“Vaasan Sähkö offered the best price for wind power”
Olli Hemminki, Espoo
“When our fixed-term electricity contract ended, our then electricity supplier offered us a new contract at a much higher price. It was time to ask for offers.
I like to fiddle data around in Excel, so I created a spreadsheet for various companies’ green electricity contracts. It turned out that Vaasan Sähkö was able to offer the best price for their Wind Power, and also sell it to us in Espoo.
I live with my wife and our 2-year-old son in an electrically heated semi-detached. We consumed some 14,000 kWh of electricity a year. A significant part of it goes for heating, but washing dishes and clothes takes up a surprising amount of electricity in a family with children.”
“Wind power was a conscious choice – and we try to make environmentally sound choices in any case”
“As Vaasan Sähkö customers’ we save about 250 euros a year as we didn’t accept the offer made by our former electricity company. I think that’s a big saving.
Wind power was a conscious choice. Sure it costs a bit more than regular electricity, but we can afford to invest a few euros a month to boost the trend of renewable energy. We try to make other environmentally sound choices, too: for example, we haven’t got a car.
At home, we keep the room temperature reasonable, because any one-degree increase adds to our electricity consumption.
“Requesting offers was easier than I had thought.”
Aino Seppänen, Helsinki
“I had been thinking for a long time if I could have cheaper electricity, but requesting offers on an electricity contract was at the bottom of my list. When I moved to a new apartment with my dog Valo, I had to make a new electricity contract. While I was at it, I shopped around for cheaper electricity.
This was much easier than I had thought. When I was moving, one electricity supplier phoned me, and I requested tenders by email from another two companies that I knew.
Even though the differences were small, I decided to change. I chose the offer that was cheapest and used no coal to produce the electricity.
In my previous apartment, the washing machine and dishwasher increased my electricity consumption, and my electricity bill was 10–15 euros a month. I’ve been living in my new apartment only for a while and I haven’t even received my first electricity bill – but at least it’s less than what I used to get!”
Read also: Student’s best tips for selecting electricity contract
“With the savings you make by shopping for cheaper electricity, you can take Linnea to the adventure park many times”
Ville Ylänne, Helsinki
“I like to know what I spend my money on. When our previous electricity contract was about to terminate, I decided to find out whether there were any cheaper alternatives.
We spend an above average amount of electricity, because we live in an old apartment block and when it’s really cold in the winter, we must use an additional radiator, which increases our consumption.
I checked our realized annual consumption per kilowatt hour. Then I compared the prices on the websites of a few electricity companies.
Clicking on the websites and writing down the prices seemed difficult, so in the end I used a website that did the comparing for me.”
“Now we save about a hundred euros a year on our electricity bill”
“I also checked on the electricity companies’ websites that their prices were correct, because sometimes electricity suppliers have good campaigns that are not shown on the website where you compare prices.
I realized that when making an electricity contract, you have to be careful as to how long a fixed-term electricity contract you make, because the contract duration may affect the price. We ended up choosing a two-year contract, because it was not only the cheapest option but also because for the next two years we won’t have to worry about it.
We selected electricity produced with renewable energy. Although it’s maybe a fraction more expensive, when your shop around for the cheapest form of renewable energy, it’s cheaper than electricity produced by traditional means.
We save about a hundred euros a year on our electricity bill. With the money that we save, we can take our 3-year-old daughter to the adventure park HopLop quite a few times.”
