Latest updates on bulb energy

With 5 years in the Uk energy market, bulb energy became the first large energy supplier to go into financial difficulties. OFGEM handed over bulb energy administration to Teneo, a global advisory and public relations company to protect its 1.7 million customers. The government-funded £1.7 bill (BBC ) to support the immediate future of the company. If you are a bulb customer you will not be affected. If you want to Switch to bulb energy you can still do it and your prepayment meter will work.

            Bulb Energy had been one of the UK’s fastest-growing energy firms, which started trading in the market in 2015. Since then, it has earned great success in the energy market by increasing its customer base and improving its service.

Currently, it supplies gas and electricity for more than 1.7 million homes in the UK. In March 2020, they took over 900 customers from ‘Gnergy’ since they decided to stop trading.

Bulb energy provides 100% green energy to a very affordable price in a single tariff, making its ‘make energy simpler, cheaper and greener’ a reality.   

Within just five years in the energy market, bulb energy started shaking the big six companies‘ energy empire. It currently holds 6% of the energy market share. Is it just their marketing campaign, or does it back by real evidence? Read our bulb energy review to find it out yourself.

In this comprehensive  Bulb Energy review, we will be evaluating its available tariffs, customer service, customer reviews, and much more to make sure you make the best decision when it comes to selecting your energy provider.

How do we review bulb energy tariffs?

   When it comes to the simplicity of tariffs, no one can beat bulb energy. They offer only two tariffs, one for the standard credit customer and the other for the prepaid customers.

Bulb energy Vari-fair Tariff

Bulb energy’s most common tariff, what they call  ‘Vari-Fair Tariff,’ provides  100% renewable electricity and 100% carbon-neutral gas. Var-fair Tariff is variable, so it reflects the wholesale market price of energy.

If the wholesale price of the Gas and Electricity goes down, you can enjoy the benefit. But, if the wholesale price of gas and electricity price goes up, your energy bill will go up. However, Bulb Energy will give you 30 days’ notice enabling you to decide whether you stick with Bulb Energy or switch to another provider.

Vari-fair Tariff has no exit fee. But this is not something unique to bulb energy. The standard variable tariff of most of energy companies doesn’t involve any exit fee.

Bulb energy Pay as you go plan.

If you are keen on having proper control over what you pay for energy or your credit score doesn’t allow you to go for a postpaid energy tariff, Bulb’s pay-as-you-go energy tariff is ideal for you.

Similar to the Vari-fair Tariff, this is again a variable rate tariff with 100% renewable electricity and 100% carbon neutral gas.

If you have a compatible smart meter, you can top up using their app. If you don’t have a smart meter. You can top up from more than  50000 pay zone and pay point stores.

One important thing that you should understand is that whether it is Bulb or any other energy company, prepaid energy is way more expensive than postpaid Gas and Electricity. So switch to a credit plan when you can.

Bulb Energy Economy 7 tariff

If you have an economy of 7 meters, bulb energy offers an economy of seven tariffs as well. This is available for both prepaid and postpaid customers. You can get electricity at much lower rates at off-peak night hours and at a higher rate at other times. Unfortunately, the bulb energy official website doesn’t provide sufficient details about this tariff. But if you are interested in Bulb’s economy 7 tariff, you can follow this link to get more information.

How cheap is Bulb Energy?

            Bulb Energy stands among the cheapest energy suppliers in England, Wales, and Scotland. Based on the typical annual consumption of 2,900 kWh electricity and 12,000 kWh gas, an average customer will pay £1134 with the Vari-fair tariff. That makes them around £90 cheaper than the big six suppliers’ standard tariff, which is currently standing at about £1034 per year.

 Average Bulb energy customers with a prepayment meter will pay  £81.59 per month, which amounts to  £979.03  per year. This is about £40 more expensive than the Vari-fair tariff but still a very reasonable price compared to most energy companies.

Careful economy 7 customers will save more with bulb energy. Economy 7 customers with a credit meter will pay £604, and one with a prepayment meter will pay £611  per year.

At the time of writing, customers who pay via direct debit pay 14.107p per 1kWh of electricity and 3.061p per 1kWh of gas. Prepayment customers pay 13.661p per kWh for electricity and 3.208p per kWh for gas.

Even though it seems that the prepayment customers pay less than customers who pay via direct debit, they ultimately spend more because a much more expensive standing charge offsets the cheaper electricity unit rate.

            Bulb Energy is cheap in green space as well. Their electricity price per KWh is lower than other leading green energy suppliers such as Octopus Energy, Shell Energy, Green Energy UK, and EON. However, bulb energy is not the cheapest green energy supplier in the Uk energy market. Other suppliers, such as Pure planet, offer 100% green energy at less expensive rates.

            Even though the Bulb Energy tariff is cheaper at a given point, Ther is no guarantee that you can enjoy this rate throughout the year. But it is beyond the control of bulb energy. This is the nature of the variable tariffs. Bulb energy mitigates this by keeping its prices very competitive and giving customers adequate time to switch in a price hike.

 

 Bulb Energy Review – How green is it?

     When it comes to renewable energy, there are different shades of green. Bulb energy may not be the greenest energy supplier. Overall, it is a very reasonable choice for a customer looking for green energy for an affordable price.

            Bulb Energy supplies 100% renewable electricity produced by renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydro. Usually. They purchase electricity directly from renewable generators across the UK, such as Llyn Brenig Hydro in North Wales. Sometimes they buy renewable electricity directly from the wholesale market to cover up the shortfalls.

  Supplying green gas is a challenge. In fact, only one energy supplier, ‘Green gas UK,’ provides 100% green gas in the UK. Green gas contributes to 10% of the Bulb’s total gas sell, which lies on par with the industrial average.

