Energy + Thermostat Questions

Hilly

Hilly

Hilly

Don
Joined
17 May 2004
Posts
12,818
Location
Telford, Shropshire
hey all! :)

So, just been hit with a huge estimate (moved into new place, usage is low, estimate is 104.38 a month...), which obviously isn't happening. Current usage for the past 3 months is as follows:

860 electricity. (£154)
235 gas. (34)

Obviously the gas will go up a bit, with winter approaching, but I live in an Eco friendly house, so won't require too much heating fortunately.

Anyways, looking to change supplier, currently with Scottish Power, which was the supplier I was given when moving into the place, so I know I can get cheaper else (Standard Tariff).

So, questions:

Who do you use tariff wise?
When switching, are there any good offers out there (looking for freebies!).
Any tariffs which include a smart thermostat - like nest (NPower are no longer doing their free offer :().
What termostats are people using (Nest / Tado / Hive) and are how people finding them? Are they genuinely saving you money?

Cheers! :)
 
We use Sainsburys energy (British Gas)
We used the money saving expert deal switcher when we last switched, fixed for one year. We didn't get any freebies but were more interested in lower pricing.
Best advice is to use comparison sites and see what's on offer
We've just had a Hive 2 installed - £150 on offer from British Gas, I'm still to be convinced how much its going to save but it has some useful features on it that should save us - ability to set multiple timers, a geolocation (so it will ask if you want to turn heating off when you get X distance away), mobile app so we can turn off the heating if we're running late home.

I'm still thinking its more of a gimmick that anything but it has some good benefits.
 
Thanks for that :)

Where did you find that offer from BG? My google search skills aren't working! :)
 
Hmm just had a search and cant find it either - we got it when the service engineer did a repair callout last month. Turned out the timer was the problem and offered us the Hive 2 as a same day install at £150
 
First utility, find the app brilliant and the billing is accurate with readout a given every month for each utility. We live in a large 4 bed detached and our bill is £71, £220 in credit however...

Heating supplemented with log burner which is a great investment.

We use heatmiser thermostats as we have underfloor heating throughout. They re perfect for our use
 
First utility were on Watchdog last week for having terrible customer service. I'm with Ovo who seem pretty good. £25 amazon voucher for referrals, £% interest on credit, very good customer service, about £5 a month more expensive than the cheapo providers for me.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming please! :) especially any NEST offers. Just trying to figure out how to wire them, my curent Thermostat is battery powered :'(
 
Just gone with EON, via topcashback which took me to Uswitch website, so £34 back and 1500 tesco points, was the fixed tarrif for a year, which just happens to be the lowest of all suppliers (when i did at least) According to Uswitch a saving of £350 to my old tariff so its worth swapping.
 
Ovo came up quite cheap for us when we switched from EDF & British Gas which we inherited, similar predicted saving to that mentioned above. At the time First Utility were looking cheaper but figured the customer service of Ovo was worth the extra, had read of issues with people getting their First Utility bills sorted.

Been happy with our second gen Nest, no idea if it's saved us money but it thinks it has and it certainly tracks the weather and when we pop out unexpected.
 
Ovo are good but we're currently with nPower because it's much of muchness and they were the suppliers when we moved in.

Got a Nest and definitely saves you money, even if it's just because you can never leave the heating on by accident when you're out. We both do irregular shifts and with social life we don't use the learning feature at all (other than it knowing how long it'll take to get to a certain temperature). I simply use the schedule to turn the temp down to 16c @ 10pm every night and do any actual heating manually.

Gimmick or not having a usage history and their leaves etc definitely makes you think about turning it on or just sticking on a jumper.
 
Appreciate the responses guys! Looking into how to fit the bloody thing to see if it's worth my time! :)

Hopefully, an energy company will start giving them out again ;)
 
I had it installed for £50 by a Google-recommended third party. Whilst not difficult it took him about an hour, and considering he fits them all day every day it definitely saved me a few hours of headache and the cost/time of buying suitable wire. Plus get it wrong and you risk your boiler going poof.

I got my Nest in last year's Black Friday, picked it up from Curry's. Only a month to go until this year's so I'd keep your eyes open door that.
 
bloodiedathame said:
First utility were on Watchdog last week for having terrible customer service. I'm with Ovo who seem pretty good. £25 amazon voucher for referrals, £% interest on credit, very good customer service, about £5 a month more expensive than the cheapo providers for me.
Click to expand...

Utility companies and renowned for good customer service :p I avoided First Utility on this basis too though.

Usually I just obtain the unit/standing charge costs and do the sums myself. Scottish Power have been the best for me for the last 4 years despite shopping around.

Being energy conscious will do more for your bills than most fancy gadgets will. (Drawing the curtains earlier, sticking on a jumper, closing doors to rooms you don't use, bulk cooking, hanging up washing instead of tumbling etc)
 
Eon standard home tariff for me, I monitor my usage a lot and their prices came out cheapest. Plus the bonus of clubcard points is a winner too.

I'm going to get Hive installed, Nest doesn't do both hot water and central heating and tado is more expensive (requires the additional extension unit as I have a programmable timer already). The new Hive system looks neat and the app has had some good updates recently.
 
Just on the hot water subject, as it may vary depending your living situation, we have our Worcester Bosch set to Eco mode anyway so it only heats on demand. With only two of us having a shower in the morning and one lot of washing up in the evening there's really no need for us at all to have hot water available 24/7, and therefore no benefit for us for hot water control via a thermostat.

Equally having a thermostat that heated water up ready for a morning shower or evening dish wash would waste us money the times we're not there in the morning or eat out etc in the evening.

You may be the same, or not :).
 
Russinating said:
Just on the hot water subject, as it may vary depending your living situation, we have our Worcester Bosch set to Eco mode anyway so it only heats on demand. With only two of us having a shower in the morning and one lot of washing up in the evening there's really no need for us at all to have hot water available 24/7, and therefore no benefit for us for hot water control via a thermostat.

Equally having a thermostat that heated water up ready for a morning shower or evening dish wash would waste us money the times we're not there in the morning or eat out etc in the evening.

You may be the same, or not :).
Click to expand...

Thermostats are nothing to do with hot water, thermostats are for heating
 
If you have a modern condensing boiler, make sure your boiler is set correctly to give the output that matches the house/radiators. Otherwise the extra output that your radiators can't deal with is just thrown out the flue and the boiler is cycling on and off all the time.
 
Simon said:
Thermostats are nothing to do with hot water, thermostats are for heating
Click to expand...

Thermostats certainly are used within your hot water cylinder, it'd be potentially rather dangerous if they were not :eek:

All he means is that he'd rather use eco on demand mode for water with their sporadic use than keep a thermostat controlled tank of hot water heated 24/7
 
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