HOUSEHOLDS paying their energy bills online are cashing in on a price war heating up between the biggest gas and electricity suppliers.
After months of price increases, with energy bills hiked by an average 42 per cent last year, most price cuts announced in recent weeks came into force this week. Now two suppliers have announced further reductions for customers who pay online.
Yesterday British Gas trimmed the average cost of its Websaver 2 online tariff by £11 to £1,034. The cut means the plan is once again the most competitive available, a week after it was undercut by E.on.
Further online rate cuts are expected and, with all of the big suppliers already offering their most competitive prices online, customers able and willing to change their payment habits can make significant savings, said Will Marples, energy expert at comparison website uSwitch.com. "Households only have to take three simple steps to lower energy bills – move to dual fuel, pay by direct debit and sign up to an online plan," Marples explained. "If they ditch their expensive standard plans today and sign up to a competitive online plan they will be quids in."
The average online plan – based on the typical dual fuel customer – is now £1,072 a year, compared with the £1,252 average paid by households on standard plans where bills are paid on receipt.
The most expensive tariff on the market, Scottish Power's standard pay-by-bill plan, is £328 a year higher than the new British Gas rate at £1,362.
The average household paying Scottish Power's rate on receipt of their bill can cut their annual payment to £1,155 just by switching to a monthly direct debit arrangement.
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Wednesday 22 April 2009
Wednesday 15 April 2009
Price war will reduce gas and electric deals
Households in the UK will be able to take advantage of a price war erupting between energy providers.
Following months of price rises from energy providers, British Gas, which is owned by Centrica, announced it is cutting the cost of its Websaver 2 product by £11.
Dropping its online energy price to £1,034 means British Gas is now offering the most competitive average price after it was undercut by energy provider E.ON last week.
full article
Following months of price rises from energy providers, British Gas, which is owned by Centrica, announced it is cutting the cost of its Websaver 2 product by £11.
Dropping its online energy price to £1,034 means British Gas is now offering the most competitive average price after it was undercut by energy provider E.ON last week.
full article
Money Saving Tips
Everybody has them, but here are our quick n' easy tips on ways to save money:
8. Use price comparison sites – Make sure you are getting the cheapest deals on your energy bills. Moneysupermarket.com estimates you can save up more than £300 a year if you’ve never switch suppliers. Mind you they would wouldn’t they!
11. Switch Stuff Off – We’ve all heard this before but leaving TVs and plasma screens on standby uses power. The Energy Saving Trust says the average household can save £37 a year just by switching everything off. It’s also environmentally friendly so you can feel all green inside.
See how much you can save with ScottishPower
12. Cut the price of a day out – It’s bleak at this time of year and we all need something to cheer us up and entertain the kids. But by booking ahead on online you can make great savings at places like Alton Towers and Legoland. I got a great deal for mums and under 4s at Chessington World of Adventures – a tenner for the day.
13 Get the cheapest petrol – There’s obviously no point driving for miles to find the petrol station offering the cheapest price. But put your postcode into petrolprices.com and they’ll find you the best local price.
14. Turn to the WI - The Women’s Institute is experiencing somewhat of a revival in these economically challenging times. They claim younger people are turning to them in unprecedented numbers to learn how to knit, darn and cook cheaply. One top tip from the WI is using lemons for cleaning products!
Take advantage of some money-saving vouchers
17. Switch Light-bulbs – The experts say we should install low energy light bulbs in our homes as they use about 25% of the power of normal light bulbs and pay for themselves quickly.
18. Make Lunch - Sandwiches from the local café or even the supermarket will set you back at least 3quid a go. 5 days a week and that’s £750 a year. Make a sandwich or take last night’s leftovers in to work in your favourite Tupperware container!
20. Be an eco-driver – this may not sound very Jeremy Clarkson , but the Energy Savings Trust says by changing gear (upward) before you engine hits 2,5000 rpm, driving smoothly at around 45.059mph and turning off the air-con can save £120 a year.
full article
8. Use price comparison sites – Make sure you are getting the cheapest deals on your energy bills. Moneysupermarket.com estimates you can save up more than £300 a year if you’ve never switch suppliers. Mind you they would wouldn’t they!
11. Switch Stuff Off – We’ve all heard this before but leaving TVs and plasma screens on standby uses power. The Energy Saving Trust says the average household can save £37 a year just by switching everything off. It’s also environmentally friendly so you can feel all green inside.
See how much you can save with ScottishPower
12. Cut the price of a day out – It’s bleak at this time of year and we all need something to cheer us up and entertain the kids. But by booking ahead on online you can make great savings at places like Alton Towers and Legoland. I got a great deal for mums and under 4s at Chessington World of Adventures – a tenner for the day.
13 Get the cheapest petrol – There’s obviously no point driving for miles to find the petrol station offering the cheapest price. But put your postcode into petrolprices.com and they’ll find you the best local price.
14. Turn to the WI - The Women’s Institute is experiencing somewhat of a revival in these economically challenging times. They claim younger people are turning to them in unprecedented numbers to learn how to knit, darn and cook cheaply. One top tip from the WI is using lemons for cleaning products!
Take advantage of some money-saving vouchers
17. Switch Light-bulbs – The experts say we should install low energy light bulbs in our homes as they use about 25% of the power of normal light bulbs and pay for themselves quickly.
18. Make Lunch - Sandwiches from the local café or even the supermarket will set you back at least 3quid a go. 5 days a week and that’s £750 a year. Make a sandwich or take last night’s leftovers in to work in your favourite Tupperware container!
