Is it as black & white as going for the first option on the MSE Energy Club?

tim_p

Stop looking at the total claimed £ cost and look at the individual tariff elements, so price per kWh and daily standing charge, then do the maths yourself with the numbers given in earlier post. Divide total figure by 12 and see how it compares to their number. I personally simply look at the tariff cost as you’re not necessarily going to use 3189 or 6390 kWh over the coming year, could be less (you’ll pay less) could be more (you’ll pay more)

WiserMiser

Stop using the estimated usage figures from your supplier(s).  Use your own figures derived from real meter readings 12 months apart.  They can be Customer (you), Meter reader or Smart (if the connection is working) but never estimated ones.  Tweak them if you think next winter will be colder or warmer.

Do the sums and choose a fixed tariff if you want total certainty, or choose variable if you prefer a gamble.

As previously stated, the more comparison sites the better because some tariffs are exclusive to certain sites.  Make sure that you choose 'Show Me All Suppliers', don't take the default 'Show Me Suppliers We Can Switch You To'.

QrizB

B0bbyEwing said:

Would one of you be willing to walk me through what I should be doing then with this? Since what I'm doing is seemingly wrong.

For what it's worth, I still think you're doing it "right enough" - within the limits of the conventional energy tariff comparison sites like MSE.

If you want to move to expert level then you can start looking at what times of day you use your electricity and pick a ToU tariff to match.

And Octopus Tracker is worth considering for gas.

B0bbyEwing

WiserMiser said:

Use your own figures derived from real meter readings 12 months apart.  

I don't keep track of my readings so can't accurately go to date X of one year & then the same date the following year. 
So I went in to my account but that doesn't do it either. My bills were coming towards the 3rd week of the month but when I switched to a smart meter .... which I haven't yet been on for 12 months, these then switched to the first week of the month. The meter obviously set to 0 too so I can't do a direct 12 month comparison.

WiserMiser said:

Tweak them if you think next winter will be colder or warmer.

I don't think anything. That's like the investing side of this website. I have no crystal ball & nothing to base anything off. So thinking I should invest in X and not Y or thinking it'll be this degrees temp compared to last year, it'd be no different to me throwing a dart at the dartboard & saying well since it landed in 18 then this is my decision.

WiserMiser said:

As previously stated, the more comparison sites the better because some tariffs are exclusive to certain sites.  Make sure that you choose 'Show Me All Suppliers', don't take the default 'Show Me Suppliers We Can Switch You To'.

Will do

QrizB said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Would one of you be willing to walk me through what I should be doing then with this? Since what I'm doing is seemingly wrong.

For what it's worth, I still think you're doing it "right enough" - 

Doesn't feel like it

QrizB said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Would one of you be willing to walk me through what I should be doing then with this? Since what I'm doing is seemingly wrong.

If you want to move to expert level then you can start looking at what times of day you use your electricity and pick a ToU tariff to match.

Is my bill supposed to tell me that? Because it doesn't.

QrizB

B0bbyEwing said:

QrizB said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Would one of you be willing to walk me through what I should be doing then with this? Since what I'm doing is seemingly wrong.

If you want to move to expert level then you can start looking at what times of day you use your electricity and pick a ToU tariff to match.

Is my bill supposed to tell me that? Because it doesn't.

You can get a feeling from looking at your daily graphs on the Octopus website.

Or there's a website that'll grab the data from Octopus (with your assistance) and then tell you if you'd be better off (or not) on an assortment of Octopus's ToU tariffs.

https://www.octopriceuk.app/compare

If you're really hardcore you can download your half-hourly data yourself and crunch the numbers in Excel.

oldtrout

Can you find copies of your previous bills, either physical bills, or online, and get the actual meter readings rather than using the estimated usage provided by Octopus?  If you get your final reading from the old meter then go back 12 months (or within a week or two), take one from the other, and that should give you a more accurate annual usage.  
Another way to get a more accurate usage would be to use your Zero reading from the new meter, then an up-to-date reading now (maybe today 10 Sept 2025).  Then, go back to 10 Sept 2024 (or as close as possible) to find the reading, and then take that figure from the final reading on the old meter.  Add the two together.  Then you can do a better comparison using the different unit rates and standing charges the various tariffs are offering.
My God, I've even confused myself now
I personally use a spreadsheet, so I know my usage exactly.  I've always found Octopus very competitive, and have had great customer service when needed.  They usually have no exit fees which means you can change if a better offer comes along.  I'd change to a fix with Octopus if I were you.

