Energy Supplier

ChoppersPatch

After two years of frustration with Octopus Energy and currently in the hands of the Energy Ombudsman to resolve an issue, we are looking for a new provider.
We live in a village with no gas, so it's electric, oil, propane gas.
We are all electric in our 3 bed detached house and the hot water cylinder is on Economy 7. The rest of the house is heated by ATC Thermal Radiators with digital controls plus underfloor heating in the kitchen, bathroom and hallway (this is on in the winter for max 2 hours from 4am to 6am) Our fixed rate deal with Octopus has just ended, but because the Ombudsman is involved, the deal is ongoing ATM.
Any thoughts on where to go?

la531983

I would suggest Octopus but clearly that's a sore point! 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

If you don't like Octopus, the chances are you'll find anyone else far worse...😱

ChoppersPatch

A problem with our meters transposing, first reported in 2021 and still not resolved. So many people involved. Lots of talk (Love and Power) but no action. Sheer frustration.

Gerry1

Seems that your 'Thermal Radiators' are just panel heaters that use day rate electricity, so it's just about the most expensive heating you can possibly have.

Have you done the sums to see whether Economy 7 works out more expensive overall than single rate?

dealyboy

... and what region are you in?

ChoppersPatch

dealyboy said:

... and what region are you in?

Lincolnshire 

ChoppersPatch

Gerry1 said:

Seems that your 'Thermal Radiators' are just panel heaters that use day rate electricity, so it's just about the most expensive heating you can possibly have.

Have you done the sums to see whether Economy 7 works out more expensive overall than single rate?

We live in a small village. Some folk are on oil, but the outlay of installing, purchasing etc is obviously pretty big. For around 30 years, we had storage heaters, which were in from when the house was built (we have lived here from when it was first built in 88). The hot water cylinder is an economy 7 cylinder,  so again more expense to change. The radiators are fine and we now have control of when we require heating. 

dealyboy

@ChoppersPatch said:

dealyboy said:

... and what region are you in?

Lincolnshire 

Thanks ... so that would be either East Midlands or Yorkshire Distribution Area. I was wondering if you were in a region that might have a beneficial night rate with certain suppliers, but I have no knowledge of those two.

Gerry1

ChoppersPatch said:

dealyboy said:

... and what region are you in?

Lincolnshire 

That's a county, not an electricity region. 

You could be in Region 11 (East Midlands, with National Grid as your DNO) or 23 (Yorkshire, Northern Powergrid).

The bottom left two digits of the S-number on your bill will tell you.

Gerry1

ChoppersPatch said:

Gerry1 said:

Seems that your 'Thermal Radiators' are just panel heaters that use day rate electricity, so it's just about the most expensive heating you can possibly have.

Have you done the sums to see whether Economy 7 works out more expensive overall than single rate?

The radiators are fine and we now have control of when we require heating. 

Oh dear...

IMHO it was huge mistake to get rid of storage heaters.

You'd also have control of your heating if you burned £20 notes in the fireplace.  That's the only thing more expensive than running panel heaters on the daytime Economy 7 rate, which will be even more expensive than the single rate.

Not trying to point a finger, just warning anyone else against thinking that shiny new panel heaters are better than boring old storage heaters.

It's true that High Heat Retention NSHs can be cheaper to run than the plain old Box of Bricks ones, but the payback time can be lengthy especially if you're at home during the day.

With old NSHs, the best plan is often just to do the Storage Heater Sanity Test and to spend a tenner or two if any elements have failed.