Not sure what to do

marc.knuckle

I'm now able to look elsewhere for the gas and elec. I fixed with eon next 2 years ago after the initial big increase but before the next one's. I'm now seeing really big hikes with them.

Firstly with the price cap, should i start looking for fixed options elsewhere now?

Secondly, will the best options be available now or after a certain time since the price cap reduction?

Thirdly, I'm in a quandary about how to put in my usage as, up until July, we had 2 tortoises. Using 2 UV and 2 heat lamps for them, on about 11 hours per day and now we don't. So going into the account and getting a quote is coming up with some big increases over my current cost but i know we'll be using a lot less electricity over the next 12 months compared to the previous. I'm not sure what to do.

Any help appreciated on these 3 points and any other advice would be welcome.

Thanks, Marc

MultiFuelBurner

Firstly have a read here

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/

Prices are predicted to go up a little big Jan 1st then back down Apr 1st as the price cap is now reviewed every 3 months.

If you have smart meters you can hop over to Octopus on their tracker tariffs as many people have seen good savings there over the summer but prices are likely to rise this winter then you can fix or go on the price cap.

Now the UV lamps are gone you can check your usage per day against per day when you had them and compare?

marc.knuckle

Yeah I've asked eon next to give me the 12 months figures but also the August and sept of each year. I'm not sure though when i put the usage figures in to a comparison quote, how to get across that it will likely be less as it will still be using the figures that for the majority of that time included those extra drains on power.

MultiFuelBurner

Can you plan well enough to pay Direct debit variable whole bill. In that instance you get the direct debit discount but only pay for what you use. This will mean some big bills over the winter but it means you only pay for exactly what you use and don't pay on a notional annual usage.

marc.knuckle

I'd rather not have the big winter bills to be honest. I've just worked out the cost of 2 100w heat bulbs and 2 40w uvb bulbs for 11 hours per day is approx £20-£25 with current unit costs for the month.

I was initially paying £240 but going well into credit all year so i reduced it to £220. So with current unit costs it would be closer to £200pm.
Unit costs were -
22.3p kwh electric
4.251p kwh gas

Not sure if this moves me towards an answer but i don't know how to input that info into a new calculation to see what that £200pm would/should be.

MultiFuelBurner

marc.knuckle said:

I'd rather not have the big winter bills to be honest. I've just worked out the cost of 2 100w heat bulbs and 2 40w uvb bulbs for 11 hours per day is approx £20-£25 with current unit costs for the month.

I was initially paying £240 but going well into credit all year so i reduced it to £220. So with current unit costs it would be closer to £200pm.
Unit costs were -
22.3p kwh electric
4.251p kwh gas

Not sure if this moves me towards an answer but i don't know how to input that info into a new calculation to see what that £200pm would/should be.

Then a change to a supplier you let's you set your own DD easily might be best. Octopus springs to mind.

marc.knuckle

Do you think of i can call them, they will set it pretty much based on what i think.

For example - 

Eon next have said they'd put me at £281pm based on their best deal.

I think the £281 would be based on my previous cost that was meant to be £240.

However i had already lowered my own payment to £220pm as the £240 was building up too much even through winter. With this also, we stopped having the 2 tortoises in July this year and not having to use two 100w great bulbs on 12 hours per day and two 40w uvb lamps for the same, i estimate will be saving about £20-£25 each month just on that. 

As such, i would think with the new costs, without going too far ahead and with my reduction in electricity usage, i would estimate i should be on £240-£250pm with my new usage and higher unit costs. 

Any thoughts on my assumption?

ArbitraryRandom

You don't need anything from Eon - dig out your old meter readings (which will be printed on your old bills) and you can work out for yourself what you actually used during a 12 month period - then minus the heat lamp use from your 12 month use to roughly work out what your new DD 'should' be.

Re your calculations - I get 280w x 11 hours = 3.08kWh | x 365 = 1124.2kWh. At your quoted rate of 22.3p per unit, I make that around £250.69 per year/£20.89 per month - at current rates (32p?) that's £359.74/£29.98


With that in mind, my thoughts are that we're just entering the 'heating season' - when it's getting dark and people are spending more time inside, so even saving on the heat lamps, both your gas and electric usage will likely be at it's highest over the next 4-5 months. 

Switching suppliers will return any credit to you and start your new account at £0... meaning paying a lower monthly amount now based on an average (minus what you calculated for the heat lamps) would result in you going into debt within a couple of months. Some suppliers are more tolerant than others, but a six month review would likely see them wanting to increase your payments to significantly higher to balance everything out. 

Personally, I'd pay the higher rates now if I possibly could, to avoid going into debt on the account (my risk averse view is that if prices for energy and general CoL continue to go up then I'll have less available cash to pay for both my use and the debt), and then adjust my payments to where they 'should' be once my heating goes off (set at a level to allow me to build a reasonable amount of credit during the summer to cover my winter use). 

marc.knuckle

I've gone with the tracker still with eon. It would have been £281pm based on past usage and costs but he took the info i gave about the tortoises and said he'd be happy to set it at £240pm to which i said to actually put it at £250pm just in case.

t0rt0ise

Off topic but I'm interested to know why you would have bulbs like that for tortoises. My sister has tortoises and doesn't do anything like that.

Alnat1

t0rt0ise said:

Off topic but I'm interested to know why you would have bulbs like that for tortoises. My sister has tortoises and doesn't do anything like that.

Tortoises kept indoors most of the time need heat and UVA/UVB lamps to compensate for the sun they would get outdoors. They have to heat up their bodies each morning to get moving and enable them to eat and digest the food. The UV allows them to create Vitamin D and absorb calcium from their diet (good keepers also sprinkle vitamin powder on the food every few days) so they can grow a strong, smooth shell and skeleton.

Torts not kept in the right conditions can suffer with metabolic bone disease and have a painful and probably much shorter life than they should. Their shells are often badly formed with pyramiding of the scutes.

Sorry to sound so serious but there are a lot of tortoises out there who don't get good care.