Renting for a year what to do with energy

Anjlad98

I am moving into a property in July and renting it for just a year with two other people. I have found out the properties current provider but not sure whether it is best to be on a variable rate for the year, go for a fixed rate straight away or find a completely different provider all together? We could have had our bills including however we thought doing it our selfs would be the cheaper options. However, I am unsure what the steps are and what the best option is for the energy supply. 

Ultrasonic

Provided you trust the other two people to contribute fairly to the bills I would not go for a bills included option and would probably just stick to the standard variable rate. The market situation may have changed by July though so you want to check what is best then.

The basics steps are to find out in advance who the current supplier is, and then on the day you move in to take meter readings and contact the supplier to give them these readings and get an account set up. Take photos of the meters showing these readings as evidence just in case there are any issues in the future.

Mstty

If you could have had your bills included it may be the case the energy is on a business tariff. Worth checking as a first step.

What type of property is it age/size and EPC rating? These all have bearings on energy costs as well as is anyone in the group sharing a very cold person I mean do they need more heat than the others?

Does the property come with an in home display smart meter for you to track your energy and do you think everyone sharing will buy into an energy saving regime?

Will everyone be cooking together or separately as this will bump up energy use?

Lastly on your question of fixed or variable once you work out what the usage for the year may be and the options of offer that's when the calculator comes out.

As a reference a 3 bedroom house with 2-3 people on gas and electricity there is no reason why you cannot between you hit the notional average of 12,000 kwh gas and 2900 kwh elec a year. But you will need every sharer of the house(if it's a house) to buy into energy saving and share equipment like kettles/ovens as this is where you mightsee energy usage creep if everyone does their own thing becoming energy inefficient.

Ultrasonic

Mstty said:

If you could have had your bills included it may be the case the energy is on a business tariff. Worth checking as a first step.

^ Good point.

Mstty said:

Lastly on your question of fixed or variable once you work out what the usage for the year may be and the options of offer that's when the calculator comes out.

To save the OP trying to figure out how, I'd personally say that them trying to realistically predict usage is basically impossible.

Mstty

Depends on age of property, that's why I was asking. We moved into a property 6 years old and could easily go to the meters and divide by 6 for a best guess approx use. Could be handy hence waiting for the OP to come back with some further info 👍

Ultrasonic

Mstty said:

Depends on age of property, that's why I was asking. We moved into a property 6 years old and could easily go to the meters and divide by 6 for a best guess approx use. Could be handy hence waiting for the OP to come back with some further info 👍

My point is that I don't think its possible for any information to allow a useful estimate of energy use, since this will depend wildly on what the three people who live in the property choose to do.

Mstty

From my point of view I have demonstrated a good start of approximation depending on age of building, size and have asked relevent questions such as will they share usage when cooking, is one of them a cold person etc these are all factors.

Sometimes I don't know why this forum is so difficult to accept different opinions and just wait for the OP to respond then things may become clearer and an approximation in this instance can be gleaned or maybe it can't. We shouldn't rule it out full stop.

Looks like we have different opinions on this so let's wait for the OP? Unless this back and forth  has scared them off. 

Apologies for the above OP if you can come back with more info there are some very knowledgeable people on here to help where they can👍

Alnat1

Another consideration, if you decide on a variable rate, all companies will offer a similar price. It might be a good idea to choose a supplier that has a good online service where you
can track you usage easily, get monthly bills and keep an eye on how much you owe.

It sounds like you might be students? From experience with my son in this situation, it's not great to find out next June that you owe a fortune, everyone is skint and one person has gone on backpacking and can't be contacted to pay their share.

Gerry1

To prevent disagreements, from the start you need to agree how the bills will be split and what happens over Christmas and holidays if someone is not resident.  Similar thoughts for any other imbalances that may impact usage, e.g, if a friend stays over.

Best to opt for Monthly Variable Direct Debit, read the meter every week, do the sums, everyone chips in and pays their due.  At the end of the month the head honcho then sends the monthly meter reading (if conventional meters) and pays the kitty into the DD account.  Probably best to set up a standalone bank account for this purpose so that everyone can see that everything is above board.

Mstty

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-a-home/renting-with-other-people/

Bit of reading for those that share

Mstty

For the OP

If you do a search here it actually uses historical energy usage to give you the average for energy consumption for that particular house

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/store/gas-and-electricity/enquiry/

(Ignore the back and forth of others in the forum some just like to have the last word.)