Best Electricity tariff for high usage.

spikeuk30

Hi all,

Currently with Bulb 'vary-fare' plan for gas and elec charges, seems to keep going up every month! - and its the same price day or night.

We're currently using a large amount of electricity every month , id love to cut down my bills a bit! 

I had a look into this it seems were better off getting separate suppliers for gas/elec.

 I noticed that Octopus do a 'go' tariff which seems cheaper day rate than bulb,  as well as 5p pkwh during night (00:30-04:30) when we could set our appliances running.

This sounds perfect but...

You need a smart meter,   we don't have one,  Octopus said we should first switch to their standard tariff (which seems a LOT more expensive than my current bulb one) for electricity, they would then put me in a queue to have a smart meter fitted.

As a work around they also suggested we ask current supplier bulb to fit their smart meter as its compatible with octopus, - then we switch once installed,  however turns out our property has a '3-phase' commercial electrical feed - not a normal domestic one, a lot of the smart meters are incompatible,  -including bulbs so they cannot fit one.

However octopus'  smart meter is 3-phase compatible,  but they cant give me a lead time on install, they said there is a backlog of installations - does anyone have any experience of having a smart meter from octopus installed on their 3-phase supply? -  I would like some idea of the expected wait.   I dont want to be stuck on their standard tariff which works out far worse costs than my current bulb tariff.

Anyone have experience of this?

..also any other tariffs which might be suitable - cheaper elect at night etc?

thanks in advance!

Gerry1

Why are you using a large amount of electricity?  Unless you live in a palace or are growing something 'interesting', you shouldn't have very high electricity consumption when you have gas.

bristolleedsfan

spikeuk30 said:

Octopus said we should first switch to their standard tariff (which seems a LOT more expensive than my current bulb one) for electricity, they would then put me in a queue to have a smart meter fitted.

Best to compare Octopus rates with Bulb rates effective from October 1st, unlikely to come to same conclusion as of now .......being as Octopus variable tariff has not had price change announcement, Octopus 2 year fixed rate no exit fees 19.73p /kW, my region ,SC both same  - New Bulb variable rate from October 1st    20.1306p per kWh

Octopus 2 year fixed gas is more expensive, however no obligation to be with Octopus for gas or can go on variable rate for either/both, should Octopus variable rate increase it is unlikely to be more expensive than Bulb new rate which is seemingly slimmest of a whisker away from energy cap maximum

matelodave

I use a lot of leccy, around 7500kwh a year (depending on the weather) as we dont have gas, oil or lpg.

However because we've got a heatpump, it runs virtually continuously during the day and evening and not so much at night, so we are better off on a cheap single rate tariff.(and I'd never persuade my wife to use appliances overnight)

I hesitate to offer Symbio as a shining example of an energy company but we are presently on a fixed single rate of 12.5p/kwh and 13p/day s/c until July next year. Their current offering for where I live (Eastern England) is about 14.12p/kwh and 25p a day.

So if you can put up with dreadful customer service and the strangest billing system you can envisage there is a  fair amount of money to be saved. I jumped from Neon Reef  in Julywhen they put their tariff up from 12.25pkwh to 17.5p/kwh thus saving myself around £400.

I'm just hoping that I can squeeze through another winter (or most of it) before they actually go bust but so far they seem to be hanging on

DiseasedBunny

matelodave said:

I use a lot of leccy, around 7500kwh a year (depending on the weather) as we dont have gas, oil or lpg.

However because we've got a heatpump, it runs virtually continuously during the day and evening and not so much at night, so we are better off on a cheap single rate tariff.(and I'd never persuade my wife to use appliances overnight)

I hesitate to offer Symbio as a shining example of an energy company but we are presently on a fixed single rate of 12.5p/kwh and 13p/day s/c until July next year. Their current offering for where I live (Eastern England) is about 14.12p/kwh and 25p a day.

