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Discuss Bulb Energy in Special Administration in the Plumbing News area at PlumbersForums.net

Bulb Energy started in 2015 and was one of the first utility providers to offer renewable electricity and gas to consumers. Unfortunately Bulb has gone into special administration due to the spike in wholesale prices.
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With the administrators now appointed - Bulb can continue to trade until the time is right for the company to be sold under the terms of special administration.

So what should Bulb Customers do, as gas engineers and plumbers have you got any insider info that can help out members who may be in this situation, or other similar scenarios?
 
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The wife and I switched to Bulb some time ago and have always been happy with them, and their prices. Let's be honest, the gas and electric is all coming into our homes exactly the same way no matter which company we go with. So it then just comes down to price and customer service as to which one you go with.

I recently heard of a bloke who had been with British Gas for 15+ years. He would have been ripped off with "loyalty benefits" - Perhaps a Parker pen every couple of years.

Switching is the way to go, as we all now know. So the way we get got these days is by providing confusing contracts and fixed prices for periods of time. But we don't really know what price they'll be charged wholesale in the future so who knows whether the price we're being fixed into is a good one.

Which energy supplier are you with?
 
British Gas still, however I do switch regularly with newer green fixed tariffs to avoid extra cost.

Currently capped energy prices on gas/electricity till next summer.
 
I think it’s British Gas, my wife deals with it all. It was Sainsbury’s energy, but think they just transferred everything to BG as it was supplied by them anyway. I have no insider information about stuff like this.
 
The wife and I switched to Bulb some time ago and have always been happy with them, and their prices. Let's be honest, the gas and electric is all coming into our homes exactly the same way no matter which company we go with. So it then just comes down to price and customer service as to which one you go with.

I recently heard of a bloke who had been with British Gas for 15+ years. He would have been ripped off with "loyalty benefits" - Perhaps a Parker pen every couple of years.

Switching is the way to go, as we all now know. So the way we get got these days is by providing confusing contracts and fixed prices for periods of time. But we don't really know what price they'll be charged wholesale in the future so who knows whether the price we're being fixed into is a good one.

Which energy supplier are you with?
I was with AVRO who went bust so I was switched to Octopus by the authority. I would like to hear from Octopus users how good & how competitive on price they are?
 
I'm with Octopus and have been for a few years now. It's an electricity only tariff as we have oil heating. We also have an EV so are on the "Octopus Go" tariff. This costs 14.19p/kWh most of the day with 5p/kWh (both inc VAT) between 00:30 and 04:30hrs which is plenty of time for us to charge our EV. This tariff is due to expire in April so I expect we will see a price rise after that due to the energy market chaos but it was nice while it lasted...

Customer service has been pretty good although we did have an ongoing situation where they were not billing me due to two or three missing half-hour smart meter readings. This seemed to break their billing system and I had to chase them up a bit as well as doing some proactive payments to avoid accruing a large billing deficit. Of course I could have just put the money aside in a savings account and waited for them to actually ask for the money (interest free) but I wanted to get it sorted. It's all been fine since this was fixed and was really just a smart meter issue which is not uncommon I think.

I'm hoping to get 6kW solar PV installed next year and possibly battery storage as well so might switch to the Agile Octopus tariff so that I can pull power when the price is low (or even negative) and then consume it back out of the batteries when I have demand. To me that would be the holy grail.
 
The wife and I switched to Bulb some time ago and have always been happy with them, and their prices. Let's be honest, the gas and electric is all coming into our homes exactly the same way no matter which company we go with. So it then just comes down to price and customer service as to which one you go with.

I recently heard of a bloke who had been with British Gas for 15+ years. He would have been ripped off with "loyalty benefits" - Perhaps a Parker pen every couple of years.

Switching is the way to go, as we all now know. So the way we get got these days is by providing confusing contracts and fixed prices for periods of time. But we don't really know what price they'll be charged wholesale in the future so who knows whether the price we're being fixed into is a good one.

Which energy supplier are you with?
Octopus 2 year fixed for both. Smart meters, working well.
 
The wife and I switched to Bulb some time ago and have always been happy with them, and their prices. Let's be honest, the gas and electric is all coming into our homes exactly the same way no matter which company we go with. So it then just comes down to price and customer service as to which one you go with.

I recently heard of a bloke who had been with British Gas for 15+ years. He would have been ripped off with "loyalty benefits" - Perhaps a Parker pen every couple of years.

