Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

I-LOV-MONEY

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Nobody can turn your lights off without coming out and pulling one of the company fuses. (I don't know just how clever smart meters could be).

What I meant if the company goes bust, who is supplying the electricity ?

ruufw

can anyone tell me how I can find out what each company charges per therm ?

br1anstorm

Had a frustrating evening doing utility price comparisons on the various compare-and-switch sites. There are at least a dozen or more such sites. But it is clear from the presentation and layout of the results that (just like the energy companies) there is a lot of badge-engineering. Various comparison sites with different names are in fact the same - or use the same "engines" to produce their results.

But the greater irritation is that on almost all of them, switching to my "best buys" (the SSE group for gas, and British Gas Click6 for electricity) was not possible via the comparison sites. So no cashback, vouchers or free wine for me! Going direct to the websites of these companies offered no such additional incentive to switch - only the prospect of lower bills.

I have switched my gas supplier anyway, so at least hope to see some saving over the coming year.

br1anstorm

harryhound

I-LOV-MONEY wrote: »

What I meant if the company goes bust, who is supplying the electricity ?

Physically it depends where you live. The electricity grid is a bit like a giant plumbing system with different companies pumping water into it in different parts of the country. It is impossible to say which electron came from where (with water it would be possible to dye it and see what sort of blend came out of your tap).
That said if you lived in (say) Kent and it is late at night the electricity is probably coming from a French nuclear power station on the South coast of the Channel c/o eDF.
This is one of the reasons why prices differ in different parts of the country.

You can watch the whole country's electricity meter clocking up here:
http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/Demand/Demand60.htm

The liquidator could cancel your contract or may be able to sell your contract to another company.

lilmisstrouble

If this has been discussed before - sorry. I'm with Npower and calculate my bill myself monthly. With gas i pay 6.602p (inc VAT) for the first 4572 kw hours and then 2.056p for the remainder. They don't split this 4572 evenly though over the year - there's four different amounts and from Nov - Feb, the coldest months the first 882kw hours monthly is charged at the higher rate. This means that although I've only used less than a third more gas this month my monthly bill has doubled. Seems to me a funny way of weighting this especially when they always reassess your bills at the coldest time of the year. Has anyone else any views on this and how does Npower compare with others
Nov - Feb first 882 units
March - first 272 units
April Oct - first 271 units
May - Sept first 46 units

If I'm paying by monthly direct debit I can't see the logic in this!

harryhound

Gas is more expensive for Npower to buy in the winter because the UK as almost no storage, so cannot stock up at cheap summer prices.
I think I am right in saying that Npower does not extract (mine) gas itself, so has to buy on the market, though presumably it could write future contracts (and risk getting the price disastrously wrong like Cedric "the pig"):
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960508/ai_n14044764

This looks like RWE's skill set:
http://www.rwepi.com/rwepi/index.asp?flash=true.
However I had no idea they were doing this, I think it should be made clear to its customers. Over the year, presumably, you are using up all your expensive units, while in the summer there would be a chance that you would not use them all, if they were evenly distributed month by month or even quarter by quarter?
Does this happen for electric too?

lilmisstrouble

No the electricity is allocated at 2 units a day. I know I pay the same over the year if I stay with Npower but this could make it harder for people who pay on a quarterly basis because just when you are using more anyway you are getting charged more too. I would like to know the logic behind this and whether other companies do the same

lilmisstrouble

Thinking about it if we could comapre how others allocate these units we could plan exactly when to swap suppliers. The best time to be with Npower is between May and September when it is cheap.

John_Pierpoint

You have to be with Npower for a full 12 months to get the deferred rebate?

lilmisstrouble

Yes you get a discount after 12 months without a break - £100 for dual fuel £20 for single if you pay by monthly direct debit. I'm not promoting Npower - I think they're all thieving vagabonds!