So if you can put up with dreadful customer service and the strangest billing system you can envisage there is a  fair amount of money to be saved. I jumped from Neon Reef  in Julywhen they put their tariff up from 12.25pkwh to 17.5p/kwh thus saving myself around £400.

I'm just hoping that I can squeeze through another winter (or most of it) before they actually go bust but so far they seem to be hanging on

Is that all that’s wrong with symbio? C/s I’ve never spoken to with any energy company, and as long as at the end of each year the moneys about right then that’s not the end of the world either (currently on £70/m, though will jump to nearly £90 if I stay with green-  so symbio can do the same fixed for £65, neon reef for £70).  Is the £60 saving worth the hassle of symbio vs neon is the question? (It’s about 7% of the annual cost so not a great impact)

razord

DiseasedBunny said:

Is that all that’s wrong with symbio? C/s I’ve never spoken to with any energy company, and as long as at the end of each year the moneys about right then that’s not the end of the world either (currently on £70/m, though will jump to nearly £90 if I stay with green-  so symbio can do the same fixed for £65, neon reef for £70).  Is the £60 saving worth the hassle of symbio vs neon is the question? (It’s about 7% of the annual cost so not a great impact)

See, whilst that's correct, you only pay for what you use, and Symbio are cheapest - Symbio will randomly decide to take £130 one month because they've decided you're absolutely definitely going to suddenly use way more, and they'll reduce your bill next month by that amount (but, probably still way over-estimate your bill for that month too). If you've got the flexibility to deal with that, you'll be fine - essentially you end up always in credit with Symbio by about 1-2x your normal monthly amount, but they do make it hard to budget.

matelodave

The main thing is to ensure that you send in monthly meter reads, check your bill/statement as soon as it's published and save a PDF copy without delay as it's nigh on impossible to get a copy later on. It's also worthwhile keeping your own spreadsheet so you can keeptrack of your consumption.

As said above Symbio have a random number generator for producing bills and forward estimates which bear no relation to reality so you need to keep on top of them yourself to avoid confusion.

Example - I've estimated 8000kwh a year which sensibly using EAC/12 might work out at 666kwh a month. However my first month they estimated 1107kwh (actual consumption was 280), The second bill was for 986kwh (the actual will be around 300 or less). I dont have a big proble yet coz i know that in December and January I will actually use around 1200kwh a month so I'm happy to have to some credit in anticipation of winter.

The aggro comes when they start faffing around with the DD based on their fairytale figures and you try to get it put back to the agreed amount - they dont answer the phone or respond to e-mails in a timely manner if at all.

kazwookie

Why does you property have 3 phase elec? is it commercial as well as residential?

Could you somehow separate the different parts of the building, and have a domestic supply in the residential part and have 2 meters, so the part you live in you can shop around for the best tariffs.

Do you actually needs 3 phase elec, do you run heavy machinery etc? if not I'd be changing it over

coffeehound

yes i wonder if the propertys circuits actually utilise all three?  As long as intantaneous demand doesn’t exceed 100 amps, it should be possible to consolidate on one phase. Though op does state high usage so perhaps thats why

niktheguru

Also, its probably more beneficial to keep a 3 phase supply, particularly if you're thinking about EV use in the future, as you can get a faster charger installed. I would suggest moving to octopus on their cheapest fix and getting them to upgrade you to a smart meter asap, then moving onto octopus go faster which is where the real savings are at.

If moving to a cheaper single rate supplier like symbio and neon reef, just make sure you look at the feedback threads on this forum so you know what you're getting into. (ive been with both, and have been fine, but there certainly can be problems....mostly due to people just looking at the headline price, then not being prepared to deal with their dodgy service, advanced billing methods etc)

spikeuk30

Gerry1 said:

Why are you using a large amount of electricity?  Unless you live in a palace or are growing something 'interesting', you shouldn't have very high electricity consumption when you have gas.

I have a large server farm drawing a lot of power 24/7.