Bulb Energy

[anonymous-user]

Condi said:

Seems fine, but Bulb are extrapolating what you've used over winter right through the year. Obviously summer use will be much lower, but they can't see that, or haven't adjusted for it anyway.

Bizarre isn’t it? With mine they are clearly expecting my gas usage to plummet during the summer otherwise my DD would be double what it is right now.

[dickymint]

Condi said:

Seems fine, but Bulb are extrapolating what you've used over winter right through the year. Obviously summer use will be much lower, but they can't see that, or haven't adjusted for it anyway.

Are they?

[Gretchen]

I’d been with the same energy supplier for 25 years until I changed to Bulb this time last year. Electric only here so an increase for me. Have run another comparison and a couple of unknown names showing a slight saving, but with a minimum contract and an early release fee. I like Bulb’s communication and ease of use. Is it worth sticking with them?

[Condi]

dickymint said:

Are they?

Not very well. You're right, I read it wrong.

[dickymint]

Condi said:

dickymint said:

Are they?

Not very well. You're right, I read it wrong.

It wasn't a trap i was just being lazy and put it back to you to check. Hats off to you sir.

[Mr Pointy]

Gretchen said:

I’d been with the same energy supplier for 25 years until I changed to Bulb this time last year. Electric only here so an increase for me. Have run another comparison and a couple of unknown names showing a slight saving, but with a minimum contract and an early release fee. I like Bulb’s communication and ease of use. Is it worth sticking with them?

Octopus seem to be highly rated by those who are with them & their electricity rate is slightly less than Bulb in my postcode. Maybe get a quote & see if it's worthwhile changing:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://octopus.energy/

Use a referral code of course & you'll save money.

[Gareth79]

Mr Pointy said:

Gretchen said:

I’d been with the same energy supplier for 25 years until I changed to Bulb this time last year. Electric only here so an increase for me. Have run another comparison and a couple of unknown names showing a slight saving, but with a minimum contract and an early release fee. I like Bulb’s communication and ease of use. Is it worth sticking with them?

Octopus seem to be highly rated by those who are with them & their electricity rate is slightly less than Bulb in my postcode. Maybe get a quote & see if it's worthwhile changing:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://octopus.energy/

Use a referral code of course & you'll save money.

I've just switched to them, it was all very smooth. My smart meter readings are online, even though they warned it may take ages to come through. I'm on the Agile tariff, I use little energy before 7pm weekdays so i'll save money without doing anything. Before, I was on Economy 7 so had to wait until 11.30pm to put on appliances, now the pricing seems relatively flat from 9pm-1am so I can put it on then, or schedule it to the properly off-peak times to save even more (although that will take some extra kit).

[pmanson]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

We're with Bulb (4 bed detached 1960s build), three kids (so washing machine etc on a lot), TVs etc. New gas boiler (fitted last year) that does hot water and heating only. Hob is an electric induction. I work from home so always a laptop/screen/sonos going.

Latest estimate from Bulb from us:

Gas - 19,451 kWh
Electric - 6091 kWh

I was paying £133 p/mth (£1,596) but they've just suggested reducing my payment down to £119 (£,1428)

[ollyprice87]

Just in the middle of leaving Bulb and going back to Octopus. I had a smart meter installed last April and it's been all over the shop.So much so that I've lost all confidence in the Bulb's ability to read it correctly. Last few weeks it's been better but prior to this it was reading very high. Bulb even admitted this but made no effort in giving me credit to offset the high readings.

Apart from that I had a few years of trouble free service so anyone thinking of moving over, go for it, just don't get their smart meter!

[anonymous-user]

Can anyone shed light on this?

Recently moved to a brand new house with smart meters installed. Pay a monthly standing order of £57pcm in a 2-bed house with dual fuel.

I was surprised this month that our bill is only £20 based on accurate readings. Looking through my bill the gas is indicated as attached - thoughts?

I wonder if it’s something to do with the original over-estimate on 1st Feb.

[snuffy]

Not specifically Bulb, but energy in general.

I found some old figures in some spreadsheets on my PC today which I found interesting:

2011 my combined bill was about £1050. Today it's around £800.

