Bulb smart meters use radio frequency - nothing to do with mobile signals (just for information)
Bulb smart meters use radio frequency - nothing to do with mobile signals (just for information)
Been trying to get my current supplier to update our electricity from a dual rate for about 9 months now and forever get excuses, not sure it's really their obligation to do so but it's required for the SMART meter upgrade since we don't have a reason for the dual rate meter any longer apparently. Will likely move suppliers by the time they ever agree to do the upgrade which is probably why they've been giving us excuses!
Associate
Radio frequency to the controller unit in the house, yes, but the smart meter needs a SIM/mobile network to 'call home' and report usage to the provider. It was Bulb who tried to come and install a smart meter and told me exactly this
Soldato
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- 14 Mar 2011
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Well I'm off Bulb and away to British Gas - not that bad of a rate to be fair and fixed until Nov 2023
Weirdly though they did a credit check as part of setting it up and said it came back as "high-risk" which was a shock to me... had to pay a deposit of £200 which I'll get back in 12 months assuming I don't miss any payments. Jumped onto Experian right afterwards to check wtf was going on an I have a near perfect 995/999 credit score, so I've no idea where British Gas got their info from (unless it wasn't really a credit check and part of the "risk" was being on a supplier currently that might go belly up?)
Weirdly though they did a credit check as part of setting it up and said it came back as "high-risk" which was a shock to me... had to pay a deposit of £200 which I'll get back in 12 months assuming I don't miss any payments. Jumped onto Experian right afterwards to check wtf was going on an I have a near perfect 995/999 credit score, so I've no idea where British Gas got their info from (unless it wasn't really a credit check and part of the "risk" was being on a supplier currently that might go belly up?)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pa...game-changing-thorium-fuelled-nuclear-reactor
Good to see that Thorium is being tested again, its been seen as the safer way to produce energy so might get around some of the fear from the public over nuclear power.
I meant green.energy - I had previously queued green up when I got round to divorcing Bulb, but will look at eon too, like yourself
Soldato
excellent. I have got about 100 enchanted thorium bars rotting in my bank in ironforge, can finally put them to good use...................
So my fixed deal with SSE recently finished and we are just on their standard tariff - what’s the best thing to do at the moment? Guessing there aren’t many “deals” around?!
Typically we spend around £1500pa on energy bills which covers two of us (well 3 now with the baby).
Typically we spend around £1500pa on energy bills which covers two of us (well 3 now with the baby).
Associate
I'll be cancelling my DD as soon as first DD is taken by E-On
Commissario
Depending on your eyesight you may not have much choice about buying highwer wattage bulbs, same with light placement in the room (especially for large rooms).
We have to have the rooms really well lit because my father's eyes are pretty bad* and he needs all the light he can get.
*Although the local hospital did some sort of miracle the other week, no idea quite what but they seem to have reversed some sight loss they'd been sure was permanent in all his previous visits
(from what he's said they had a bunch of new equipment and some very young looking staff, so I'm guessing something new turned up in the last 2 years).
Associate
Bit worried about the avro stories having just switched to them
They're cheap, I had no issues with supply they're just rubbish customer service and will not listen to you if you ask to lower your monthly DD even if you present them evidence of yearly usage, do the maths for them etc. Annoys me that does. I like my money in my account, not £275 of it sat in Avro's account. Just hope they don't go belly up so I lose it.
My advice is under quote your usage slightly to Avro. You should hopefully never end up in credit that way.
Do you have a 9 bed house or something?
£1500 a year for a 2 person household is well above the norm. Do you have excessive use on gas or electric? or both. If most people's bills are going up by 33-50%, i shudder to think of your costs! You'd be looking at a region of £1995-£2250.
We've got a 2 person household (+dog) in a good sized 3-bed semi and we were paying around £600pa for gas/elec - admittedly ours is a bit lower than the norm.
I appreciate costs can vary across region, so for comparative reference over the last 12 months we'd averaged about 2750 kWh of electric and 5000 kWh of gas.
Soldato
That's only £125/month, which isn't a huge amount, and roughly the same as we pay (albeit with a 9 year old on top).
Our 12 month usage prior to the last time we changed tariff was ~6,171.9 kWh electric and ~15361.7 gas
Soldato
Considering Bulb's prices are jumping on in october i've jumped ship to Eon Next and started the move today. Least if anything goes wrong im in the ideal place to sort it out considering i work for them
Check your report with all 3 of the credit score companies, you may have an issue on the one BG checked.
We currently pay £90 a month (£1,080 pa), for a 1970s 3 bedroom end terrace with six occupants. Most of that is electricity due to the PCs, servers etc. With the price rise in October we've been quoted between £140 and £200 per month, the lower of which is Sainsbury's Energy (e.on) so at least one of the more protected - in theory - big six.
Igloo today posted a notice on their home page saying that all customers' credit balances and energy supply are safe. The link when clicked describes the current market and says that they don't rule out raising prices again this year, but so many small companies are going to the wall they want to reassure customers that they are safe should Igloo go under. I read that as something of a soft pre-warning and didn't bother switching to them. Shame, as they have good customer service and were cheap.
Igloo today posted a notice on their home page saying that all customers' credit balances and energy supply are safe. The link when clicked describes the current market and says that they don't rule out raising prices again this year, but so many small companies are going to the wall they want to reassure customers that they are safe should Igloo go under. I read that as something of a soft pre-warning and didn't bother switching to them. Shame, as they have good customer service and were cheap.
Done the same today, works out about £20 a month cheaper but fixed for a year, less than price cap and felt a little uneasy about all the bad press bulb is having around financial backing etc.
That electric consumption is just under double the ‘norm’, gas is there or there about. Do you have an electric car or a hot hub or something like that?
Seems to be a lot of negative comments about Avro refusing to refund credit for customers that have left (keep delaying) and not answering the phones. Hope they don't go under, I switched to them before prices went crazy (still a lot higher but better than now) and if I get stuck on one of the big suppliers variable tariffs then this winter will be very expensive.