If you have a smart meter and you pay for your energy by Direct Debit, you can switch to Bulb.
It's free to upgrade to a smart meter. For any service other than a smart meter installation, there's a charge for changing or removing your meter. You'll need to wait until you've been with Bulb for around a month first.
If you have a compatible smart top up (prepay) meter, you can switch to Bulb on our Smart Pay As You Go plan. Once you're on our Smart Pay As You Go plan, you can top up your electricity and gas meters online, in the Bulb app, or at any PayPoint store.
Bulb Energy is reviewed highly on independent user review site Trustpilot. The supplier boasts an average rating of 4.8 out of 5, from over 58,000 customer reviews - with an impressive 88% rating Bulb as 'excellent'. Notably, the speed and simplicity of its customer service is praised by a number of customers.
You can call us on 0300 30 30 635.
You don't need to tell your supplier you want to switch to Bulb. We can do that for you. Once you send us your meter readings, we'll send them to your previous supplier so they can close your account. You'll receive your final bill within 6 weeks of switching.
If you've just switched to Bulb, you should send your first reading within 5 days of your switch completing. But don't worry, we'll send you an email to remind you. Ideally, after that, you should submit meter readings every month. We'll send you a monthly reminder.
You don't need to take any readings with a smart meter, it will do that automatically. But if you want them for your own peace of mind, you can still get them.
How to use the chart: The code number of a bulb consists of a letter or letters followed by a number. The letter indicates the shape of the bulb and the number relates to the diameter of the bulb in eighths of an inch. The most commonly used household bulb is the A-19.
Smart meters are worth it to people who want to make a conscious reduction in their energy consumption, either to save money or be more environmentally friendly. Overall, smart meters can save money in homes that intend to monitor their usage and adjust their power consumption behaviour accordingly.
We'll email your statements to you each month, but you can also see your account balance and download your previous statements in your Bulb account. To see your balance, choose 'Payments & statements' on the home screen, then scroll down to 'Statements'.
Your smart meter can take readings: every half hour. once a day. once a month.
Our mobile app is free and available for iOS and Android. For iOS, download the app in the App Store. For Android, download the app in the Google Play Store. You can use the app to submit meter readings with your phone's camera, download past statements and share your referral link.
To read the meter:
- Read the first 4 dials from left to right - ignore the large dials or red dials.
- If the pointer is between two numbers, write down the lower number - if it's between 9 and 0, write down 9.
- If the pointer is directly over a number, write down that number.
Your meter may show you 3 readings - one will be your day reading, one your night reading and the final reading is a total reading. We'll only need to take the day and night readings.
The important thing to remember is that your energy supply will not be disrupted and any credit balance you have will be protected. You don't need to do anything – you will continue to receive energy from your supplier and any credit balance you have will remain protected.
EDF has been selected by Ofgem to take over nearly 220,000 domestic customers of the failed supplier Utility Point.
Who is the cheapest energy supplier in 2021?
- Octopus Energy.
- Utility Warehouse.
- Outfox The Market.
- Pure Planet.
- Orbit Energy.
Energy firm Utility Point has confirmed it will make redundancies and that customers have been transferred to EDF, following its collapse last week. The supplier, among a number of small energy companies to go bust as a result of surging wholesale energy prices, ceased trading on 14 September.
Bristol Energy customers gave its billing accuracy a good rating of four out of five stars in our survey. 71% of the firm's customers said it was good or excellent in this area. It offers a variety of payment options, including direct debits and prepayment meters, as well as a discount for paperless billing.
Can I get an Economy 10 smart meter? Simple answer: no. There's no such thing as an Economy 10 smart meter, which means Economy 10 tariffs are incompatible with existing smart meters. If you already have a smart meter installed in your home, you'll need to replace it with an Economy 10 meter if you decide to switch.
Octopus Energy score an impressive 4.8 out of 5 stars at TrustPilot (from over 65,000 Octopus Energy reviews), with 90% of the
reviewers rating them as excellent.
What do other Octopus Energy reviews say? Is Octopus Energy any good?
| Rating | Percentage of reviews |
|---|
| Excellent | 90% |
| Great | 5% |
| Average | <1% |
| Poor | <1% |
In Uswitch's latest customer survey of more than 17,000 UK households, OVO Energy scored four and a half stars out of five. For the 2021 Uswitch Energy Awards, OVO reviews were collected in 14 categories, with the supplier scoring an 87% Overall Customer Satisfaction rating.
Read your smart gas meter
- Pressing button '9' on the meter's keypad will supply read information.
- A single button press will show your total read used for billing purposes, displayed as 'volume' followed by the read itself in m3.
Smart meters
- Press 9 on your keypad. You'll see 'IMP R01' followed by a reading. This is usually your day (or peak) reading.
- Press 9 again until you see 'IMP R02' followed by a reading. This is usually your night (or off-peak) reading.
press the white B button - the screen will light up. wait until the screen says 'meter boost' - press 'A' to select 'no' and you should see numbers followed by 'KWH' write down the numbers from left to right. ignore any zeroes at the beginning and any numbers after the decimal point.
Gas SMART metersAll you need to do is press '9' on the keypad. The word VOLUME will appear on the screen then you will see a row of digits folowed by M3. Note down the numbers before the decimal point, ignoring any zeroes at the start. This meter reading is 45.
kvarh is kilo volt amperes reactive hours, which is "reactive" power. multiplied by time. The units are the same as those of energy, but this. meter does not represent energy delivered to the load because the. measurements are based on those components of current and voltage which.
The Bulb Smart Tariff. The Bulb Smart Tariff is currently in beta testing. It's a 2-rate tariff designed to reflect peak and off-peak pricing, so if you're able to shift your energy usage to off-peak times, then you'll benefit from the lower tariff and save money on your energy bills.
To read your Landis and Gyr electricity meter, press 'B' to light the screen up. You should be given the option for a meter boost - press 'A' to select 'No', and then you should be able to see your electricity reading.
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- Unplug the IHD and let it run out of power completely.
- Leaving the IHD unplugged, restart it by pressing the round, flat button on the back.
- Let the emergency power reserve run out completely.
- Plug the IHD in to recharge it, then switch it back on.
High gas bills may be due to a gas meter that is incorrectly recording the amount of gas you are using, but this is unusual. While there is no simple way you can test whether your meter is accurate, if you are concerned about your meter readings, contact your energy supplier.
If the smart meter has A and B buttons
- Press the B button to wake up the screen.
- When the screen lights up, press the B button a few times until you see a message starting with either 'Total' or 'TOU'.
- Press the A button a few times until you see 'Total Active Export' - this screen will show your export reading in kWh.
