I have just done a comparison based on my last 12 months usage 2459 kwh electric and 15634 kwh gas ( 1372 units) I think this is very high for a 1 bed flat only 4 radiators and water use gas, double glazing electric oven and hob. my reason for asking on a duel fuel deal changing to british gas online deal would save me £107 a year assuming this includes duel fuel discount. but if i changed my electric and gas to 2 seperate suppliers the savings total £131 this got me thinking and wondered if any of the experts could give me their oppinion

Thanks in advance

carl

I'm no expert but saving £131 on your current bills sounds better to me than saving £107. I would guess that you could save a bit more with insulation, energy saving bulbs, wooly jumpers and so on.

Hi and thanks maxsteam

I have already replaced all bulbs with energy efficient ones, and had a new condensing boiler fitted it august, so hopefully this should help and I try and leave it till im blue before putting the heating on lol, and recently become very energy concious by switching everything not used off so hoping this helps, it seems obvious to me to have it with seperate supliers as the savings are clearly bigger, just seems for the last few years the hype has been duel fuel and wonder if theres anything im missing

Most of these estimates are wildly optimistic - take them with a pinch of salt

My supplier (Scottish Power) estimated that I could save £140 per year by changing to (wait for it) Scottish Power - and I am already on their best rates (dual fuel) - so I guess that they were just trying to get more custom ??

I also don't have any belief that any one supplier is cheaper than another - they are all raising their prices weekly - the only thing that may be worth investigating is FIXED PRICE deals - lets be honest - the prices are never going to drop so it may be a good move to get as long a fixed price as possible - but then thats up to you....

Thanks for your reply twee,

I got my figures by doing a comparison on this site, Im very dubious about fixed price deals because I do think prices will come back down eventually, also to go on for example british gas fixed price 2011, for it to become cost effective prices would have to rise by another 52% thats pricy in my eyes. also my original question was whether dual fuel is the way forward as at this moment in time it would be more cost effective to get my 2 fuels from different suppliers?

Mostly, you will receive some kind of benefit or incentive to have dual fuel with the same supplier.

Some suppliers will have a national price for gas but all have regional for electricity (transco do the majority of gas to the whole country, however the distribution companies for electricity, plus the companies used for meter operations vary from area to area and therefore so do the costs)

This means the cheapest electricity provider for your area might not be the cheapest in another (hence why you need to put your postcode in these comparison sites so they can get the right prices for your area)

It may be the cheapest gas supplier has higher electricity prices for your area and any discount is counteracted by the unit prices, giving the results you got.

If you think you've found a better deal, go for it would be my advice. That said, if the £20 a year you'll save means going to a poorly rated company, also bearing in mind you'll need to deal with 2 separate companies instead of just one, is it worth it? If you've reduced your usage but were quoted on the old usage, the savings between dual an two singles will also be less.

Fixed price is always a risk, you pay more so you may not have to in future.. I don't think prices will come down personally, however I've not fixed mine yet either.. I think we'll know more by Dec/Jan