Switching is the way to go, as we all now know. So the way we get got these days is by providing confusing contracts and fixed prices for periods of time. But we don't really know what price they'll be charged wholesale in the future so who knows whether the price we're being fixed into is a good one.

Which energy supplier are you with?
I was with GREEN but when they went into administration I have been moved to Shell Energy...have not had a bill from them as yet.
 
I'm with OVO for gas and electric. Maybe not the cheapest, but I like their app, and you get 3% interest on your account balance, so I over pay to get that.
 
Based in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

I use NIE as electricity supplier and oil heating.

House is on a keypad meter so I can top up a few hundred £ before the price uplift on 13th Dec. This way Im still on the cheaper rate until I top up after this date.

House is on economy 7 as this works best for my needs. Including hot water immersion being on a timer all year around.
 
Utility point eg now edf :D
 
When my deal with Outfoxthemarket came to an end I had a good look around as I don't use a lot of elec/gas. Signed a fixed term with Eon which still has about 5 months to go and was cheaper than the new OTF deal I was offered, and glad I did! We'll see what happens next year.
 
Was with people's energy till they went bust. Got transferred to BG and it appears to be pointless changing.
BG almost immediately after we joined them started sending emails for us to increase payments. Not just 30, 40, or even a 50 pounds a month increase. But a ridiculous monthly rate more than double that we were paying People's energy.
 
Renewables are a funny thing as far as energy tariffs go. Many firms have green tariffs and do produce or buy renewable energy. The snag is that they then sell the Renewable Obligation Certificates to firms lacking renewable capacity which means the nenewables they sell subsidise the fossil energy sold by other firms. Different firms have different ways of dealing with this problem and some are merely greenwashing.

Interestingly, when the price caps kicked in, there was an exception granted to ONLY THREE firms who managed to demonstrate to OFGEM that the product they supplied was genuinely a different product that justified charging more than the cap. These were Ecotricity, Green Energy UK, and Good Energy. That no other firms were exempted tells a story..
.
 
Currently with EON for both gas and electricity. Was on a 1 year fixed rate which ran out in September. Couldn't find anyone cheaper than their renewal at that time, so on another fixed rate with them for 1 year, but no penalty for either gas or electric if I bail out during the year if a miracle happens and some deals appear again.
 
We've been with Octopus Energy for a few years now and have had no issues. Unfortunately anyone coming off a fixed price tariff will experience a pretty sharp rise in prises, ours went up by 35% in Sept but are still lower than most according to the comparison sites I checked at the time.
Looking forward, heating and energy use will be a serious consideration for many households. We have had cheap energy for a long time and in some ways sat back and enjoyed it without considering what would happen if it rises. Most people spend more on their TV and Internet services than heating and hot water! I have lost count of the jobs people have complained about boiler repair costs while passing a 60in" TV in every room! Ha, rant over.
 
Was with Symbio (electricity) and Daligas (gas) until they went under and now am with E.ON (electricity) and Shell Energy (gas).

The new 'capped' variable tariffs are considerably more expensive than my previous 12-month fix from March (about 50% up overall) and, of course, the higher prices kicked in just in time for winter so they have the biggest possible impact.

It's another example of the "A warranty is worthless if the underwriter goes bust." rule.
 
scotish power gas/leccy been there some time now waiting till things carm down then change
 
I was the octopus and I asked if they could assure me that the electricy coming into my home was green and renewable and only produced by local windmills as I did not want any other kind of electricity contaminating my circuits. They actually promised this in an email, I Rubbish you now.
 
British Gas dual fuel and electric vehicle special night tariff was with money plus but they went and was transferred to BG
 
We've been with Octopus Energy for a few years now and have had no issues. Unfortunately anyone coming off a fixed price tariff will experience a pretty sharp rise in prises, ours went up by 35% in Sept but are still lower than most according to the comparison sites I checked at the time.
Looking forward, heating and energy use will be a serious consideration for many households. We have had cheap energy for a long time and in some ways sat back and enjoyed it without considering what would happen if it rises. Most people spend more on their TV and Internet services than heating and hot water! I have lost count of the jobs people have complained about boiler repair costs while passing a 60in" TV in every room! Ha, rant over.
Cheap energy. You must be joking! I was paying £160 month before this crisis which was much more than for TV or internet and the difference is that I need energy wheras I can do without TV out internet if I have to. Energy and fuel has always been hugely expensive in this country compared to the USA and has never been cheap. Now the prices are ridiculous!
 

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