It's day 2 in my challenge, and my small step today is going to transfer our energy to a green supplier. We use gas and electric, gas for our central heating and electric for all appliances. From researching, I understand now that all UK domestic gas is sourced from a number of places around the world, the North Sea being the biggest source (UK-based) followed by Norway, Qatar, Netherlands & Belgium, Gas is gas, wherever we source it from, it's a fossil fuel that's being burnt and produces C02. I feel guilt already as we're not able to move away from using gas entirely because we're in a rented house, and also, what are the alternatives? I have no idea. But for now i'll keep going, with a view to understand more about gas. and focus on finding an alternative for our electricity source.
My perception of green energy companies is that they're going to be more expensive than regular suppliers. I've never been in a position where I can say, 'well, its only £30 more a year'. We're always trying to cut costs and make ends meet, so I can't increase my bill. Another reason i've never moved suppliers is because the idea of switching energy companies just seems like a lot of hassle. I'm ashamed to admit I've never really investigated the options. Apathy, bah.
We're currently with E-ON for both gas & electric, and pay around £100 a month total. They have actually recently written to us saying they're going to increase that. It's not a surprise to me that our energy bill is big, I work from home so I use electricity and gas day and night. I've cleared it with the boyf and i'm allowed to swap it, but it cannot be more expensive than what we already pay, that's the deal.
A simple Google search and Uswitch form shows me that I can actually save us a whopping £261.23 a year if I went with the cheapest supplier (*faints*). But this exercise is not in saving money, it's in saving the planet. The first 10 results back are all from non-green energy companies. All claiming some level of planet saving - tips to help you reduce your energy use, or a promise that their percentage of renewable source will be larger than that of the big six, but that's not good enough for me. It has to be 100% renewable.
The price difference in the results does also confirm my pre-conception that green isn't the cheapest, but as I scroll down the options I am glad to see there are a number of green energy companies that will still reduce my bill. As I expected green to be more expensive I'm not surprised to see some of the bigger names in Green energy not coming up as alternatives, but a bit of scrolling shows me what kind of savings they could have offered me:
Ecotricity: +£41.31 - but they offer 'green gas' and a no frack guarantee. This does seem very appealing, but at the moment i can't justify increasing our energy bill a year, even if it is just £41.31. This is definitely one for the future though.
Good Energy: + £26.73.
Ovo Energy: -£171.56 - this tariff is only 33% renewables it seems. I have to stick to my 100% renewable promise.
* The above three i've selected just because i've heard of them, They're all located around Bristol which is where i'm based.
After some investigation, I've reduced it down to these three options:
Flow energy - this is the first Green energy to offer us the biggest savings of £215.26, but after looking into their offering, it seems we'd need a new boiler installed. This is no go for us renters. The concept looks great though, whilst the boiler is heating up your home, it's also generating electricity.
Green Star Energy - This is our cheapest standard switch energy company offering renewable. The saving i'll make is £187.85 over a year according to Uswitch. However when investigating further, it seems that to be on the 'green tariff' is a different rate to that which has come up in the search engine. I'm not sure what the differences are between the green tariff and other tariffs. I plug in my details to see what rate the green tariff could give me and the results show a saving of £117.71 + fixed fee of £30 if I leave early, or a saving of £62.31 plus no fixed fee if I go on their 'rate watch'. It's actually only 99.8% renewable, which is fine, but, hmm... It's a good option offering me decent savings, but perhaps I'll keep investigating.
BULB energy - This will save us £124.26 a year. Their online quote and switch system is the simplest I've ever come across, i'm a sucker for a simple website. I can even log in with my Facebook details, these guys know how to make life easy! I've also noticed that the price is inclusive of 5% tax, whereas my current supplier's costs are excluding VAT. I chatted with their friendly staff online and it's a simple switch, plus no exit fees. That's great as when renting, who knows when we might have to get out of a contract. A slight problem is that they don't seem to be able to find our address on their system. A quick chat to the nice online guy and he's found us and sorted it out. I think we've found our winner....
This took about 1-2 hour of faff, mainly because our stupid address isn't always clear on the system, plus i've been writing this up during the whole affair. I've received the email confirmation so I just need to wait 14 days and we'll be switched. I'll probably have to set up a Direct Debit at some point but that's minimum fuss.
I've learnt a bit today about the sourcing of gas, the realities of green energy propositions and the clear fact that actually green energy options can be a lot cheaper than the big six. It pays to investigate properly with a recent bill in your hand. 100% renewable-sourced electricity is surely a no-brainer, especially when it's so accessible? A quick look at E-ON's fuel mix tells me that they use around 38.6% coal, 36.2% gas, 14.2% Nuclear and only 4.7% Renewable. Plus, another 6.3% on 'other' (yikes, what other?!) The UK's average percentage of renewable energy is 16.5% so they are well below par.
Frankly 16.5% as an average for the UK doesn't seem great either, a quick Wiki search for Europe gives me some stats from 2014, and shows that Sweden is leading the way with 52% (generally all the nordic countries around 40-50%). Germany, France & Italy are all ahead of the UK. In the world, this article states that Costa Rica is 99% renewable but that Sweden will be the first to be 100%. I'm not sure exactly how credible this article is, lots of big graphics with statements and non-comparable stats, but still, UK is nowhere to be seen on anything. Shame on us!
What will day 3 bring! I'm looking forward to it.
Lydia
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