OT cost of energy

[MadAmster]

Since Jan 1st we've moved to a dynamic contract where we get the price of tomorrow's electricity sent to us at 15:00 today. This lets us know when both gas and electricity are cheap or expensive. Not much variation in gas prices but electricity varies from high to low to zero to you get paid to use it. Electricity we generate via our solar panels comes at the same price as what we'd otherwise us. When the price is in the minus, it actually pays to simply plug in and switch on everything you have. It pays. Whether it's a good idea or not is a different question.

This allows us to plan when best to user the washing machine, dishwasher etc.

In January and February we used 5 times our monthly payment over the 2 months. March saw us use 1 weeks worth. So far this month we've used MINUS 6 euros worth of gas end electricity. Not bad. Loving the app that advises us when to switch stuff on. By the end of the month I think be at 4 months energy for 5 monthly payments. Given a half decent summer I expect things to move in our favour and we'll be in credit. October, November and December should see us reach parity.

Monthly payment is 89 euros.

[SithHappens]

Ours has been all over the place, it did build up to the point we were nearly 1k in credit. We have since been paying as low as 80 a month now it's 130. We are now 100 in credit but expect it to build through summer as we hardly use gas in summer months. I did learn to become more efficient when the prices rocketed, turning plugs off etc and heating down.

Got a smart thermostat and that helps.

I work from home so it's not too bad I don't think and we also get to claim the (paltry) tax relief offered for home working.

[Andy_Faber]

We made the accidentally astute decision back in the mid 2010's to sign up with a company called Flipper, who did all the hard work relating to which energy provider to go with on our behalf, for a small join up fee (I think ?50)and then ?25 per year. It paid for itself many times over, ?000's I would say, regretably at the expense of folk who didn't do the research (or get someone to do the research for them) to get the best rate, and at the expense of a succession of over-ambitious energy providers who sold their energy too cheap and went down the pan. Another suspected side-effect was that our outstanding balances were taken over repeatedly by larger enterprises who either couldn't be bothered to or were inept at recovering such balances. Nothing especially 'clever' or strategic on our part, more a reflection of the shambles that is the energy industry - and to show there are two sides to the coin, post-Flipper (it withdrew in a controlled manner during the energy crisis) one energy supplier, UW, attempted to massively (by many ?000's) overcharge both ourselves (for a phantom property) and my daughter (for a faulty reading by them) which I had to resort to ombudsman adjudication on both which I/we won, including 'damages' (they aren't called that) against UW

We've just swapped to Octopus because they come top for customer service (and our daughter works for one of their divisions)

[Geoff Parkstone]

Since Jan 1st we've moved to a dynamic contract where we get the price of tomorrow's electricity sent to us at 15:00 today. This lets us know when both gas and electricity are cheap or expensive. Not much variation in gas prices but electricity varies from high to low to zero to you get paid to use it. Electricity we generate via our solar panels comes at the same price as what we'd otherwise us. When the price is in the minus, it actually pays to simply plug in and switch on everything you have. It pays. Whether it's a good idea or not is a different question.

This allows us to plan when best to user the washing machine, dishwasher etc.

In January and February we used 5 times our monthly payment over the 2 months. March saw us use 1 weeks worth. So far this month we've used MINUS 6 euros worth of gas end electricity. Not bad. Loving the app that advises us when to switch stuff on. By the end of the month I think be at 4 months energy for 5 monthly payments. Given a half decent summer I expect things to move in our favour and we'll be in credit. October, November and December should see us reach parity.

Monthly payment is 89 euros.

Would it be worth buying some sort of heavy duty storage device (battery type thing) so you can hoard the electricity when it's negative priced? Then use it when price goes up / sell them back their own power at a profit?

[Andy_Faber]

Would it be worth buying some sort of heavy duty storage device (battery type thing) so you can hoard the electricity when it's negative priced? Then use it when price goes up / sell them back their own power at a profit?

I?ve looked at that (solar power and a big south facing garage roof) but ?proper? batteries and their peripherals cost a mint, the payback period put me off

[ramAnag]

We pay 85 GBP pm but that’s for electricity alone, as there is no gas anywhere nearby, although we are about 300GBP in credit.
Our source of heat is either logs - which I seldom use - or oil and that’s where the biggest fluctuations occur for those of us who live in the country.
In the earlier days of the Ukraine War my 1200 litre tank was costing around 1200GBP to fill. Now it costs about half that, a huge difference when, on average, we buy between 1800-2000 litres per year.
In my experience, as far as electricity is concerned, Octopus are good and fair and OVO were awful before we got rid of them. We do have one of those smart meters but they don’t really tell you much that common sense doesn’t i.e. ovens and tumble driers are expensive to run.

[SithHappens]

We have a smart meter too, I turn it round so I can't see it when we have the hot tub on

[Trickytreesreds]

Just listen to yourselves in the UK.
Milliband has raped you. This country has all it needs for cheaper energy, but is sacrificed you on the alter of net zero

[SithHappens]

I'm certainly no fan of miliband but I can't see how the current cost of energy lies solely at his door.

[Andy_Faber]

I'm certainly no fan of miliband but I can't see how the current cost of energy lies solely at his door.

Personally I?m ok paying a bit more for ?clean? energy, but there is a polarised/nimby debate about where the energy comes from, not sure I?d have milliband top of my hit list!