British Gas/Ebico

[JR]

I was with Ebico for gas and electricity until Ebico shut down and I was automatically moved to British Gas who honoured my current tariffs (no standing charges) and they end on 31 July. Been looking on-line at other providers until I am frazzled - I need tariffs where the standing charges are the cheapest and the actual rates per kw are the highest as I am such a low user, using 789 gas and 542 electric annually. I may well go back to Ebico as they have returned teaming up with Octopus Energy. Avro's prices look very competitive then there are offers with some giving a bonus and Sainsburys giving nectar points.

Has anyone got suggestions or recommendations please. Many thanks in advance.

[Tinbum]

I'm in the same situation!!

[Stinsy]

I was with Ebico for gas and electricity until Ebico shut down and I was automatically moved to British Gas who honoured my current tariffs (no standing charges) and they end on 31 July. Been looking on-line at other providers until I am frazzled - I need tariffs where the standing charges are the cheapest and the actual rates per kw are the highest as I am such a low user, using 789 gas and 542 electric annually. I may well go back to Ebico as they have returned teaming up with Octopus Energy. Avro's prices look very competitive then there are offers with some giving a bonus and Sainsburys giving nectar points.

Has anyone got suggestions or recommendations please. Many thanks in advance.

Have you thought about going off-grid?

[Stig]

I was in the same situation - automatically moved onto BG when Ebico closed down. I looked at one of the comparison websites and saw that BG had a better tariff but it wasn't available to existing customers. So I ended up with Eon, and when BG phoned me to ask why I was changing I told them I didn't like the practice of penalising existing customers for the benefit of new business. If I'd gone looking for a better deal than Ebico before they closed down it might have been a different story.

I like Ebico's ethos but their unit rates are very high and other suppliers have dropped their standing charges on some tariffs so you need to be a very low user to be better off with them.

[JR]

I spent most of yesterday looking at different gas/elec suppliers and I was interested in Pure Planet until I realised they had no phone number or customer service department - I much prefer to talk to someone if I have a problem. Avro are looking the best price for me and they came 3rd out of 25 companies in a Which survey. Outfox the Market (£250.97) came 1st in the survey but were 19th last year.

Avro Simple and Flow 12M
gas unit 3.150
st ch 17.850
elec unit 17.273
st ch 17.850/ st charges added together for 1 day = 35.7p - most of st ch added together on other companies are nearer to 50p
On my usage for a year the price would be £248.76. I hardly have my gas central heating on but this winter I am going to try and put it on more because it just isnt good to be cold. Whenever I am generating I put all my little electric heaters on so can be reasonably warm during the winter days if generating 500w.

Ebico Standard for the year is £299.53p I know my bills arent large but I havent got a lot of money to spend at the moment so need the lowest priced supplier.

Off grid - Stinsy - what would that entail please? Thanks.

[Stinsy]

Off grid - Stinsy - what would that entail please? Thanks.

Your usage seems so low as to hardly justify the hassle/cost of being grid connected. What that entails depends on your current setup. I assume you already have solar/batteries that provide: all of your electricity and hot water for most of the year, some space heating in the shoulder months and unusually sunny winter days. I assume that you only need grid gas/electricity for the coldest/darkest mid-winter days.

A small quantity of logs could provide heat/hot water and a small generator could provide electricity on those days. Alternatively, instead of a log burner you could convert your boiler to run on bottle gas.

[JR]

Thank you for your reply - I will have a look into your ideas and suggestions.

[Joeboy]

Off grid - Stinsy - what would that entail please? Thanks.

Your usage seems so low as to hardly justify the hassle/cost of being grid connected. What that entails depends on your current setup. I assume you already have solar/batteries that provide: all of your electricity and hot water for most of the year, some space heating in the shoulder months and unusually sunny winter days. I assume that you only need grid gas/electricity for the coldest/darkest mid-winter days.

A small quantity of logs could provide heat/hot water and a small generator could provide electricity on those days. Alternatively, instead of a log burner you could convert your boiler to run on bottle gas.

To back up the logburner idea. IT has been coldish and dreich in Aberdeenshire today. We ran up the stove, made lentil soup, dried a rack full of towels instead of the tumbler and made loads of Tea. Oh aye and we heated the house. Off grid can be anything you want it to be. Admittedly I'm on grid but kinda off if you see what I mean.

[Tinbum]

This was the best I could find;

[JR]

Thanks for all your replies. I have looked at around 21 different suppliers (drove me round the twist), trying to find the lowest standing charges - the unit prices are all very similar. I have based my pricing on 789 of gas and 542 electric. Some want as much as 28p for a daily standing charge.

I decided to go with Avro Energy who came 3rd in WHICH Magazines survey.

It is fixed for a year, dont have to have a smart meter and I dont want one and no exit fees.

1 gas unit 3.150p - standing charge 17.850p
1 elec unit 17.273p - standing charge 17.850p
The total price for a year is £248.76 (if all my calculations are correct).

The dearest was Sainsburys at £354.58p and throwing in 8,000 nectar points.

Had an interesting call from British Gas saying they were sorry I was leaving them and they can give me 15% off my total gas usage and 15% off my total electric usage. Before the discount the yearly price was £341.75 and with the discount £290.59. There gas st.charge is 28.796p and elec 27.069p so over a year Avro gas/elec st.charges equal £130.30 and British Gas £203.90 - so a difference of £73.60p more per year before you start. British Gas came 18th in WHICH Magazines survey. British Gas also said I would get a priority service and there was also a bundle where I could have free cover for water, drains etc worth £96 - £108 per year. The service I have received from British Gas has been fine and I may well have stayed if the prices had been better.

Glad I finally managed to make a decision and it is all systems go.