Big Energy Saving Week – It’s time to switch your energy company

Big Energy Saving Week

Today, 22^nd January 2018, marks the start of the Big Energy Saving Week, brought to you by the Energy Saving Trust along with Citizens Advice and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This is big campaign to encourage you, yes you, reading this post to switch your energy company. Let me throw a few scary statistics at you.

Ofgem research has highlighted that an incredible 35% of British households failed to switch their gas or electricity energy company from 2012 to 2017. There is so much money here that has been spent unnecessarily by the British public. In fact, the Energy Saving Trust estimate that this failing to switch has cost these households a huge £1,500 over the six years. Not good.

Why don’t people switch?

If you are one of this third of people or maybe you know you haven’t switched for a couple of years, then why not?

The Switch process is complicated and will take me ages to organise.

No! The switch process is no hassle at all, it’s always my favourite bills to switch as I know its going to take me far less time than switching my car insurance or house insurance (which I also change every year!).

Grab a copy of your latest bill which is going to give your usage, amount paid via monthly direct debit. It will also tell you which tariff you are go. Hop on over the and all you need to do is enter your name, address, current energy provider and tariff. Then enter what you pay every month in £. Done. That is all you need to enter and the site will work out much you will save by switching.

I popped in my details. My energy was last swopped in August of last year, and already I can see that I can save some money. I can move from paying £95 per month to £84 per month, a saving of £132 per year. That’s worth doing isn’t it? £132 for 5 minutes work of putting your simple details into the Citizens Advice comparison tool.

The switching tool is recommending some companies that I have never heard of.

This is true, the smaller companies, i.e. not Big 6 dominating companies, are the ones offering good deals. They are working hard to build up a customer base and thus are offering great value deals. For the past two years I have been with smaller energy companies and have had nothing but great experiences with them. My energy was provided by Affect Energy then I switched over to Octopus. The customer experience has been amazing, and I have saved money. All energy companies provide the same product so why not go for a company that saves you money.

The switching process will take ages and the companies are bound to mess up my payments.

The energy switch guarantee states that the switch must be completed within 21 days. The old and new companies will take care of everything ensuring you notice nothing different. Except your next direct debit being lower!

Mrs Mummypenny’s Mission

It’s my mission in business to encourage everyone who reads my website to save money. And the number one thing I recommend is that people switch their energy company. Many readers have done it and saved, what stopping you from going ahead and doing it. Philip Sellwood, Chief Exec of Energy Saving Trust says the same.

“The difference between the average Standard Variable Tariff and the cheapest deal on the market is significant, but millions of households still aren’t accessing these savings. To put that into context, switching this year could save you up to £300 – equivalent to more than a month’s worth of food shopping. In other words, if you haven’t switched for six years, you’ve missed out on more than six months of food shopping. With January being a tight month for household budgets, now is the time to look at switching your energy tariff to make sure you’re on the best possible deal.”

Competition Time

I have two exciting competitions to tell you about. Firstly, hop on over and visit the Energy Saving Trust Facebook page – @EnergySavingTrust where you can win a £899 retro-styled energy efficient fridge freezer from luxury appliance brand Gorenje.

Plus, you can win £1,500 in cash by entering our !

Some Top Energy Saving Tips from Energy Saving Trust

Here are some energy saving tips that you might not have thought about before, with amounts of money you could save!!

• You can save £30 per year by switching off appliances at the wall. Standby mode costs you money!
• Get everyone in the house to spend 1 minute less in the shower saving you energy and if you have a water meter it will save you water costs as well. This will save £80 for a 4-person family.
• Use a washing up bowl rather than using a running tap and save £25 per year.
• Turning down your thermostat by just one degree will save you £80 per year.
• Only fill your kettle with the amount of water you need and save yourself £7 per year.

If you do all 5 things, which let’s face it, are not that difficult, you will save yourself £222 per year. Not bad at all!!

Don’t forget to head over to the to do a quick comparison of your energy costs and hopefully save yourself a nice chunk of money.

This is a collaborative post.