20. Be an eco-driver – this may not sound very Jeremy Clarkson , but the Energy Savings Trust says by changing gear (upward) before you engine hits 2,5000 rpm, driving smoothly at around 45.059mph and turning off the air-con can save £120 a year.
full article
Friday 30 January 2009
Wood stoves are hot again
It has overtaken the Aga as the must-have lifestyle accessory – a wood-burning stove is becoming de rigueur in any stylish home, especially one that prides itself on its eco-credentials. Not only do they make a nice rustic detail in the corner of a room – or a contemporary, design-led centrepiece – they use a sustainable, nearly 100% carbon-neutral, source of fuel.
As energy bills soar and we enter a new age of frugality, overshadowed by concerns over the future supply of gas and electricity, wood is an increasingly attractive option: it costs about 1.6p per kilowatt hour, compared with 12p for electricity. David Knox, of Stovax, the UK’s largest manufacturer of wood-burning stoves, says demand was up by 50% in the last three months of 2008 compared with the same period the previous year.
“There has been a rise in demand countrywide, with a desire to return to organic living and to be independent of the grid,” he says. There are waiting lists for some of the company’s most popular models, which include the square, traditionally styled Stockton 5, which has a 4.9kW output and starts at £595 (01392 474056, www.stovax.com).
A secondhand stove can cost as little as £100, with prices rising to £5,000 for a brand-new, state-of-the-art model – Austroflamm’s slim, modern Glass Multi-Fuel Stove, also available from Stovax, starts at about £2,680. Although wood-burners work well when coupled with thermostatically controlled radiators, they are effective on their own: open fires may be romantic, but they waste up to 90% of the heat they produce. A stove in an enclosed unit, by contrast, “means that for every pound you spend on fuel, 88p of it is heating your home”, Knox estimates.Before ditching your energy supplier, however, there are a few things to consider. First, check if your home is in a “smoke control zone”; many UK cities and industrial areas restrict use of fires and stoves as a heating source. If you live in one (visit www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk to find out), make sure your stove is Defra-approved. All new models must be installed by an approved fitter from Hetas, the Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme.
You must install a chimney, if you don’t already have one, line an existing one or have a flue pipe built for the gases to escape; this can cost several hundred pounds. And the gases need to be discharged above the roof line, so it’s not practical to have a stove if you live at basement level.
What about getting hold of the wood? With the increased demand for the dense, seasoned hardwood logs that emit the most heat, there are reports of a forthcoming shortage. And unless you own your own woodland, you can forget hunter-gathering, even for fallen logs: the Forestry Commission advises that most woodlands and commons will have restrictions.“If you don’t have a sawmill near you, or a friendly farmer, find a good local supplier,” says Stuart Burgess, of the commission. Based in Herefordshire, Certainly Wood sources wood from local estates and delivers nationally. A bag costs £180 for 1.4 cubic metres (01981 251796, www.certainlywood.co.uk); 4.5 cubic metres should run a stove for a year.
Britain grows up to 1m tons of domestic firewood per year, and the government recently announced its aim to bring another 2m tons to the market by 2020 – enough to heat 250,000 homes for a year. Welcome news for those homeowners about to make the switch.
continue
As energy bills soar and we enter a new age of frugality, overshadowed by concerns over the future supply of gas and electricity, wood is an increasingly attractive option: it costs about 1.6p per kilowatt hour, compared with 12p for electricity. David Knox, of Stovax, the UK’s largest manufacturer of wood-burning stoves, says demand was up by 50% in the last three months of 2008 compared with the same period the previous year.
“There has been a rise in demand countrywide, with a desire to return to organic living and to be independent of the grid,” he says. There are waiting lists for some of the company’s most popular models, which include the square, traditionally styled Stockton 5, which has a 4.9kW output and starts at £595 (01392 474056, www.stovax.com).
A secondhand stove can cost as little as £100, with prices rising to £5,000 for a brand-new, state-of-the-art model – Austroflamm’s slim, modern Glass Multi-Fuel Stove, also available from Stovax, starts at about £2,680. Although wood-burners work well when coupled with thermostatically controlled radiators, they are effective on their own: open fires may be romantic, but they waste up to 90% of the heat they produce. A stove in an enclosed unit, by contrast, “means that for every pound you spend on fuel, 88p of it is heating your home”, Knox estimates.Before ditching your energy supplier, however, there are a few things to consider. First, check if your home is in a “smoke control zone”; many UK cities and industrial areas restrict use of fires and stoves as a heating source. If you live in one (visit www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk to find out), make sure your stove is Defra-approved. All new models must be installed by an approved fitter from Hetas, the Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme.
You must install a chimney, if you don’t already have one, line an existing one or have a flue pipe built for the gases to escape; this can cost several hundred pounds. And the gases need to be discharged above the roof line, so it’s not practical to have a stove if you live at basement level.
What about getting hold of the wood? With the increased demand for the dense, seasoned hardwood logs that emit the most heat, there are reports of a forthcoming shortage. And unless you own your own woodland, you can forget hunter-gathering, even for fallen logs: the Forestry Commission advises that most woodlands and commons will have restrictions.“If you don’t have a sawmill near you, or a friendly farmer, find a good local supplier,” says Stuart Burgess, of the commission. Based in Herefordshire, Certainly Wood sources wood from local estates and delivers nationally. A bag costs £180 for 1.4 cubic metres (01981 251796, www.certainlywood.co.uk); 4.5 cubic metres should run a stove for a year.
Britain grows up to 1m tons of domestic firewood per year, and the government recently announced its aim to bring another 2m tons to the market by 2020 – enough to heat 250,000 homes for a year. Welcome news for those homeowners about to make the switch.
continue
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