Smart Meter

[Sorastro]

It would appear one of those companies I mentioned is in fear of going belly up.

It is alleged.......
Robin Hood energy, which is owned and controlled by the Labour run Nottingham council, appears to be in dire straights. According to the bean counters the council keeps "bailing out" the company with so called loans, so since it's inception in 2015 the tax payer has flushed approximately 27 million down the pan

Update.. apparently R.H.E. has been given the last rites. The cost of the "funeral" to Nottingham tax payers at the last count was approximately £33million, plus they will more than likely have to PAY an energy company to take over and clear the mess up.

The Councils reaction is on public record, go to..."Nottingham Council report in the public interest".... it's interesting reading.

[Old Cruser]

Never heard of this company TBH. but it sounds 'messy'

[Sorastro]

Running an energy company obviously takes more organising than Notts council had.

Without knowing the in's and out's of it I can't see where the difficulty lay. The council sets it up, the utilities are set up and they just sit back and watch the dosh roll in.

[Sorastro]

Update on my utility bill, I sent in Novembers readings to get my balance and as of today I'm in credit to the tune of £240 not bad eh!

I did a quick survey of the reviews of the companies from my earlier posts to see how they are coping service wise.

Top 5 are...Octopus...Ebico...Bulb...Peoples Energy...Avro energy.

Second place are...So...Utility warehouse...Ecotricity.

Worst are... Bristol...Ovo...Lumo...Orbit...Utility point.

Robin Hood and Tonik have allegedly gone bang.  So I'm sticking with Peoples Energy for the foreseeable future.

[Fly]

I'm with Bulb and am currently about £160 in credit, so I don't mind turning the heating on occasionally

[Alsatian]

I've just swapped from Eon to Shell Energy - who I believe used to be First Utility?

Interestingly enough, I had smart meters installed when I was with Scottish Power, but went back to being dumb meters when I swapped to Eon. Now I've swapped to Shell Energy, they're back to fully functioning smart meters!

It's farcical!

[Old Cruser]

We are still with OVO not had any problems so far.
Daughter is with EDF I am loath at changing even though they can't fit a smart metre in which would be easier for me as they offer the winter payment relief and it helps her enormously 

[Sorastro]

No I never have one of those fixed tariff plans as I need to change companies without any strings attached, they have offered me such a deal but you have to put up 2 months payments up front and there doesn't seem to be a guarantee it won't alter.

Had a E mail from Peoples energy saying on 1st April the price cap {Ofgem} will return to pre-pandemic levels, in short a price increase.
P.E. wanted me to transfer to a fixed loyalty tariff as this would "save me money" and sadly it looks like my only way, but unfortunately and as I feared, this means a monetary penalty should I wish to leave before the contract is up.

 I still got one, I got a fixed tariff..........but not with Peoples energy, as of 26th February I'm with Octopus, their fixed tariff is for 12 months and I can leave at anytime without penalties, and they are in the same price range, so P.E.'s loss, plus at the moment I'm in credit with P.E. to the tune of £134.

[Sorastro]

A relative of mine inherited a particular [electricity] company since moving into a house about 3 years ago. They are on a pre-payment meter which was already there and used by the previous tenant.

It is no exaggeration to say this company is a total farce, the heating system in the house absolutely eats money. Putting £50 + a week in the meter was not uncommon, and as they are on a budget it was a lot of money {it's a lot for anyone!}.
The companies app on her phone rarely works and when it does it's wrong, ringing them up is also a waste of time as they keep you on the phone for ages just putting you through to other departments then suddenly your cut off and you have to start all over again, she rang the company one day and said she had spent over 4 hours on the phone and was cut off at least twice.

Looking at the reviews for this company, and there's a couple of sites, I do not know how they stay in business, I read one site of reviews and each one sounded just like what my relative was going through.......I say WAS this was after, some persuasion, she went onto and joined look after my bills and she has just been switched to Bulb. According to Bulb she should {based on the info she provided} not have been paying more than £20--£25 tops per week for her electric.

The old companies reviews make grim reading, even the "good" reviews about the company look very suspect, so as lots of the reviews say AVOID this company like the plague........the company being Utilita.
If I had the choice of using this company or going without electric I would sit in the dark or buy candles....

[Alsatian]

I've just swapped from Eon to Shell Energy - who I believe used to be First Utility?

Interestingly enough, I had smart meters installed when I was with Scottish Power, but went back to being dumb meters when I swapped to Eon. Now I've swapped to Shell Energy, they're back to fully functioning smart meters!

It's farcical!

And even more farcical, they've just told me that they've now 'stopped working' again - and I have to go back to manually submitting my energy readings again.......... unless I want to have new smart meters installed again.

And my answer to that was? A big fat NO! 😕

[Old Cruser]

Daughter still can't have one as her meter is outside. I have tried twice and twice they have been out and refused

[Sorastro]

So the smaller energy companies are going to the wall....

So far to date:- Green, Avro, Utility point, P.F.P.energy. Money plus energy and the one I was with Peoples energy have all gone bang.
Bulb is struggling and that's one of the bigger ones, I'm with Octopus which I think is the biggest of the "little companies" so I'm hoping they can ride it out.

Offgem  says they will automatically switch anyone who's company goes belly up so your not without power but you can bet your bottom dollar your bills won't make nice reading as it's now a sellers market.

[Sorastro]

So the smaller energy companies are going to the wall....

So far to date:- Green, Avro, Utility point, P.F.P.energy. Money plus energy and the one I was with Peoples energy have all gone bang.
Bulb is struggling and that's one of the bigger ones, I'm with Octopus which I think is the biggest of the "little companies" so I'm hoping they can ride it out.

Offgem  says they will automatically switch anyone who's company goes belly up so your not without power but you can bet your bottom dollar your bills won't make nice reading as it's now a sellers market.

So Bulb has ridden off into the sunset....
Apparently Boris has been [allegedly] quoted as saying, "We will be reliant on our own clean power generation by 2035".
Well I know nothing about the industry but I'm willing to bet we aren't! {remember HS2}
It seems he is under the impression that when this "miracle" arrives everyone will have fairly standardised LOW bills, so lets see:-

Nuclear......Sites for nuclear power stations in G.B. were on the drawing board as early as 2010, EDF {French company} were given the task to build them. Construction of the FIRST one {of 8} began in late 2018 and it's only half built to date, plus the fact very few people are in favour of having eight Chernobyl's on the doorstep, so don't hold your breath.

Wind power.... well that's self explanatory, only trouble is contrary to popular belief the wind doesn't blow ALL the time here, and storing power whilst it is blowing, to supply when it isn't just won't work.

It is my opinion it will be a hell of a long time before our reliance on gas fades.

 

[Fly]

Bring back the 'dug out coal fired' range cooker.
It heated the house and  cooked your dinner.
Folk were employed, and paid for getting the coal out if my memory serves me right.
 

[Sorastro]

Bring back the 'dug out coal fired' range cooker.
It heated the house and  cooked your dinner.
Folk were employed, and paid for getting the coal out if my memory serves me right.
 

There's a lot to be said for bringing back coal. Even if you just opened two pits, one in the far North and one in the midlands and just went back to say using steam trains {I still maintain steam is cleaner than diesel}
 Firstly you wouldn't have to spend millions electrifying the lines and think of all the extra staff {firemen} on the footplate not to mention the colliers.