I’m genuinely chuffed to bits for you that you’re saving money with Octopus but I’m with British Gas and I’m not moving anywhere at the moment.
I actually went onto the Octopus website as well as a few others, and I genuinely couldn’t get a quote cheaper than BG that would have made it worth my while dumping BG.
My Wife and I are less than average energy users anyway. We didn’t pay a penny for electricity throughout the whole of the Government’s energy rebate because we never used more than the rebate amount every month. Indeed we ended up in credit at the end of the six months it ran for.
Folks also need to remember that there are regional differences in supplier charges too. I now live in the SouthWest and it’s more expensive than where I formerly lived in the East Midlands. It’s more expensive for everything where I now live, water and Council Tax too and I can’t swap those suppliers!
I also get to pay my energy bill via monthly direct debit for actual energy used, so effectively pay as you go which suits us better because we’re not paying excessive amounts of money throughout the summer months to cover the winter bills. Some energy suppliers don’t/won’t give customers that payment option, or at least it seems they try and make it difficult to pay that way.
That’s because Octopus don’t show Agile or Tracker on their quote page. There’s no doubt that Agile and Tracker, especially, have been significantly cheaper than all energy company standard variable rates over the winter and spring, though.
Indeed you are undoubtedly correct and I’m not denying that should I be bothered to switch to Octopus, then I might save myself a few quid. I suspect however that overall, the savings to be achieved won’t be worth the imbuggerance factor of going through the switching process.
If my household was a family of four or we were two people living in a 5 bedroom house and we weren’t particularly careful or bothered about how much energy we were using, it probably be a different story. I had some friends stay with us just last weekend who fit into the bracket I just mentioned. They asked me about the weather in this part of the world and was it cold in winter etc (amongst other things! ). I showed them our energy usage and bills since November last year and they were truly gobsmacked at just how little our bills are. They told me they’re paying £200 a month plus. We’re back down to paying £58 a month for gas and electric combined.
So we’re totally smart plugged up too. Literally, anything that can be controlled by smart sockets/plugs, is. I can control everything from the dishwasher to the bedroom lights via App.
And I mentioned those regional variations in standing charges:
At the end of the day, I’m not interested in moving from BG because I basically just can’t be bothered. Just like I can’t be bothered for example, on moving my savings out of Chase just to earn an extra 0.3 percent or whatever it is. The rate chasers can keep swapping if it keeps them happy
Just for those BG customers that might be interested or who didn’t sign up for whatever reason:
I’d also like to point out, I’m not tied into any early exit fees on fixed rate tariffs. So whilst I may well be paying more than some, taking regional price differences into account, I’m probably not that much out of pocket in the overall scheme of things.
Dishwashers tend to use nothing at all when not in use - at least my 10 year old Zanussi does, physical power switch which clicks off at the end of a cycle. On the contrary a smart socket will constantly draw a tiny current to keep it connected via IP.
Well of course they do! But what about all those folks who spend thousands of pounds on solar panels for it to take years to get their money back. I’d wager I’ve already seen a return on a couple of my smart sockets.
There are of course the odd item that does require hand washing but most of it goes in the machine because I’m not faffing around at a bloody sink when our outstanding Bosch (other dishwasher brands are available ) does an outstanding job.
Never thought WiFi on a dishwasher would be useful except on Sunday when me and the Wife went out for the day, I was able to start it via my phone App during the half price electric saver period thus saving a few pennies on the pots
). I showed them our energy usage and bills since November last year and they were truly gobsmacked at just how little our bills are. They told me they’re paying £200 a month plus. We’re back down to paying £58 a month for gas and electric combined.
