Moving Home Energy Guide
There are a few things you can do when you first move into a new home to help with energy:
- Write down the readings from the meters (these are the numbers displayed on the meter, but you may need to press some buttons).
- Write down the meter serial numbers (these are the numbers close to the barcode on each meter).
- Find out which company supplies the energy. There may be one company for gas and one company for electricity, or one company may supply both. To find out the gas supplier, you can go to www.findmysupplier.energy and to find out the electricity supplier, you could firstly find out who the network operator is for your area at www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator, then contact the network operator to find out who the electricity supplier is at https://www.ssen.co.uk/supplier-search/
- Register your details with the supplier, either by phone or online.
There are a few other things to consider:
Meter type – your meter may be any of the following:
- an older style “heritage” meter
- a “smart” meter
- a prepayment (pay as you go) meter where you pay in advance, then use the gas or electricity
- a credit meter where you pay when you receive a bill, which is around every 3 months, or you pay a set amount monthly by direct debit from your bank
Payment methods – if the meter is a prepayment meter (which can be heritage prepayment or smart prepayment), you will need a method to pay. With heritage meters, you will have an electricity key that goes into the meter and a gas card that goes into the gas meter. With smart meters, you will have payment cards that transfer the payment directly to the meter using wi-fi. If you don’t have these payment methods in place, but you have prepayment meters, you will need to request them as soon as possible once you have registered with the energy company.
Is the gas capped? – If the gas is capped, you will not be able to use the gas heating system until it is uncapped by the landlord.