Green electric - thoughts please

Dave2112

Hi all, I've been looking at the different "green" electricity tariffs and their costs and for me it looks like ....

the big players - their green tariffs don't get v good write ups and seem to not be offering much apart from some good PR for them.
Green energy - some "green" supply rest from "brown" energy, reinvests some of the profit into renewable sources.
Good energy - 100% green supply, invests in variable renewable energy sources, retire some of their ROC's
Ecotricity - some "green" supply rest from "brown" energy, reinvests all profit into windfarms

For me personally Good Energy looks the best of the three - 100% green and gets/encourages small suppliers to generate green electric. Not sure that massive wind farms are the way to go and Green energy is currently too small (again all personal views)

But, when you look at the costs a rough estimate for me looks like extra per year...
Green energy - £40
Ecotricity - £130
Good Energy - £165
due to higher electricity prices and loss of dual fuel discounts.

So my favoured choice is the most expensive. Anyway, to open a debate any suggestions as £165 is a lot of money and even though I'd like to go more green I like to get best value for my pound !!! I've already got loft/cavity wall insulation, thermal curtains, double glazing, low energy light bulbs etc. Only way to further reduce is to replace the boiler (not cost effective IMO as gas cost only £240 a year and I reckon I can get that lower ), fridge or freezer with newer models.

tks in advance.

magyar

Hi Dave

My analysis has been it really doesn't make much difference whether you go green or not.

Firstly, there are ten million and one different definitions of 'green'. My favourite is Scottish Power's 'Green Energy H2O' product, which is mainly pumped hydro, i.e. they use electricity from nuclear power to pump water up a hill, and then call it green as it generates (less) electricity on the way down... :rolleyes:

Secondly, most of the products are only selling green power that the company has to produce anyway. What's more important is what that company is doing to further develop renewables.

But finally I think it's completely the wrong message. If you want to be green, use as little energy as possible. I think your analysis is probably right that the 'greenest' supplier is probably Good Energy. But as you worked out this will cost you £165 in lost benefits and discounts.

So what I've done is go with the cheapest supplier I could, but allocate at least £200 a year to energy saving measures.

Ken68

Yes agree, spend your money on insulation rather than green tariffs.
Find your cheapest supplier, consistent with good service, then plant a tree or three. Ebico's simple pricing are worth researching tho only for low users, maybe medium users too.
The last supplier I would choose is the one with the most convoluted tariff structure. These suppliers can't hack it on straightforward prices so twist things with annual discounts, each bill discounts, variable tier rates and the latest is 'weighted for the winter' tier rates.

Jay1_2

Dave2112 wrote: »

Hi all, I've been looking at the different "green" electricity tariffs and their costs and for me it looks like ....

when you look at the costs a rough estimate for me looks like extra per year...
Green energy - £40
Ecotricity - £130
Good Energy - £165
due to higher electricity prices and loss of dual fuel discounts.

So my favoured choice is the most expensive. Anyway, to open a debate any suggestions as £165 is a lot of money and even though I'd like to go more green I like to get best value for my pound !!! I've already got loft/cavity wall insulation, thermal curtains, double glazing, low energy light bulbs etc. Only way to further reduce is to replace the boiler (not cost effective IMO as gas cost only £240 a year and I reckon I can get that lower ), fridge or freezer with newer models.

I have Good Energy because I like the idea of small "power stations" ie one wind turbine in somebodys garden. IMO I would go for 100% green energy rather than buying new fridge etc before they break down becuase of the resources and energy required to make a new one and the waste (landfill?) and energy required to recycle the old one.

Kay_Peel

I've gone with Good Energy and am very happy with the way they operate. I like getting the newsletters and finding out about new projects and ideas. I've made a lot of energy saving changes to my lifestyle since signing up and my electricity bill is far less than I was paying with npower. So that's a bonus.

Kay

bigpaws23

This is an excellent thread and something that has been on my mind as well. Magyar - I find your thoughts about buying the cheapest electricity, but putting money towards energy saving measures particularly insightful
That's what I have been doing, but hadn't really formulated it into words!!

Bigpaws x

nommo

Hiya,

You might find this interesting (it is produced by Ecotricity, but all suppliers are contacted directly for the figures).

www.whichgreen.org

Green-ness is a bit of a jelly to nail to the wall at the moment with so much green-wash being splashed about, but really if the long-term objective is change the way energy is generated in the UK - then the whichgreen metric of investment in 'new build' green energy is probably a good place to start... they (ecotricity) also do a 100% green tariff for those who want the 'fuzzies' but want to invest slightly less in new build ;-)

mentat72

Hi all, just switched to SouthernElectric Hydro plan (it was cheaper than NPower Juice). The reason I mention is is that they supplied us with a free energy monitor, which I was not aware of. You plug in the monitor to see what power each item in your house uses - the idea being to educate you to turning things off I guess?

magyar

nommo wrote: »

Hiya,

You might find this interesting (it is produced by Ecotricity, but all suppliers are contacted directly for the figures).

Hmm... and interestingly... Ooh! Look who comes top! Ecotricity!

I'm not sure exactly how 'spend per customer' is important, because ultimately it's absolute spend that matters. And in this instance it's pretty arbitrary to choose 2007 as a 'metric' year.

For example, Scottish and Southern have just bought Airtricity for just over £1bn which is very clearly a massive investment in renewables, and yet this probably wouldn't count. So they'll sit plum last which is rather unfortunate for them!

Likewise, npower have recently announced a budget of €1bn/annum investment in European renewables, but the nature of the beast (with consenting and grid connection issues) means that you can't specifically say how that will be spent yet.

So whilst I completely agree that investment in renewables development is an excellent differentiator, these figures need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt.

My view?

If you want to be green, get the lowest priced tariff you can and spend the difference on saving electricity.

If you want to understand the issues behind it, then you need to look a little further than these rather simplistic web sites.

moonrakerz

magyar wrote: »

My view?

If you want to be green, get the lowest priced tariff you can and spend the difference on saving electricity.

If you want to understand the issues behind it, then you need to look a little further than these rather simplistic web sites.

Careful, old chap you'll have the green warriors after you, saying sensible, rational things like that !

matt_outandabout

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aecb.net%2FPDFs%2FThe%2520GEI%2520BFF%2520Article%2520for%2520website%252017012007.pdf&ei=FSAPSP3bB6Pw0ATWkbyvCA&usg=AFQjCNG1QQClApeSNEBjm5yBcvOkvRC6yA&sig2=p3-TxmgiOCWO27j_rcCwoQ