How to setup energy in your new home

Get your gas & electricity setup in your new home

How to setup energy when moving home

Moving home is exciting and one of the biggest to-do's is setting up gas & electricity in your new home. We'll cover everything you need to do for your previous & new property, when you need to do it and how to reduce the cost of your energy bill in your new home. Broadly, you will need to:

Update

Suppliers

You need to let your previous and new suppliers know that you're moving in (or out)

Understand

YOUR METER

You need to understand where your fuse box is, who your energy supplier is & your meter type

Setup

YOUR ENERGY

To reduce the cost of our energy bills you will need to setup gas & electricity in your new home

Setting up gas and electricity in your new house

The best time to setup gas & electricity when moving home is about 3 weeks before you move in. If you do this in advance of moving you can setup a new energy supplier for when you move in, and avoid paying deemed contract prices.

Our home setup service will enable you to setup all of your utilities (council, water, energy, broadband, tv licence etc…) for your new property online and in one place.

You can update your address across your accounts such as loyalty cards, charities, and even provide meter readings.

With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about setting energy up in your new home.

Find your fuse box

The fusebox, also known as the circuit breaker box is one of the first things you should find when you move into your home. So, what is a fuse box and why do I care? 🧐

As we know, the fuse box makes sure that an appropriate amount of electricity is contained within each ‘circuit’.

If electricity demand exceeds a certain threshold it will cause a switch to trip. This is known as your trip switch. This shuts off electricity and will require you to flip’ it back to start using electricity again.

Find your energy meters

When you move into your new home you will need to find your gas and electricity meters. It may be that you only have electricity, as some homes don’t have any gas appliances.

There is a lot to do with your other utilities, you can check out our full guide on that here if you’ve not done council tax, broadband or water yet.

on your very first day you will want to take a meter reading for the gas & electric.

These meter readings will show how much consumption you are liable for at the point of moving in. The risk of not doing this is that you are charged for consumption you didn’t use.

Gas and electricity meters are usually found next to each other, but if you are unsure you can ask the seller, letting agent.

Reading your energy meters

Fortunately, reading your energy meters isn’t as complicated as the image above.

There are five types of energy meter. Here’s a quick overview of which types of energy meters there are and how to read them.

Standard Meters

Standard meters measure the amount of energy you consumer per hour. They are simple and have a visibly mechanic display. You should read standard meters left to right. Read the black numbers and ignore the red numbers.

Prepayment meters

So, what are prepayment meters? And how do you read a prepayment meter? Prepayment meters are the ‘pay as you go’ of the energy world. You will have a key fob (as above) that you will load money onto and pay in advance for any gas and electricity that you use. The landlord, letting agent or seller will usually tell you if you have a prepayment meter, but you will know if it looks like the above. Dependant on your supplier, you can top them up at either Payzone or Paypoint.

You may be on a two-rate meter. This simply means that you have one rate for electricity during the day and another for electricity during the evening. You read prepayment meters from left to right, once again ignoring any red numbers

Dial meters

What are dial meters and how do you read them, you may ask 🤔 As you can see from the photo, dial meters contact six clocks and look more complicated that your standard meter.

Here’s how to read a dial meter:

Read them left to right
Ignore the red number
Read the number the arrow is pointing towards
If the arrow is between two numbers, read the number it has just passed

Smart Meters (digital)

Smart meters will be digital and will have a row of numbers presented on an electronic screen, rather than a mechanical one. You may need to press a button to get a reading. As with standard meters, you should take your readings from left to right (the first 5 numbers). You should ignore the final figure it if begins with ‘0.1’

Economy 7 Meters

Economy 7 meters are ‘two-rate’ meters, meaning the amount you pay for energy depends on when you use it. You will pay less for energy used past a certain time in the day. These are also known as ‘time of use tariffs’. You can also get different combinations of these, such as Economy 10 meters and so on.

When you see your meter, make sure you jot down your MPAN (electricity) and MPRN (gas) numbers down. Those are unique codes which identify your meters. Now we know how to find and read your meter, the next step is finding out who the supplier is.

Find out who supplies your energy

We now need to understand who supplies the energy in your new home.

When you move into a new property you are placed on a “deemed contract“. A deemed contract is agreement about what you pay when you move into a new property.

Clearly, you want a say in what you pay, the tariffs, the rates and who with. You should compare the market and find a good deal with a company you trust – you can do this online with our home setup service. It’s a real time saver

You may have a different energy supplier for gas and electricity – it’s not common, but it certainly happens. There are lots of ways in which you can find out who supplies the energy in your new property.

You may know who the incumbent energy supplier is simply by asking the the letting agent, landlord or seller. You may have also received letters addressed “to occupier” from the properties energy company.

You will have a lot of other companies to think about when you’re moving home. We’ve got a full change of address checklist to help you with that.

Who is my electricity supplier?

To find out who supplies your electricity is fairly straight forward (thankfully). You can check online here or, you contact your Distribution Network Operator and they will check industry databases (Ecoes ) to tell you who supplies your property.

Who is my gas supplier

If you’re wondering ‘how do I find out who supplies my gas?’ you wouldn’t be alone. If you’re not sure who your gas supplier is you have a couple of options. You can check online here to see who your gas supplier is. If you prefer, you can also call meter number helpline on 0870 608 1524. However, this will cost 7p per minute.

Contact your energy supplier

Now you know who your energy suppliers are, you’ll want to contact them on the day you move in. On the day you leave your previous residence you will also want to let them know your closing meter reads (you can text us those if you use our service).

What if I have a prepayment meter?

