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Smart meters, less smart companies

Black Hole said:
I find their TV advert suspect: how could there only be one company Which? recommend, unless they haven't looked very hard!
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I haven't seen their (or pretty much anyone's) TV ads, so can't help you there really. I just trawl for reviews, etc, on multiple sites when considering a new supplier of anything.
I guess that Which? consider all the others to have more significant failings that rule them out ... and given the tales you hear that's not hard to believe.

I've changed energy supplier probably a half-dozen times since deregulation and I've noticed that several of them have since sunk - fortunately after I'd jumped ship ... so far at least :cautious:

(If anyone wants to try Octopus I think they still give a £50 'bonus' each to a referrer and the referred new customer, so let me know and I'll sort out the code or whatever it is. I used someone's when I joined but it was a while back.)
 
MikeSh said:
(If anyone wants to try Octopus I think they still give a £50 'bonus' each to a referrer and the referred new customer, so let me know and I'll sort out the code or whatever it is. I used someone's when I joined but it was a while back.)
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Ditto Bulb, if anybody wants details.
 
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Octopus wouldn’t actually quote me (wrong kind of browser?). It did quote a satisfied customer which I thought wasn’t really helpful.

Like MikeSh, I trawl for reviews. I can’t remember the last time I bought anything actually advertised anywhere. It's been decades since I saw an advert I found moderately amusing but wouldn’t necessarily buy the product ( “I was the mainstay of.. until I…”, the dinosaur which ate Barrow in Furness bus station, the bride who was spraying herself with perfume while not listening to the registrar read the relevant sections of the Code Civil). I’ve spent ages trying to acquire something from a 2 column inch mention. There was the Tatung Einstein of which the sole remaining stock was in PC World Gateshead. Most modern ads are simply irritating.
 
Black Hole said:
Are you making savings year-on-year, or simply avoiding your tariff going up because you are no longer a new customer?
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Whenever they try to put my tariff up, I switch. This time, I switched to a company with a tariff for high gas consumers and that has saved me £20 a month.
 
Black Hole said:
I find their TV advert suspect: how could there only be one company Which? recommend, unless they haven't looked very hard!
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They look at most tariffs for your usage and also rank some according to feedback. Octopus has the highest ranking at the moment, but, for me, are terribly expensive. I don't use the services, what are they?

Octopus would charge me £34 more a month.
 
Mike2 said:
So how do they manage to pump that green energy to you, but not your neighbours on non-green tariffs? Plus, very few billing companies actually produce energy themselves, to make it green.

Gas distributors

Electricity distributors
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This is their explanation, I think Eon makes similar claims if I remember correctly https://greennetworkenergy.co.uk/he...bout-switching/our-100-renewable-electricity/ It is still a bit misleading as only some of their deals have 100% renewable electricity and you would not get that, the reality is that a percentage of the energy they supply is from renewable sources.
( Edit. Maybe a smaller percentage than expected as explained in the link in my post below.)
 
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www.mirror.co.uk

Green energy tariffs could be "misleading" customers, claims Which?

Energy firms have been accused as misleading environmentally-conscious customers with renewable tariffs that are not as "green" as they seem
www.mirror.co.uk www.mirror.co.uk

How ethical is your energy supplier​



  1. Bulb: 100%
  2. Co-operative Energy: 100%
  3. Ecotricity: 100%
  4. Engie: 100%
  5. Foxglove Energy: 100%
  6. Good Energy: 100%
  7. Green Energy: 100%
  8. Green Star Energy: 100%
  9. Octopus Energy: 100%
  10. Pure Planet: 100%
  11. So Energy: 100%
  12. Tonik Energy: 100%
  13. Yorkshire Energy: 100%
  14. Bristol Energy: 79%
  15. British Gas: 43%
  16. Ovo Energy: 42.9%
  17. Flow: 25.77%
  18. iSupply Energy: 24.2%
  19. Green Network Energy: 23.6%
  20. NPower: 18.7%
  21. Sainsbury's Energy: 18.7%
  22. Eon: 16.7%
  23. Shell Energy: 3.7%
  24. Robin Hood Energy: 2.6%
*Source: Which?
 
I was with Tonik until we moved (now renting until new house purchase), found them excellent to deal with. Sadly they went into administration in October, no doubt the list above may be out of date.
 
RobH1 said:
I was with Tonik until we moved (now renting until new house purchase), found them excellent to deal with. Sadly they went into administration in October
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I had two accounts with Octopus. One got migrated to Tonik earlier this year, and now it's been forcibly transferred to Scottish Power, fairly seamlessly, although taking longer than I expected (about 2 months, completed yesterday) and thankfully with no loss of the credit balance. But it all adds to the admin. load :(.
 
Interestingly, the Green Network Energy con artists are one of the worst with only about 23% green., Still, with about only 36% being green energy, we can't all be tree huggers can we. All I can say is thank god for the other about 64% when the wind ain't blowin' and the sun ain 't shinin'.
 
trog said:
Robin Hood Energy: 2.6%
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I'm surprised they are that ethical. Having lost millions of pounds for the Nottingham City council tax payers I'd give them a 100% unethical rating.

I didn't get my energy from them and don't live in the City - but City Council losses do cause problems for those who commute into/through the city with increased charges (bus fares - City Council have a 95+% stake in the main bus company, car park charges and the workplace parking levy)- and I can't vote them out. Who was it said: "No taxation without representation"?

Black Hole said:
And where's it going to come from when all vehicles are electric (or hydrogen)?!
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Wind farms, solar farms and nuclear, with a small amount of hydro-electric. (And, to answer Trev's point, probably gas as a backup :rolleyes: )
 
Black Hole said:
And where's it going to come from when all vehicles are electric (or hydrogen)?!
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Nobody knows! Sunlight is unreliable, so is wind. If electricity can be stored, at a huge cost to environmental resources, then perhaps we will get by if everyone works from home and never travels very far.

Electric cars are already un-environmental; the impact of manufacturing one is grossly out of proportion to the "running cost".

https://www.hanswernersinn.de/dcs/sd-2019-08-sinn-karl-buchal-motoren-2019-04-25_0.pdf
 
EEPhil said:
I'm surprised they are that ethical. Having lost millions of pounds for the Nottingham City council tax payers I'd give them a 100% unethical rating.
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Same for Bristol Energy.
EEPhil said:
I didn't get my energy from them and don't live in the City
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Me too, on both cities' counts.
EEPhil said:
but City Council losses do cause problems for those who commute into/through the city with increased charges (bus fares - City Council have a 95+% stake in the main bus company, car park charges and the workplace parking levy)- and I can't vote them out. Who was it said: "No taxation without representation"?
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Quite.
 
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