Bulb energy covers up the rest by offering 100% carbon neutral gas.

They offset the carbon by supporting carbon reduction programs around the world.Further, for every new member who joins Bulb Energy, they donate £2 to Bulb foundation, which makes grants to charities and social enterprises that are making efforts to tackle the climate crisis ahead of us.

             According to Bulb Energy, an average member helps prevent the release of 3.4 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year, which is equal to the hard work of 1,689 trees.       

Bulb Energy ‘refer a friend’ scheme.

Bulb Energy customers are provided with a unique opportunity to earn some money by referring a friend to them. If your friend uses your referral code when signing up, you both will get £50 each. If your friend is switching to either electricity or gas, you both will receive £25 each.

This innovative referral system gave bulb energy a huge marketing boost. Some people have gone to the extent of writing fake reviews just to market their referral code to earn the £50 credit. So when you are reading bulb energy reviews, you should be mindful of this as well. These fake bulb reviews can be misleading and might not show the real picture.

How is the customer service?

            Customers can contact Bulb Energy via telephone, email, or via Facebook messenger. Apart from that, Bulb energy has introduced some simple tools for customers to help themselves, including their mobile app and Bulb community page. Through the community page, you can talk to staff as well as other bulb customers.

According to the official bulb website, the live chat is the fastest way to contact them, on which they take around 3 minutes to respond. You can contact them from 9 am to 6 pm on weekdays, excluding bank holidays.

            Which? says Bulb Energy was well below average for solving complaints on the same day or next working day during the first half of 2020. Also, it was around average for solving them within the first eight days.  91% of the customer problems were solved during that time. This is not bad compared to some other companies, who just managed to solve less than 60% of complaints within eight days.

            In Which?’s latest snapshot investigation, Bulb Energy took 9 minutes 56 seconds on average to respond to phone calls, which is an improvement since the last year where it took 19 minutes 2 seconds to answer phone calls. But this is well below average compared to the average time, which was 5 minutes 57 seconds,

 Bulb Energy took 9 minutes 29 seconds on average to respond in live chat, which it says the best way to contact them immediately. The average time taken by all the companies to respond to live chat was 3 minutes 4 seconds. These statistics imply that Bulb Energy needs to improve its responding time to provide better customer service.

Bulb energy Reviews in leading customer review websites

            Customer reviews are real-life experiences 0f bulb customers, .so these cannot be ignored. However, when you look at the customer reviews, it is essential to look at the overall picture rather than paying more attention to a single positive or negative comment.

Bulb energy customer rating in which survey.

In the Annual Which survey in 2020, bulb energy ranked joint 10th position out of 25 firms surveyed. The Which survey is the broadest, most independent survey on energy companies. 7446 customers did the rating, and

 Bulb Energy scored 69% overall customer score. It got 4 stars for its bill accuracy, bill clarity, complaint handling, and customer service. But Just 3 stars for the ‘value for money’ category. However, this is a significant decline from the last year where they found themselves at joint-third in the survey. 

Bulb energy review in Uswitch annual survey

            In contrast to the Which survey Bulb Energy scored 5 out of 5 stars in Uswitch’s annual survey in 2020. The survey included 17,000 energy customers. Based on their reviews, Bulb scored 91% for overall customer satisfaction.  However, there was some criticism about its billing system.

Bulb energy reviews in Trustpilot

            In TrustPilot, Bulb Energy got 4.8 stars out of 5 from 66,533 reviews. Around 94% have rated them as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Great,’ and only 4% have rated them as ‘Poor’ or ‘Bad.’ Most of the reviews suggest that their customer service is very efficient and willing to help at any moment. However, most customers who have rated them ‘Poor’ or ‘Bad’ have criticized their billing system and customer service.

Bulb energy reviews in Review.io

Bulb energy reviews in Review.io is not very appealing. From  155 reviews, they got only 1.9/5 stars. Their billing system and customer service are criticized by the reviewers repeatedly. Only 20 % of the customers recommend Bulb to another customer. But considering the number of reviews, there is a high chance that there is a lot of bias involved.

 

  Bulb energy Warm Home Discount scheme

            The Warm Home Discount is a government scheme that aims to tackle fuel poverty in the UK. If you are eligible, you can get £150 off from your winter electricity bill.

Bulb energy offers Warm home discount to qualified customers. However, Applications are now closed for winter 2020 to 2021. They will announce the scheme for the next winter in spring 2021.

Bulb energy Smart Meter

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Bulb energy currently installs STEM 2 smart meters all over the country. This is part of the national wide upgrades to the energy system.

Smart meters directly send the meter reading to the energy supplier. So you don’t need to take meter readings, and your electricity bill will be accurate.

In contrast to the STEM 1 smart meters STEM, 2 smart meters are not specific to the supplier. So you can switch the energy supplier and still maintain the smart functionality of the meter.

 Bulb energy installs smart meters free of charge. An expert engineer will do the installation, and it takes about 2 hours. Everyone will wear personal protective equipment to make sure you are safe.

 Bulb Energy also provides its customers with an In-House Display (IHD), which allows you to view your daily energy usage.

Set daily budget with bulb energy smart meter

How can I switch to Bulb Energy?

Switching to bulb energy is super easy. You can switch through an independent energy switch website, or you can switch directly through their website.

If you use the bulb energy website, the process will take about three minutes. You just need to enter a few details, and bulb energy will handle the full switching process, including informing your old supplier.

Bulb energy is a signatory to energy switch guarantee, so a smooth transition is guaranteed. Taking things one step further, bub energy promise to pay your exit fee to your old supplier up to £60 for gas and electricity

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