Avro Tariff Ending - Help Req Please!

skybluearmyontour

Before I start, I am not looking for someone to make the decision for me...and I won't hold you to account!!

Have been a homeowner for 5 years so haven't had much experience regards bills & tariffs but I have switched suppliers in that time (Sainsburys -> British Gas (who fitted smart meter) -> Avro for last year). I've been finding it really hard to see what my annual consumption is - especially when losing access to past bills etc - so I am considering setting up a spreadsheet to track it? Is that a good idea or overkill?

My current Avro tariff, Simple Winter Fix ends in Feb, whilst I can see what I have used for the year we have undergone a significant home extension & changed from a gas hob to electric & have electric underfloor heating installed in new extension. At stages during the build we have had electric heaters running etc which I guess are high usage.

My current tariff details are;
Elec Standing Charge - 16.8p
Elec Unit Rate - 13.81p
Gas Standing Charge - 16p
Gas Unit Rate - 3.42p

Renewal quote for 12 month fix is actually lower than what I am currently on?!
Elec Standing Charge - 15.75p
Elec Unit Rate - 12.94p
Gas Standing Charge - 15.75p
Gas Unit Rate - 2.85p

Have done the comparison and Yorkshire Energy come up cheapest - feedback score on the comparison reads mostly positive but have just read through the feedback thread & it's not as positive as I thought!

Yorkshire Rate - 18 month fix
Elec Standing Charge - 5.98p
Elec Unit Rate - 13.78p
Gas Standing Charge - 7.19p
Gas Unit Rate - 2.69p

So the gas is cheaper across both unit rate & standing charge, and Elec standing charge is about 10p lower - the unit rate is about 85p cheaper if I stick with Avro.

The annual saving for switching to Yorkshire is about £40 plus the added benefit of a further 6 months fixed.

I read some older posts about 'if you a high user are you better with a higher unit or standing etc' as I feel we will be fairly high on electric use and they all said a lower unit rate was better. So what I did was take my estimated bills and increase my elec by a nominal 25% & reduce gas by 25% and the savings margin seems even less - around £30 I think.

Avro have been ok - Although I haven't had much to compare them too so I don't have too many examples of good v bad service.

Is there a better way to calculate my annual usage?
Do you think there is a clear choice? Remember - no accountability!

Any help appreciated :beer:

Gerry1

I've found Avro and Yorkshire to be fine, so no worries there.

But you've made a big mistake having electric underfloor heating when you have gas ! It'll be about five times as expensive, just look at the p/kWh rates you've quoted.

Can't understand why you don't know your consumption. Just log in to your Avro account and look at the most recent electricity reading and the one a year earlier. Subtract the difference and you have your annual consumption in kWh.

For gas, do the same thing but convert the volume to kWh e.g. using this site.

https://www.businessenergy.com/business-gas/gas-bill-calculator/

Always ignore all the DD amounts and the claimed savings, just compare the annual cost based on annual kWh consumption obtained from actual meter readings.

Update

Re-reading your post, I'm puzzled by some of the apparent contradictions. :huh:

skybluearmyontour wrote: »

Have been a homeowner for 5 years so haven't had much experience regards bills & tariffs

---

I've been finding it really hard to see what my annual consumption is

I can see what I have used for the year

---

So what I did was take my estimated bills

Your electricity usage may increase by more than you think because of the expensive underfloor heating. Never go with estimated bills, always use actual meter readings.

Sorry to sound so gloomy, but choosing to use electricity instead of gas is always going to burn a hole in your pocket.

fronty

I'm with Avro, been with them a couple years now, I noticed about 6 months ago that they had a cheaper tariff than what I was currently on, my tariff wasn't due to end for another 4 months but they let me switch early onto the new tariff anyway, didn't even have to talk to any humans just did it through their web site.

I can't be arsed switching if the saving is only £40/year. But I get what you are saying about losing access to past bills, I've found this when I've switched, I've lost access to the on-line readings and bills with previous suppliers.

So I now make a point of downloading every bill and I have a spreadsheet where I enter my monthly kwh readings for both gas and leccy. I can graph the utilisation and see if I'm actually using more or less than the previous year. I wish I had done this sooner as I have had cavity wall insulation done, more insulation in the loft, a new boiler, but I don't have figures going back far enough so can't tell what savings any of these measures has made. But it is interesting in a nerdy way looking at the winter and summer curves and comparing to previous years. You can also make small changes like reducing the boiler temp slightly, altering your timers, or knocking 0.5 degree off the room stat and see what difference it makes.

A bit nerdy but I work in IT so I have an excuse. :-)

Pete99

It really isn't much of a hassle to download a statement and store it on your computer even if you don't print it out every month because you're normally on the website anyway to give your meter readings, also, I haven't got a smart meter but it makes sense to me to take regular readings if not a photo because as against a mechanical meter that still shows a reading even if it's broken an electronic digital meter shows nothing so you've no proof of what the readings are or were, just a thought.

Talldave

skybluearmyontour - you only seem to be looking at one supplier for both gas & electricity. You will probably find you can save overall by having separate suppliers. Remember to search for all suppliers on comparison sites, not just the ones who give them cash.


Sadly I'm also going to question the decision of electric underfloor heating - it will bankrupt you. So get switching electricity suppliers now (I'm paying 11.5p per unit) and experiment with quotes for 25% & 50% more electricity that you've used in the past, as you're in for a big shock when that underfloor heating is running!