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May 13, 2021 · If you need a commercial energy plan, you can visit our business energy page or connect with a Choose Energy expert and learn more about customized energy plans for your business. Green energy options with Bulb. All of Bulb’s Texas energy plans are powered by 100 percent renewable energy sourced directly from
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Sep 24, 2020 · Bulb wants to make energy simple for Texans. Switching to Bulb takes less than two minutes and the company will always pay up to $100 in cancellation fees. By reducing barriers, Bulb makes...
To earn the ENERGY STAR, LED bulbs are tested by accredited labs to meet strict quality and efficiency standards. This third-party certification helps ensure that every ENERGY STAR certified light bulb will deliver the quality and efficiency you expect. Find eligible commercial light fixtures
- Bulb Energy is one of the best-value energy suppliers in the UK.
- Bulb Energy: review in brief
- Bulb Energy: tariff
- Bulb Energy: prices
- How green is Bulb Energy?
- Bulb Energy: customer service
- Bulb Energy: reviews from users and experts
- Bulb Energy: smart meter
- Bulb Energy: referral
- Bulb Energy: Warm Home Discount
Reviews
By Richard Hart
last updated 25 August 2021
(Image: © Bulb Energy)
•Award-winning energy supplier
•Over one million customers
•18% cheaper than Big Six standard plans
Bulb Energy was set up in 2015 by two friends – Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood – to provide people with a simpler, cheaper and greener energy supplier. Fast forward five years and Bulb continues to demonstrate these positive values, providing over a million UK households with affordable, 100% green electricity.
Bulb Energy: key facts
Green electricity: 100%
•One variable tariff
•Gives 30 days’ notice if prices change
•100% renewable electricity
•10% green gas
The single Bulb Energy tariff – Vari-Fair – is a variable rate plan, available for electricity and dual-fuel. Vari-Fair uses 100% renewable electricity and 10% green gas. The rest is offset via Bulb's work with carbon reduction projects around the world, making the tariff 100% carbon neutral. As a result, Bulb's Vari-Fair tariff is a great option for anyone looking for a green energy supplier.
It also typically sits at the cheaper end of the UK energy market, as we show below. Bulb says it always offers the "best possible price" and will pass any wholesale energy drops on to customers.
•One of the cheapest energy suppliers
•£143 saving compared to the cheapest Big Six tariff
•Exact prices depend on where you live in the UK
•£50 credit if you refer a friend
If we dig down a little more into Bulb Energy’s prices, data from independent firm Energy Helpline shows that the annual cost for an average UK home is £890. (These figures are based on a typical annual consumption of 2,900 kWh electricity and 12,000 kWh gas.) That's £143 less than the cheapest Big Six tariff, which is EDF's standard variable plan (£1,033).
In August 2020, our research revealed that Bulb's Vari-Fair tariff for a central London postcode offered one kWh of electricity for 14.1p. This made Bulb Energy the cheapest green energy provider on the market: it was cheaper than Octopus Energy (14.6p), Shell Energy (15.2p), EON (15.9p) and British Gas (16.9p).
•'UK's biggest green energy supplier'
•100% green electricity
•10% green gas, the rest is carbon offset
Bulb claims that it's the ‘UK’s biggest green energy supplier’ - although it isn't the greenest. That accolade goes to Green Energy UK, which uses 100 green gas (but is considerably more expensive).
All the electricity used in Bulb's tariff is either bought from renewable generators or purchased from the wholesale market. This ensures that every unit Bulb puts into the grid comes from a renewable source, including solar, wind and hydropower.
Bulb’s tariff also uses 10% green gas, which comes from renewable sources - mainly food and farm or animal waste, which has been converted into biogas. That's less green gas than OVO Energy (15%), but more than most other energy suppliers.
•Contact Bulb by email, social media, live chat or phone
•Answered our call within three minutes
•Online help centre and forum are very helpful
All in all, we found that Bulb Energy offers an excellent level of customer service. If you have any questions or you want to make an enquiry, you can reach Bulb via email, Facebook and Twitter messaging, a live online chat service, or the phone. Bulb's website contact page explains that live chat is the fastest way to get in touch and claims its team usually responds within three minutes.
Bulb's chat function and phone lines are available on weekdays from 9am to 6pm (excluding Bank Holidays). We called the supplier across the space of a week, at several different times, and were able to speak to somebody within two to three minutes each time. Bulb's customer service advisers were polite and helpful, and quickly answered our queries.
When we tried to reach Bulb via email, we received a response within 12 hours. However, we've seen some user reviews on Trustpilot that suggest the wait time for a reply can be several days.
•Uswitch runner-up Energy Supplier of the year 2020
•88% of users on TrustPilot rate it 'excellent'
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.
However, there has been some criticism on Trustpilot around smart meter functionality and compatibility, and regarding teething problems some have had when switching to the Vari-Fair tariff. Any complaints and issues appear to have been typically resolved or replied to by Bulb in a reasonably swift timeframe.
Snapshot: Bulb customer review
Désiré Athow has been with Bulb Energy for two years. We asked him to rate his experience.
•Installing second-gen smart meters across the country
•Can't take readings from first-gen smart meters
Bulb Energy is currently installing second generation smart meters (SMETS2) across the country for any customers who don’t have one. The supplier has also recently released guidelines for members around how its smart meter roll-out is being done with social distancing and COVID-19 precautions in mind. Along with the smart meter itself, Bulb also gives homeowners an In-House Display (IHD) gadget, which shows you your daily energy usage.
However, customers who switch to Bulb Energy who have first-generation smart meters (SMETS1) should be aware that currently Bulb is unable to take readings from these. The company says that by the end of 2020 an update to the SMETS1 meters should bring them onto the same network as the SMETS2s. As a result, Bulb isn't offering to upgrade customers’ old meters if they switch to Vari-Fair.
•Refer a friend and you'll both get £25 per utility
The Bulb Energy referral scheme – or ‘Refer a Friend’ as the company calls it – is another popular incentive for people to switch to Bulb. Presently, if a friend sends you their referral link and you end up switching your gas and electricity to Bulb, both of you will receive a £50 credit as a thank you. If you just switch your electricity or gas, it’s £25.
You can use the Bulb referral scheme as many times as you want, and you’ll still receive the financial reward each time a friend signs up. They must use your specific link, of course, otherwise the referral credit won’t work.
Bulb's referral conditions also say that the person you refer must not already be a Bulb member, or be moving into a property already supplied by Bulb. Also, they must not have previously left Bulb in the last year.
•Applications currently closed
Since 2019, Bulb has offered eligible households the Warm Home Discount and will be doing so again this year when applications become available in the autumn. Many suppliers offer the scheme, which can discount up to £140 from your electricity bills for winter 2020 to 2021.
When applications open again, you’ll be eligible for the Warm Home Discount if you get the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit (known as the ‘core group’) or you’re on a low income and meet Bulb's criteria for the scheme (known as the ‘broader group’).
You can register your interest in the scheme and see the qualifying criteria on Bulb's website.
ENERGY STAR Certified Light Bulbs: Use up to 90% less energy than standard bulbs. Last at least 15 times longer and saves about $55 in electricity costs over its lifetime. Meet strict quality and efficiency standards that are tested by accredited labs and certified by a third party.
Light Bulbs. Commercial Light Fixtures. Eligible Commercial Fixture Types. The ENERGY STAR label is primarily intended for products to be installed in residential applications, though some commercial grade light fixtures are included in the program.
Nov 22, 2021 · Bulb is by far the largest energy supplier to go bust after a string of more than 20 company collapses since September. The total cost of the energy market crunch could run to around £2bn...
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