket by their outdated unreliable and costly to run meters.
I would have thought that anyone going on this Freetime tariff would be trying to make the most of it and using as much as possible and not taking any notice of a "personal projection " of 11 kwh nonsense. My washing machine and dryer and iron would all be used to the max for a start. BG don t state how much you can use but they obviously don`t want people abusing it.

Rather than your constant smart meters are wonderful followed now by this Freetime tariff could save hundreds, why can't you simply accept the facts.

The quote states 11% of your weekly usage which works out at 6.5kWh for average consumption figures NOT 11kWh.

Do you really believe that you could abuse this tariff from the outset by using double the kWh during your free eight hours and still get it free.

You contradict yourself because as you say, if Budget Energy can offer far more competitive rates by using smart meters then why this rip off tariff from BG selling the same electricity.

You may be Mr Smart and work for BG but I really don't understand how you can defend this tariff, which is a joke for anyone actually trying to save money.

Lets hope that the people who do sign up to this tariff can read and understand the terms that they agree to.

:rotfl: