Energy prices

General Chat
1

Untitled

2

18 March was my last price update from them. Nothing further as yet. R-

3

Bulb suck there ends my proclamation :joy:

4

Horses for courses my friend. R-

6

I was with bulb once - they were alright, support was a bit slow but they automatically paid compo out for it.

I left when they raised their prices

7

I used them for 1 month to get out of a fixed contact elsewhere. Got my early exit fees credited then see ya laterā€¦ switcheroo

1 Like
8

Same here. They seemed to raise their prices on a monthly basis, and at some stage I just got a bit tired of it ā€¦

9

The prices are getting tight between them and Octopus. But that ā€œAgileā€ tarrif Octpus have is no use to me. R-

10

So who are the best now? R-

11

Plenty fixed contracts out there, jump on comparison sites youā€™ll soon get a few hits

1 Like
12

Iā€™m with Bulb. They have been pestering me to have a smart meter for years, I finally gave in, and an appointment was booked earlier this week.

The day before, they cancelled the appointment and credited me with Ā£30 for the inconvenience.

13

where do I sign up? They are welcome to pay me Ā£30 on a weekly basis - not much convincing needed either ā€¦

1 Like
14

Theyā€™re all going up.

  • If you have solar/battery and an EV, :octopus: Agile is probably best
  • If you have an EV (but no solar/battery), :octopus: Go Faster is probably best
  • If you have no solar, no battery pack, no EV and possibly no ICE car at all, :octopus: Go is probably best

Lotā€™s of options and tariffā€™s out there to compare though.

2 Likes
15

I have a referral link :wink:

1 Like
16

They installed a smart meter for me a couple of years ago. It has never ā€œphoned homeā€. I continue to enter manually just from a slightly different looking meterā€¦.!

1 Like
17

A while ago they seemed to be decreasing on a monthly basis and now increasing. I want to believe they are just adjusting based on the market.

18

for the fun I just checked them: They are crazy expensive for me. Their quote (using actual usage) works out as Ā£98 per month. I currently pay Ā£68.

2 Likes
19

Thanks, @davidwalton - just had a quick look at Octopus and there really is very little in it. Iā€™m about Ā£0.57 PCM better off with Bulb and Iā€™d be slightly worried that my Smart Meter - wouldnā€™t be. I do check competitors fairly regularly though. R-

1 Like
20

If your smart meter is SMETS2 (second gen), switching providers can be done by a new certificate being installed on the meter. This can be done remotely by the new provider but takes a few days, but it means the smart meter then reports the consumption back to the new provider.
If it is a SMETS1 meter, some of them can be re-jigged to report to a new provider and some canā€™t.

(Of note, the electricity meter is the ā€˜hubā€™ which uses Zigbee to power the HAN - Home Area Network - communications with the gas meter and also with the IHD - In Home Display - and it also connects to the WAN - Wide Area Network - via GSM to pass data to the provider via a 3rd party. So the gas meter is actually a bit ā€˜dumbā€™ as it only talks to the electricity meter)

I had SMETS1 with Scottish Power, which went totally useless when I switched to Octopus a few years ago. Eventually, I got chance to switch to Agile at the start of this year - but new SMETS2 meters had to be installed. All running as it should now :+1:

1 Like
21

Iā€™m with Octopus and have SMETS1 meters but Iā€™ve been told that they have been adopted onto the DCC hub. So, theoretically, I should be able to move to providers other than those who support or supported Secure SMETS1 meters without them losing their ā€œsmartnessā€.

Iā€™m happy with the 11-12p/kWh that Iā€™m getting with Go Faster, though, and my gas is around 2.6p/kWh.