Energy Helpline and Reassessing Our Energy Usage

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(A useful one though hopefully!)

Many of my readers will know that I moved house in October last year. January is here already and we have now settled into the new bills (as you do) and have got the house nearly where we want it. The only worry that I have regarding this house is the electricity bill. We are yet to get a final direct debit that our current provider feels will meet our usage because when I entered the readings yesterday and had an interim bill produced online it would only tell me what the gas was as the electricity was too high (they expected it to be an estimate 1000kw lower).

Clearly my direct debit is going to soar when my bill gets re-adjusted again and this is not something I am looking forward to. We consider ourselves a fairly energy savvy family. We close doors, we turn the heating down, we switch off lights when we are not in the room, refuse to use standby and are in the process of changing all of our light bulbs over to energy savers (not as easy as it sounds given that this is an old house with many pretty light fixtures which take five candle bulbs each!). Clearly, having looked at reducing usage and energy waste, we felt the next step was to ensure that the tariff and perhaps even the energy company we are with is the best suited to our needs.

There are many energy switching services and comparisons available but the one that has been brought to my attention and which appeals the most is EnergyHelpLine. The EnergyHelpLine website is very simple to use and enables you to choose not only the type of energy you are searching for; it also allows you to search as a business customer and for tariffs that are specifically focussed on being green.

Energy Helpline

Having gone through the EnergyHelpLine comparisons, which really are ridiculously easy provided you know what plan you are on with your current provider (found on your bill, online or off) and either your current spend per month or year, or your KW usage. This information is easy to find and fill in. What I was then presented with is a list of suppliers complete with tariffs that were suitable to my specified needs and the approximate savings I could expect.

An example comparison page
Click to enlarge

It was easy to go through to relevant sites to get more information and most impressively, and unlike many comparison sites I didn’t need to enter my email address or phone number before I could proceed. Incidentally entering either usually ensures that within minutes my inbox would be by fast filling with “choose me!” emails and my phone ringing off the hook. This truly is a user friendly site.

My results were interesting actually. Using very accurate data it came out that I would only save £20 per year for changing suppliers. Usually I am very much a case of “Money is money, it all adds up so we’ll change” however as I am super happy with the service I get from my current provider I don’t feel changing right now will benefit me. I don’t see this as a negative result actually as now I know that for me the way for is to refocus my energy (!) on using less gas and electricity therefore EnergyHelpLine has helped me after all.

EnergyHelpLine is free to use and super easy. It has helped me see what I need to do in terms of sorting my energy out and hopefully will be useful some of you. Given my situation I have to ask…. What is your top energy saving tip? Any ideas are much appreciated.

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