Fixed tariff & electric shower

TeeAy

Hello 

I'm a newbie home owner and also new to paying utilities as I've always rented or lodged with bills included.  Hoping for a bit of advice!

I'm trying to figure out whether to go for a fixed tariff and who with.  I haven't any usage details from previous years so its been difficult to figure out what deals would suit best. 

My situation
1 occupant in a 2 bedroom house

gas boiler with small tank

electric shower, electric cooker (so in summer the boiler is only needed for hot water to wash dishes?)

currently on prepay meter (british gas) 

I'd say I'm a light to medium energy user. 

Any tips how to go about looking for deals when I don't have anything to compare with?  Any particular deals that are good for where the appliances and shower are all electric? 

 Thank you in advance   

MP1995

What is your heating? Gas or electric?

TeeAy

MP1995 said:

What is your heating? Gas or electric?

I have gas central heating with electric cooker and electric shower. 

Spoonie_Turtle

The cheapest you'll probably find for electricity, on the whole, is likely to be Octopus Agile if you can avoid using power-hungry appliances during the 4-7pm peak period.

There are some savings to be had on Octopus Tracker with the current version against the standard variable, but much less so than with previous versions.

Otherwise, there's not much in it between the standard variable tariff or fixes as far as I'm aware. 

For transparency: I am a happy Octopus customer but the only reason both specific tariffs mentioned above are from Octopus is they are the only supplier offering that sort of tariff.  SVT and fixes are of course available from all other suppliers too.


I've just remembered you said you're on prepay - in some areas the standard prepayment tariff is actually cheaper than the standard Direct Debit tariff, so definitely worth checking whether you even need to change.

Qyburn

Not sure Agile would make sense straightaway, until you've had a chance to understand what your usage pattern is going to be. Do you have a smart meter? That's a prerequisite for any of the fancy tariffs, and will also help you understand what you use, and when.

doodling

Hi,

How big is the small hot water tank?  If it is big enough to run the shower then replacing the electric shower with one fed from the tank will save you far more money than anything you save by picking the best tariff.

TeeAy

Qyburn said:

Not sure Agile would make sense straightaway, until you've had a chance to understand what your usage pattern is going to be. Do you have a smart meter? That's a prerequisite for any of the fancy tariffs, and will also help you understand what you use, and when.

doodling said:

Hi,

How big is the small hot water tank?  If it is big enough to run the shower then replacing the electric shower with one fed from the tank will save you far more money than anything you save by picking the best tariff.

@doodling thank you, I've only recently moved in and not looking to make any changes to the electric shower, although maybe in 1-2 years.  

@Qyburn  Yes I've a smart meter but I've only recently moved in and I already know my gas use will mainly be in winter for heating as all my appliances and shower are electric


So I'm just trying to figure out whether I should fix or stay on prepay.  I read somewhere the rates are going up for winter (?October).   I already know gas usage will mostly when the heating goes on  in the colder months and the rest of the year its just for heating the water for kitchen taps (!), so I'm looking for a tariff that might suit this kind of situation

TeeAy

Spoonie_Turtle said:

The cheapest you'll probably find for electricity, on the whole, is likely to be Octopus Agile if you can avoid using power-hungry appliances during the 4-7pm peak period.

There are some savings to be had on Octopus Tracker with the current version against the standard variable, but much less so than with previous versions.

Otherwise, there's not much in it between the standard variable tariff or fixes as far as I'm aware. 

For transparency: I am a happy Octopus customer but the only reason both specific tariffs mentioned above are from Octopus is they are the only supplier offering that sort of tariff.  SVT and fixes are of course available from all other suppliers too.


I've just remembered you said you're on prepay - in some areas the standard prepayment tariff is actually cheaper than the standard Direct Debit tariff, so definitely worth checking whether you even need to change.

@Spoonie_Turtle Most of my electricity will be for cooking and in that 4-7 time so Octopus Agile prob not for me. Good point re comparing pre pay vs DD tariff.  I just assumed tariff would be cheaper! 

ka7e

Electric showers are really expensive compared to using water heated by a gas boiler, so I time mine to max 3 mins! Your boiler should heat adequate water for washing-up etc if you have it timed to come on for 30 mins per day. 

I use a Hive thermostat to time and control water and CH in winter as you can fine tune the programming and even control it from your phone - so if you are late home you can delay the heating coming on.

bob2302

doodling said:

Hi,

How big is the small hot water tank?  If it is big enough to run the shower then replacing the electric shower with one fed from the tank will save you far more money than anything you save by picking the best tariff.

It depends, I did the maths on this and for me the saving of switching from an electric shower to using hot water from a a gas combi boiler didn't justify the cost of getting a plumber out of bed to fit mixer taps. That's assuming the flow rate remained the same, but in practice I would probably end-up with a much higher flow rate that would wipe out any saving. 

Reed_Richards

Do you have a pressurised hot water cylinder?  You can recognise this by the presence of a small metal cylinder near or on top of the much water hot water cylinder.  And there won't be any small water tanks with a cistern fill in your loft.  If you do have a pressurised hot water cylinder then a shower supplied directly from your cylinder rather than an electric one will be much cheaper to run.  And you should have enough water pressure for a decent shower.

With regard to fixing, it's a guess or a gamble.  There is a belief that charges will rise next quarter so if that happens and then charges stay higher, then a fix at about your current tariffs might save you some money.  But then charges might go down a bit later in which case your fix might work out more expensive over a full year. 

Looking for deals is very easy, you look to see what your current tariffs and standing charges are for gas and electricity, compare those with the tariffs for any "deals" and completely ignore whatever monthly payments you are quoted.  In the end you pay for what you actually use and if your monthly direct debits were set too low you will have to top-up your account later with extra payments.