First House Energy Tips...

Lancs1234

Hi,

Me and my partner have been in our first house for almost 3 months now... Following a naive choice to use look after my bills for simplicity, we've had 2 months of hassle with the initial supplier claiming the supply back as an erroneous transfer continuously we are back onto the standard variable tariff with the original supplier - which looking at some of these threads may be a blessing in disguise... 

So, from what i've seen it's more time consuming to find but going for separate electricity and gas suppliers may work out cheaper?

And as for usage... at what stage do you think we'll have a representative estimate of what we are actually going to use. Obviously its going to be more in winter and less in summer, but in a month or 2's time do you think that will average out so we'll have a round about figure? Keen to not underpay when doing direct debit. 

Any other tips are greatly welcomed... 
Thanks.

JJ_Egan

Just use average  as the key is the unit cost and daily charges .

Monthly meter readings are another key .

matelodave

As JJ-E says you need to read and record your meter readings monthly, send the info to your supplier and ensure that you check your bills/on-line account monthly as well to ensure that your readings are being used and that your direct debit is on target to pay them.
If you've got gas heating & hot water rather than electricity then a reasonable estimate is around 3500kwh for leccy and 12,000kwh for gas bearing in mind that you'll be using about 60-70% of your gas between November and March so it's difficult to extrapolate your consumption based on the past 2-3 months, so expect much higher consumption between now and the beginning of April.

If you keep your own records without relying on the energy company you'll have a much better idea of how much you use, when you use it and what is using it which will allow you to do something about reducing your consumption. Ten minutes a month can save hours of grief in the future.

Don't bother with LAMB or similar websites - they make their money from commission, which the customer ends up paying one way or another. They don't really have your best interests at heart and can get you locked into tariffs that are higher than you need and often have early termination charges. If you take charge yourself you'll know what is going on.