B0bbyEwing

Was having a look after posting here. 

I know you're saying ignore the list the MSE Energy Club gives me & I should look at tariff data so I did half of that - took the list & started looking at tariff data. 

Those at the top appeared to be cheaper. Which would make the MSE list make sense. 
I say appeared to be cheaper because while some were cheaper on the units they may have been dearer on the standing charge which I guess makes it not so black & white. 

Never heard of Fuse but they certainly had cheaper costs. Googled reviews & it seemed generally positive so may be worth a look.


I'll try dig out some form of actual meter readings from my bills this weekend. The switch to smart meters last year hasn't made it the quickest thing to work out. 


Out of interest, those of you who run spreadsheets & can manipulate your exact numbers quickly & easily - what do you put in to it & how often?

Is it just your meter readings? And how often are you actually taking those readings? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? At any rate I assume the same on each measurement (such as always a Monday, always the 1st of the month etc)? 

debitcardmayhem

I would check and document my readings usually on Monday and at end of Quarter for price cap changes, but generally keep an eye on the data on the app, and of course look carefully at the bills.
 don’t allow estimates so send in readings to generate a new bill when needed , sadly not all suppliers take notice of these as evidenced on this forum many times.

Bigphil1474

Personally, I don't think there's any need to know your exact usage over the last 12 months. For comparison sites, you only need a decent guestimate - they all charge in pretty much the same way, so if you are few units out, it won't make much difference. Plus who knows what the year ahead will bring. I usually use 2,300/12,000 electric/gas for comparison. Looked at my bill the other day and we used a bit more electric and a bit less gas last year but overall, it doesn't make that much difference for me.

When you use a comparison site, the suggested saving is a good starting point to rank the providers, but you just need to do a bit more to get the best deal. Click on more info and see what the rates actually are. Unit rate is most of your bill, although standing charge has obviously been climbing a lot in recent years. Even at £1 a day, the standing charge is only about a quarter of your bill. List the unit rates and SC's, multiply by your historic use, add on 365x the SC, and you've got an actual cost to compare against. 

I still stick by the 'ignore companies you've never heard of'. Yes, nobody had ever heard of Octopus at one point, but their big boom came when they got a reputation for being a good supplier. I'll wait for that reputation to be built on a company than try and get in early. 

My comment earlier about it taking your current deal and looking at what it will cost over the next 12 months to compare against the options is normally an issue if you are on a fix that is ending, and not on a capped rate. I don't understand why your savings would be that much unless there's something about your existing deal tbh.

FrugaiMacDugal

B0bbyEwing said:

I'll try dig out some form of actual meter readings from my bills this weekend. The switch to smart meters last year hasn't made it the quickest thing to work out. 

Should be easy enough, find an actual reading from about a year ago, call it reading A (doesn't have to be 365 days exactly).

You should have a reading from old meter when it was removed, call it reading B.

Subtract A from B, result X.

Now, you say new meter was zero, so use a recent reading close to reading A date, add that to result X, should be roughly a years usage, give or take a day or two.

Out of interest, those of you who run spreadsheets & can manipulate your exact numbers quickly & easily - what do you put in to it & how often?

Is it just your meter readings? And how often are you actually taking those readings? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? At any rate I assume the same on each measurement (such as always a Monday, always the 1st of the month etc)? 

Once you get spreadsheet set up once a month is usually enough, even if you have a smart meter.

Here's a wee gadget for calculating bill.

My own wee spreadsheet for Dummies when comparing switch prices.