Energy Suppliers

Somewhere under the ground supplying my house is a pipe along which travels natural gas. Additionally there is a big cable that is connected to the step down transformer at the end of the street along which mains electricity flows into my house.

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/videos/480x360/118823503176.jpg

There are now a large number of energy suppliers that can in some way control the gas and electricity that I use. I say in some way, as I have to pay these companies to supply me with my energy needs. This is where I get a little bit lost...

I don't understand how it all works. Let's say I am with one supplier (let's call it Energic). They are supplying me with gas and electricity. Someone from Energic will come round to read my meters, although in reality they will expect me to do that and submit the readings on line. Now, let's imagine that for one reason or another, perhaps a huge increase in cost, I decide to switch suppliers. I find another company, Greenercal, that can do a better deal. I apply online and they tell me not to worry they will do the switch for me.

After a few weeks my supplier has switched. But what has really changed? Have I got different gas and electricity? Do I have more or less? It is of a different quality? Is Energic electricity generated in a different way to Greenercal? Is the gas from Energic obtained from a different source than Greenercal?

I guess technically the answer to some of these questions is yes but there is no way that my electricity is generated exclusively in a Greenercal power station. What gets to my house must be a 'mixture' of electricity from the National Grid.

Does it really matter who supplies me? Well as far as I am concerned the best supplier is the one that gives me good customer service and a cheap price...

Any suggestions?

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sparkly bathroom prevented by natural chemical equilibria

Image
I have had the pleasure of cleaning the bathroom today. I have used a number of different products over the years to find a chemical that will remove the annoying marks from the tiles, taps and shower screen. The hard water means that no matter how clean and sparkly I get the taps, they are only two showers away from being once again covered in the annoying white powder.   Crystals of limescale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kesselstein_k.jpg) There is a lot of interesting chemistry involved in limescale. It is essentially deposits of insoluble calcium carbonate left behind from the hot water. But how does it get into the water in the first place and why doesn't it stay in it? Limescale initially starts as limestone, chalk and other similar sedimentary rocks that formed from the bodies of tiny calcium containing sea creatures that lived in warm shallow tropical seas millions of years ago. See the BBC clip at this learning zone site. Since their formation these rocks have been
Read more

Polka dot, 7 inches, 15 minutes, luke warm

Image
January 2010 and a new craze hit Facebook. Across the social network women started to post colours as their status. Some posted beige, some ivory, some hot pink, some polka dot. For a while people across the world were confused, intrigued, indeed fascinated by what these colours could mean. In fact the colours referred to the colour of the bra the woman was wearing that particular day. This 'craze' was in aid of a breast cancer awareness campaign a fantastic cause and in my opinion a clever and innovative use of Facebook. Over the last couple of days some of the ladies have begun to post a length measured in inches followed by a time in minutes. This has resulted in a status that might read '6 inches 25 minutes'. Oh how amusing...I like a bit of smut but I found these updates strangely annoying. Obviously it doesn't mean what it says and is code for something fairly inane and boring. So slightly intrigued and determined to crack the code I did what I always
Read more

What's Your Station?

Image
One of my most vivid memories is completing my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition in the New Forest one October half term. It must have been 1987 as Mike Smith was the Radio 1 breakfast host and I remember cooking bacon on the Trangia stove, in a field behind a scout hut in Fordingbridge, whilst listening to T'Pau's new single China in Your Hand, it was a gorgeous Autumn morning.  http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2007/08/Radio_dynamo.jpg I had a red plastic battery operated radio that we listened to as we walked. That radio once got us into trouble on a snowy February in Dartmoor as the magnet in the speaker affected our compass, a rookie error that put us out a couple of miles searching for a postbox on Rough Tor.   Radio 1 was the station to listen to, the new music was heard first on this station, and alongside Mike Smith the line-up included Simon Bates, Mike Read, Simon Mayo and of course Steve Wright. Whilst at Uni I still enjoyed listening to Simon Mayo's breakfast
Read more