Last Sunday, I watched a webinar in which Jen Gale, author of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide, gave an overview of her book. This was the prompt for me to switch my energy supplier.
I’d seen adverts for Ecotricity in Permaculture Magazine and been subliminally aware that I needed to rethink where my energy was coming from. At the same time, I had the notion that renewable energy would be more expensive than that from my current provider, whose energy comes largely from fossil fuels.
In spite of making a pledge to switch, after the webinar I got on with life and the pledge slipped my mind. Fortunately, it was only a few days later that I remembered and just a few taps, the switch was made.
Before pressing the final button, Ecotricity made a cursory estimation of how much my monthly bill would be. This stopped me in my tracks, as it was an eye-popping £114 instead of the £50 I am currently paying elsewhere.
However, this does not of course mean I will be paying so much moving forward. For a start, the only question asked was with regard to the number of bedrooms in the property. Nothing about lifestyle, double-glazing or other factors which affect consumption.
The second factor depends on what happens in the future. If more people sign up, more can be invested in renewables, which in turn will increase supply.
Apart from the electricity, Ecotricity is moving towards producing its own Green Gas. Currently, non-fossil fuel sources for gas include animal manures and purpose-grown crops. While I’m not personally bothered about the former, I’d rather our fields were growing crops to eat. So, hopefully, their plans to produce the gas from meadows grown on depleted agricultural land will produce good results.
In the meantime, let’s hope my monthly energy bill is lower than estimated!
Growing out of chaos 
I hope so, too.
Thank you, Derrick.
I have been with ecotricity for a while and have no idea if it is dearer than other suppliers. I am lucky enough to be able to vote with my money for a more sustainable future even if it costs a bit more. Only time will tell if your bills are bigger and if it proves too expensive you can always switch back to a conventional supplier – you haven’t signed up for life!
Yes, that was my feeling, too 😊
Can’t wait to hear how your bills turn out. We dream about getting off the grid, but to date it has not happened “yet” -boohoo. We are working toward it slowly. Our biggest purchase has been our greenhouse. Luckily we ran out of funds before getting the gas heat up and running so we forced ourselves into alternative methods and THEY WORKED – WOOHOO!! We used the great methods from Elliot Coleman books and were very pleased with all that we have learned. Next is a tin can mini heat system to sustain our much smaller new backyard plots. They started just as 2 simple 3′ x 6′ above ground spaces to specifically grow fresh veggies for the table. Now I am in the process of constructing walls of screen for summer bug repellent and roll-up plastic for winter protection. Since they are mainly cool weather crops, we hope this will work out to our benefit. Thank you for sharing what works for you – it’s an inspiration!!
I guess you’re referring to another post regarding techniques in the garden?