So, what do you do if you have a prepayment meter? When you move into your property you may have a prepayment meter and it may also have debt on it. If that’s the case, when you contact your energy supplier you should ask for that to be wiped off and for instructions on how to top it up. Request a new ‘key’ if you don’t have one.

You can also request for a regular or SMART meter, dependant upon the supplier.

Reduce the cost of your energy bills

Running a home can be expensive. Check out the below graphic which shos the average cost of utility bills in the UK 😱

How to save money on energy

There are three ways to save money on your energy. You can either switch to a cheaper energy tariff, reduce your energy consumption, or increase your energy efficiency.

SlothMove compares the entire market to find you the best deal on the market. You can save up to £500 on your energy bills for a dual fuel (a dual fuel is having both gas & electricity, if you’re wondering). Most people tend to save between £200-£300.

With energy efficiency it’s usaully all of the stuff you know well.

Three actionable ways to save money in the home:

Turn off appliances & lights when not in use
Invest in insulation, especially in the loft
Buy eco-friendly light bulbs

Pay your previous supplier's energy bill

Once you leave the property (and inform the supplier) a final bill (or refund) will be generated. Suppliers used to send this to you by post, but these days they tend to just email it to you.

If you are on DD the energy supplier will usually just debit you the amount. otherwise, you are usually given 21 days to pay the bill.

We’ll now take a look at how you sort your energy when moving home by supplier.

How to tell your energy supplier you have moved home

British Gas moving home

You can update your address with British Gas using SlothMove’s online home setup service. To move home with British Gas or simply let them know you’re moving you can also do it on their website. You need to create an account on their home moving hub. You can also call British Gas on 0800 072 8625.

Scottish Power moving home

If you’re moving home you can let Scottish Power know you’re moving by using our home setup service. You will need to provide them with meter readings (ideally taken on the day you leave home). You can enter these through our home setup form. Simply select which energy supplier needs to know you’re moving and provide any meter readings. And if you don’t have them, you can actually text your meter readings to SlothMove on the day you move out and we’ll inform Scottish Power for you.

You can also sign into your account on Scottish Power’s website. If you don’t have an account you can create one there. You can also contact Scottish Power by calling 0800 027 0072. The contact centres are open Monday to Friday 8.30am until 6pm and 8.30am until 1pm on a Saturday.

EON moving home

If you’re moving home and EON is your supplier there are a couple of ways you can complete update your address. It’s best practice to let EON (or any energy supplier) know three weeks before you move home.

You can use SlothMove’s home setup service and we’ll let EON know you’re moving home. There are two seperate processes dependant upon whether or not you pay by DD or top up your meter (pre-payment). You will need to create an account or you can call the EON team on 0345 052 0000

EDF moving home

You should complete your EDF change of address around three weeks before moving into your new home. As with all other energy suppliers you can let EDF know that you’re moving home by using our home setup service.

You can also do this on EDF’s website if you have an account (otherwise you will need to create one). You can also call EDF on 0333 200 5100

Npower moving home

You can inform NPOWER up to 28 days before you’re moving home. As with all other energy suppliers, you can even cancel your contract or take it over to your new property with you. If you’re using SlothMove’s home setup service you can update npower online in a few clicks. You can also log into your online npower account or use your customer number. You can also call npower freephone on 0800 073 3000

SSE moving home

If SSE supplies your property and you’re moving home, let them know 2-3 weeks before you move out. SlothMove can update SSE for you automatically through our home setup service to save you the hassle. We will also enable you to text your meter reads through on the day you move out 😊

On SSE’s website, you can let them know you’re moving if you’re moving out and you’re moving into a property supplied by SSE. You can also call SSE on 0345 026 2658

Bulb moving home

If you have an account with Bulb and you are moving home, you can update them easily with SlothMove’s homesetup service. You simply enter your info, select your moving date and who your energy supplier is. You can even provide meter readings. You can also update Bulb about your home move if you have access to your online account or you can call them on 0300 303 0635

Octopus moving home

You can update your address with Octopus Energy online using SlothMove’s home setup service. To complete your home move you will need to provide:

Your name
Email address
Phone number
Move in date
Move in meter readings (if applicable)

You can also call Octopus on 0808 164 1088

Ovo moving home

If you’re moving home and you’re supplied by OVO energy it’s best to let them know you’re leaving around 2-3 weeks before your move-out date.

If you’re using our new home setup service we will update OVO on your move automatically so you don’t have to do anything else and can relax 😎

If you have an online account you can also log in here. And that will enable you to let them know if you’re leaving a property supplied by them or moving into a property supplied by OVO. If you’re moving home you can also contact OVO on 0330 303 5063

Shell moving home

If you are moving home there are two reasons you may wish to get in touch with Shell Energy. Either you’re with Shell and you are moving home, or you’ve moved into a new property which is supplied by Shell energy. SlothMove can help you automate and complete this automatically using one form. You will also be able to update your address across all of your other accounts.

You can also sign into your Shell Energy account online or call them on 0330 094 5800

Avro energy moving home

Avro energy is one of the new energy companies on the block 😎 You can let them know you’re moving home using SlothMove’s home setup service totally free. Avro energy will need to know:

Your closing meter readings — make sure you take these the day that you leave.
Your account number
Your contact details
Your current address details
Your new address details — so that they can produce your final bill or any refunds

You can call Avro energy on 0330 058 2005

Spark energy moving home

If you’ve moved into rented accommodation you may find that the incumbent supplier is Spark Energy. As with before, you can let them know you’re moving home using SlothMove’s home setup service.