Energy Shift

I got my energy bill in which was exorbitant as usual. It was an estimated bill and in the past British Gas have overestimated by about 50%. With this in mind,I have read the meters today and lo and behold  they have underestimated for once!

I've paid the bill but it's one heck of a chunk to fork out just before Christmas!!!

I had my Bill too. Its moved from £104 credit to £11 debit. Dread to think what next month's bill will look like.

We're on track to use our lowest gas and electricity for years. Gas is probably due to better loft insulation, lagging hot water pipes, reflective stuff behind radiators to direct heat back in toward the rooms instead of the windows/walls, turning the TRVs on the radiators down by 1 and closing blinds/curtains when the sun starts going down. For electric I can only think it's changing absolutely every light to LED but the difference is so big I can't be sure. The bills are still going to be massive though.

Energy Shift Challenge has just landed - for tomorrow - and its for 2 hours between 5 - 7 pm - to save 0.42 kwh.
I think that's about the same amount as last time but spread over 2 hours, instead of 1. Should be easier, I think?

You reduced your energy usage by 62% which means you'll get £3.93 credited to your account.

That's pretty generous. OVO are being stingymingebags and only giving 1p per 0.01kWh reduction! We 'reduced' by 0.37kWh yesterday without actually doing anything different, but we won't be able to reduce any more without turning radiators down or off.

My Next Energy Shift Challenge has arrived:-
The next Energy Shift event is scheduled for Thursday 19/01/2023 from 9:00AM to 10:00AM.
If I do this, they'll pay me 49p. That'll go a long way towards reducing my current debit statement of £180

Finished my Energy Shift now. Had a shower before 9 and boiled a kettle, filled a flask, also before 9. See what difference that makes!

Meanwhile, I'm going to have a moan about the Government's Energy Support Scheme that is giving me about £68 a month towards my energy bill. This has been offset against my Direct Debit so that each month I pay £68 less. As a result, I owe £180 to EON.
If I'd continued paying the same DD that I paid before the scheme started and the £68 had been paid on top of that, I wouldn't be in debt now.

I know the money is still in my bank account and I can pay it off but it seems that, if the Govt wanted to help with the rising costs, it was pointless to reduce a DD that I had already budgeted for.

Finished my Energy Shift now. Had a shower before 9 and boiled a kettle, filled a flask, also before 9. See what difference that makes!

Meanwhile, I'm going to have a moan about the Government's Energy Support Scheme that is giving me about £68 a month towards my energy bill. This has been offset against my Direct Debit so that each month I pay £68 less. As a result, I owe £180 to EON.
If I'd continued paying the same DD that I paid before the scheme started and the £68 had been paid on top of that, I wouldn't be in debt now.

I know the money is still in my bank account and I can pay it off but it seems that, if the Govt wanted to help with the rising costs, it was pointless to reduce a DD that I had already budgeted for.

Having told P about this he looked at our energy account. We're with Scottish Power.   He says that the monthly circa £68 is sent by Scottish Power directly to our bank account and the DD remains the same.  It seems that EON do it differently to SP.  P agrees you're entitled to moan.

Thanks J and P. Very interesting. You'd think that all energy suppliers would operate on the same lines but obviously not! I wonder how much they'll try to increase my DD by, when the support scheme comes to an end in a couple of months time.
I'll probably pay off the debt and go back to my previous DD - if they'll let me!

P looked at the funding scheme blurb which said that the money could go direct to your bank OR applied to your account. In principle you have control over the DD don't you, so that's an argument you might win. P says SP tried to reduce our DD at the end of summer as we were in credit, he said no as we would use up the credit in the winter months, they accepted that. Then again we don't have an Energy Shift option. I'd love to play that game.