Anyone heard of HomeEnergy?

mrodent33

I'm with Octopus in a 3-bed semi. I was lucky enough to sign up for fixed dual fuel for 2 years in June 21. So this ends in 4 days time.

I hardly use any gas at all ever. I won't be using much LX either until it gets cold in September.

Most comparison sites appear to have decided to give up. Weird. However, I found one which is still functional, energylinx.co.uk. From that I found that my new Octopus LX kWh rate will be 34.68 p in 4 days' time, and many many other companies appear to have aligned with this price. Maybe it's some guaranteed rate or minimum rate or maximum rate... I have no idea.

One company is offering as a standard variable rate 30.57 / kWh (standing charge 38.18). This is called "HomeEnergy". www.homeenergy.co.uk. For the reasons given above, there is absolutely no urgency for me to bother switching until September or so. I googled "HomeEnergy power company review" and ... nothing whatsoever came up, except lots of stuff about the topic of "home energy". So I'm thinking "loss leader"? Cowboy outfit? Prices set to rocket potentially when the cold weather comes along?

The most cynical part of me is wondering whether they deliberately chose a name that will bring up lots of irrelevant stuff in a search for reviews!

Anyone know anything about these people?

[Deleted User]

According to Companies House the company has existed since 2016. Its latest accounts suggest that it has capital reserves of £134.7k and no employees. I am not suggesting anything untoward just that are not yet playing with the big boys.

The flexible tariff prices that you are seeing will be the Ofgem Cap from 1st July. Fixed tariffs that undercut this price have yet to appear.

QrizB

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

Their company number is 10364306.

From Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306/filing-history

• They appear to be a micro company
• Their latest accounts, filed in October last year, show assets of under £19k and liabilities of over £400k.
• The sole director is (Removed by Forum Team). (Apparently not the same (Removed by Forum Team) - (Removed by Forum Team) - as runs Outfox The Market and Fischer Future Heat.)
• They were late paying their RO payments to Ofgem in 2021 and 2022. The small sums involved make me think they had very few customers at that time.
  
• They only applied for a gas shipper license in May this year.
  

Personally, I'd avoid them.

CSI_Yorkshire

mrodent33 said:

Most comparison sites appear to have decided to give up. Weird. 

That's because there's been the whole energy crisis, price cap, EPG thing going on for the last year and a bit. Not much point in a comparison site when everyone is charging exactly the same government mandate price.

mrodent33 said:

From that I found that my new Octopus LX kWh rate will be 34.68 p in 4 days' time, and many many other companies appear to have aligned with this price. Maybe it's some guaranteed rate or minimum rate or maximum rate... I have no idea.

That's the price cap rate.

mrodent33 said:

Prices set to rocket potentially when the cold weather comes along?

If it's a variable rate then it can't - or no more than everyone else's does - because of the price cap.

If it's a fixed rate then it can't because it's fixed.

mrodent33 said:

So I'm thinking "loss leader"? 

Loss leader for what?  It's not like a supermarket where you go because the milk is cheap and do the rest of your shopping there.

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

They nearly got fined in 2021 for not paying their renewables obligations (a whole £2250), but paid up just before the deadline and the case was closed.  They've also just applied for a gas shipper licence.  Seems they've previously been Spalt Energy Limited and also seem associated with Planet Net Zero Limited (defunct) and Net Zero Planet Limited.

I see 1 employee and net financial position of -£420k on their last microbusiness accounts (Sept 2021)

mrodent33

Thanks all for the explanations.

If it's a variable rate then it can't - or no more than everyone else's does - because of the price cap.

I get the picture now... so instead of "rocket" I should have suggested "set to go up to the level of everyone else's price when the cold weather comes along". Maybe "loss leader" isn't the right term... "bait rate"?

Looks like an "avoid".

Gerry1

QrizB said:

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

Their company number is 10364306.

From Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306/filing-history

• The sole director is (Removed by Forum Team). (Apparently not the same (Removed by Forum Team) - (Removed by Forum Team) - as runs Outfox The Market and Fischer Future Heat.)

Fischer Future Heat Group and Home Energy Trading Limited have the same Registered Office Address (as well as directors with the same surname) so perhaps they are not entirely unrelated?

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08912836

See also

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3516223/fischer-storage-heaters/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10028791/Couple-charge-supplying-power-100-000-homes-face-trial-fraud-aggressive-selling.html

CSI_Yorkshire

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

Their company number is 10364306.

From Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306/filing-history

• The sole director is Kenneth Christopher Bastian. (Apparently not the same KC Bastian - Keith Cornelius Bastian - as runs Outfox The Market and Fischer Future Heat.)

Fischer Future Heat Group and Home Energy Trading Limited have the same Registered Office Address

So do a couple of hundred other companies.  Granville Hall is one of those sort of addresses.

Gerry1

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

Their company number is 10364306.

From Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306/filing-history

• The sole director is Kenneth Christopher Bastian. (Apparently not the same KC Bastian - Keith Cornelius Bastian - as runs Outfox The Market and Fischer Future Heat.)

Fischer Future Heat Group and Home Energy Trading Limited have the same Registered Office Address

So do a couple of hundred other companies.  Granville Hall is one of those sort of addresses.

Yup, correlation does not imply causation but interesting nonetheless.

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

mrodent33 said:

Anyone know anything about these people?

Their company number is 10364306.

From Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10364306/filing-history

• The sole director is Kenneth Christopher Bastian. (Apparently not the same KC Bastian - Keith Cornelius Bastian - as runs Outfox The Market and Fischer Future Heat.)

Fischer Future Heat Group and Home Energy Trading Limited have the same Registered Office Address

So do a couple of hundred other companies.  Granville Hall is one of those sort of addresses.

Yup, correlation does not imply causation but interesting nonetheless.

I must admit I was very surprised to find there were two different (Removed by Forum Team), both in Leicester and both in the energy business!

Date of birth is about a year apart ((Removed by Forum Team) older than (Removed by Forum Team)) so maybe brothers?

TheLondoner

Has anyone gone with Home Energy? They're coming up as the cheapest for me and I'd consider switching to them if someone else here has used and have not reported any issues.