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electricity supply 'Bulb'


oowee
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I have just joined funnily enough. They are no where near my deal that has just ended but were about the cheapest going. 

I think they got a recommendation from that Martin money saver guy as one of the best deals at the moment. 

They are a variable tariff with a 60day notice of increase but no leaving penalty 

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Its Money Supermarket I got the quote from and was one of the cheaper quotes.

Hopefully it's about par with SSE that i was with, and with a focus on green energy. I am a very low user and we do not have gas so fingers crossed. I think it was something like 20p a day and 15p a kwh. 

Where do people think tariffs will be heading.

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2018s price rises averaged nearly £80 for a dual tariff so it’s no point in comparing what you fixed at 6, 12 or 18 months ago. 

Put in you usage as if you were looking for a tariff today 

with the Benefit of hindsight I would have fixed the last deal I had for a long as would have been physically possible 

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I’m with Octopus energy now after Iresa went into administration. I’m impressed with them so far. 

I gave them my first meter reading yesterday morning and they had adjusted my bill by the afternoon.

 If you sign up via the link below we both get £50 credit towards our bill.Put in your postcode and get a quote.

https://share.octopus.energy/amber-rose-955

Edited by proud dad
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11 hours ago, oowee said:

Where do people think tariffs will be heading.

Tariff will be heading up - and for a number of (some rather bizarre) reasons;

  • The 'smart meter roll out/fiasco' (take your pick of words) has to be paid for.  This is not just the development of a new meter, but millions of installations to be carried out and a whole new data bearer system to carry the data ...... arguably with very little end 'benefit' for the consumer
  • 'Green' energy - the vast majority of which is not dependable (i.e. it depends on things like sunlight and wind) still needs a backup.  Cold still long winter nights need a lot of energy.  Wind and solar don't supply on still nights - so some form of secondary generation is still needed to supply virtually all of the demand (electricity storage is at present minimal with just a very few pumped storage systems (such as Dinorwig and Cruachan).
  • Electricity distribution infrastructure will need to be considerably uprated if we are mainly to have electric rechargeable cars
  • Various new technology storage systems (mainly battery based) are still in their infancy and both expensive and are very environmentally unfriendly to build/resource (lots of mining) and there is nothing like the capacity in present minerals supply and refining to support a wide scale roll out of present technologies.  I am sure these will eventually be a major player, but at present they are both expensive and resource heavy
  • Nuclear is not (very) actively being built and has a long lead time

Gas has other (rather more conventional) issues, notably much of it being sourced from places that may use 'turning of the supply' for political reasons, but also issues around the safety/suitability of fracking.

Overall - rising prices are used as a tool to help the government/country meet green targets, by reducing consumption and encouraging measure like insulation.

If you have major concerns about your personal contribution to CO2 and climate change - look no further than any air travel you do.  This is a massive contributor for various reasons;

  • Aviation fuel is a very cheap fuel because it is basically tax free
  • Aviation uses much more fuel - If you were to take an average domestic flight rather than a high-speed electric train, you'd be personally responsible for 29 times as much carbon dioxide.  Air is currently about 250 grams per passenger kilometre.  Car is about 100 grams per passenger kilometre and rail about 28.
  • CO2 produced at high altitude has a greater influence on greenhouse effect and is not so readily absorbed by plants.

I have a very low 'carbon contribution' because I hardly ever fly, do a very limited mileage and I'm quite low on household energy usage - with the exception of gas where a large old listed building makes economy difficult, but I am as good as I can reasonably be there as well.

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1 hour ago, JohnfromUK said:

Tariff will be heading up - and for a number of (some rather bizarre) reasons;

  • The 'smart meter roll out/fiasco' (take your pick of words) has to be paid for.  This is not just the development of a new meter, but millions of installations to be carried out and a whole new data bearer system to carry the data ...... arguably with very little end 'benefit' for the consumer
  • 'Green' energy - the vast majority of which is not dependable (i.e. it depends on things like sunlight and wind) still needs a backup.  Cold still long winter nights need a lot of energy.  Wind and solar don't supply on still nights - so some form of secondary generation is still needed to supply virtually all of the demand (electricity storage is at present minimal with just a very few pumped storage systems (such as Dinorwig and Cruachan).
  • Electricity distribution infrastructure will need to be considerably uprated if we are mainly to have electric rechargeable cars
  • Various new technology storage systems (mainly battery based) are still in their infancy and both expensive and are very environmentally unfriendly to build/resource (lots of mining) and there is nothing like the capacity in present minerals supply and refining to support a wide scale roll out of present technologies.  I am sure these will eventually be a major player, but at present they are both expensive and resource heavy
  • Nuclear is not (very) actively being built and has a long lead time

Gas has other (rather more conventional) issues, notably much of it being sourced from places that may use 'turning of the supply' for political reasons, but also issues around the safety/suitability of fracking.