My consumption in 2011 was:

G : 14000

E : 4450

Now it's:

G :10600

E: 2900

So my total bill has fallen around 24%. My gas consumption has fallen 24% and my electricity by 34%. That means, roughly, prices have stayed pretty much the same over 9 years (I'm doing some rounding) but I'm now using a goodly amount less. Maybe all those LED bulbs, modern TVs, modern monitors, new fridge/freezer, new washing machine, new boiler, cavity wall insulation, new double glazed windows and doors really has made a difference (quite a big one really).

[Phooey]

When i get a bit of time over the next few days I'm going to have a look round to see if we can beat our current tarrif with Bulb - latest Annual Statement arrived yesterday (pics of usage below). Any recommendations for a comparison site?

Cheers

[crankedup]

Having been a Bulb customer for a few years and very content with the service I am now in the process of switching. Used Money saving expert site to help me, as recommend from a poster in here.Unfortunately I found that Bulb were bouncing around just too much regards my DD payment.
AVRO came up at about £150 year less expensive for me.

[Kev_Mk3]

Bulb are really annoying me with the direct debit now. I had it set up for an amount they increased it to a ridiculous amount for no reason. When I asked why and requested it to be reduced again they wont do it. They have restricted the amount I reduce it too also so now I am massively in credit which they wont give me. I am going to move asap I'm bored of them now after several issues

[Lord Flashheart]

Kev_Mk3 said:

Bulb are really annoying me with the direct debit now. I had it set up for an amount they increased it to a ridiculous amount for no reason. When I asked why and requested it to be reduced again they wont do it. They have restricted the amount I reduce it too also so now I am massively in credit which they wont give me. I am going to move asap I'm bored of them now after several issues

A couple of weeks ago I realised Bulb were sitting on £556 of over payments and were charging us £180 per month DD. I emailed their help desk and asked for the £556 to be returned to us and that I wanted the DD reduced to what it should be. They replied 8 minutes later! They refunded the over payments without question, calculated what the correct DD should be, and reduced it accordingly. I'm not sure service gets any better than that!

[Mr Pointy]

Kev_Mk3 said:

Bulb are really annoying me with the direct debit now. I had it set up for an amount they increased it to a ridiculous amount for no reason. When I asked why and requested it to be reduced again they wont do it. They have restricted the amount I reduce it too also so now I am massively in credit which they wont give me. I am going to move asap I'm bored of them now after several issues

That's at odds with my experience: they've just emailed me to suggest I reduce my DD by 10% so I don't build up a credit amount. There must be a reason they set your DD at that level. How long have you been with them?

[anonymous-user]

I’m also with Bulb and can only commend them for refunding me when my account has a substantial credit or to adjust my monthly payment.

I looked at Avro Energy last year as they were the cheapest. At the time they were banned from accepting new customers however Uswitch didn’t inform me of this so I was fully through the process before reading so many negative reviews and not getting any answers from their customer service I decided to stick with Bulb.

[snuffy]

I switched to Avro a few months ago. I managed to enter my gas and electric initial readings arse about face so I had to email them about it. Took 2 or 3 days to reply and then just corrected the readings for me.

They seem fine to me. The electricity comes out of the sockets and the gas comes up the pipe !

[Phooey]

I've just done a quote and Octopus are coming in cheaper than Bulb. Does anyone know if Bulb will match other suppliers if you tell them your going to leave?

[dhutch]

snuffy said:

Not specifically Bulb, but energy in general.

I found some old figures in some spreadsheets on my PC today which I found interesting:

2011 my combined bill was about £1050. Today it's around £800.

My consumption in 2011 was:

G : 14000

E : 4450

Now it's:

G :10600

E: 2900

So my total bill has fallen around 24%. My gas consumption has fallen 24% and my electricity by 34%. That means, roughly, prices have stayed pretty much the same over 9 years (I'm doing some rounding) but I'm now using a goodly amount less. Maybe all those LED bulbs, modern TVs, modern monitors, new fridge/freezer, new washing machine, new boiler, cavity wall insulation, new double glazed windows and doors really has made a difference (quite a big one really).

That's very interesting it's it. Obviously you have done a reasonable amount of work to the house, but a 24% decrease is well worth having ink.
clCertainly saw a huge fall in my old house sorting the loft insulation and blown cavity wall insulation alone the later helping with drafts too.

Daniel