Overall - rising prices are used as a tool to help the government/country meet green targets, by reducing consumption and encouraging measure like insulation.

If you have major concerns about your personal contribution to CO2 and climate change - look no further than any air travel you do.  This is a massive contributor for various reasons;

  • Aviation fuel is a very cheap fuel because it is basically tax free
  • Aviation uses much more fuel - If you were to take an average domestic flight rather than a high-speed electric train, you'd be personally responsible for 29 times as much carbon dioxide.  Air is currently about 250 grams per passenger kilometre.  Car is about 100 grams per passenger kilometre and rail about 28.
  • CO2 produced at high altitude has a greater influence on greenhouse effect and is not so readily absorbed by plants.

I have a very low 'carbon contribution' because I hardly ever fly, do a very limited mileage and I'm quite low on household energy usage - with the exception of gas where a large old listed building makes economy difficult, but I am as good as I can reasonably be there as well.

The flying thing is the real killer for us. Little driving, very frugal on energy but at the moment between the better half and I we are averaging four flights a week. That’s with seeing each other twice a month and her work being at a low period for travel. When her work was last very busy she was often doing ten plus short haul flights a week for meetings. I’m currently working away till something comes up closer to home so flying home two weekends a month. 

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13 hours ago, oowee said:

They supply 100% renewable energy

  No they do not.

  Over the last few weeks with calm cold days, mid-winter sunshine etc, renewables have provided virtually nothing on some days:

 https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/wind-power-down-to-0-7/

  ...but guess what?  When you flick the switch, is it still dark?  No, of course not, because Fossil Fuels and Nuclear have your back.  Probably not for much longer though as with the closure of the last coal stations and old gas ones; with nothing but one nuclear plant beinng built, the lights will go out.

  It would be nice if those signed up to a "Renewable only" tarriff could selectively be turned off if renewables are "offline due to cold, calm nights", but sadly no, their virtue signalling butts will get power like all the rest. (Hmm, maybe there is a use for Smart Meters, turn off all those wanting Green energy only, when there is no Green energy).

  Prices can only go up, while we are on our misguided promotion of Green energy, they need subsidies;

 https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/subsidy-cut-deals-blow-to-wind-farms/

.....or they don't get built,

  https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/bbc-mislead-again-about-wind-power/  

  ..... and we the people get to pay those subsidies through our bills.

 

RS

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2 minutes ago, RockySpears said:

It would be nice if those signed up to a "Renewable only" tarriff could selectively be turned off if renewables are "offline due to cold, calm nights", but sadly no, their virtue signalling butts will get power like all the rest.

That is a good idea!

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2 minutes ago, Teal said:

Inability to store electricity is the responsibility of the grid

The issue is that there isn't (currently) a way of doing it in big quantities, or economically.  To date the few pumped storage hydro systems we have work - but are very short term - if I remember rightly the largest is Cruachan and that can only run for 18 minutes at full output.  Ideal for getting over 'kettle surge' at half time in "Match of the Day", but no good for a still cold winter's night.

The real issue is that renewables aren't dependable, so require near 100% duplication as back up - and that is eye wateringly expensive.

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4 hours ago, proud dad said:

I’m with Octopus energy now after Iresa went into administration. I’m impressed with them so far. 

I gave them my first meter reading yesterday morning and they had adjusted my bill by the afternoon.

 If you sign up via the link below we both get £50 credit towards our bill.Put in your postcode and get a quote.

https://share.octopus.energy/amber-rose-955

Another one here, very happy with their customer service after iresa went pop.  The app is really easy to use and have signed a couple of people up via the link and it’s been dead easy and paid very fast

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Nice to hear the feedback on bulb.

We do pretty well on the carbon contribution of the house as when we had it rebuilt we put a lot of effort into getting it as green as possible. Adding green electricity seems a natural step. Accepting all the supply issues, we have to start somewhere and signal our desire to pay a bit extra for green supply.

The killer for us is 2 x diesel 4x4 and lots of flights. I have panted over 400 trees, I may have to plant some more 👍

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1 minute ago, Ricko said:

I find the whole gas and electricity thing baffling. Can anyone recommend a simple comparison site?

I tried a couple (one was "Compare the Market, can't remember what the other was) - both came up with the same one as cheapest ........ but that one got very bad reviews from customers .......... and subsequently failed. 

I moved to another that was still near the cheapest, but had (mostly) good customer feedback - and I have been quite pleased with them (Flow), but they have now been taken over by CoOp energy and it remains to be seen if things will stay good..

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