Man who saves THOUSANDS off his energy bills by calculating tariffs using a spreadsheet
Over the last decade Peter Nadin has covered the walls of his house with colour-coded spreadsheets to calculate his energy use - and he says it saves £100s off his bills each year
A FORMER civil engineer has saved THOUSANDS off his energy bills - by calculating all of his own energy prices.
What started as an exercise to save his elderly mum developed into a bizarre hobby for Peter Nadin - and he spends hours analysing tariffs to save himself hundreds of pounds a year.
Super thrifty Peter, 57, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, has been using colour-coded spreadsheets to work out his energy use for the past ten years.
He then rings around every single energy company to ask their tariffs directly, and then adds up which supplier can give him the best deal.
To make the exercise as cost effective as possible, he even delves into the depths of company websites to find their freephone numbers.
Peter claims he saves himself a minimum of £200 every year, and regularly gets paid bonuses for switching energy companies, meaning that since he started the exercise just before Christmas 2006 he has saved himself thousands of pounds.
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Peter said: "I started doing this 10 years ago. It started on 21 December 2006. I can tell that exactly from my spreadsheets.
"Keeping track of gas and electricity companies was becoming so complex and I wanted to know what I was paying for.
"I decided to deal with the companies myself, and find out their prices directly.
"Setting it all up was the most difficult part. It was very time consuming.
"But now the spreadsheet can do most of the work, it doesn't take much time at all. I think it takes about half an hour to do all the maths.
"To find out the best deals you just have to dig. You find out all the companies you can, ring around all of them and ask them for their tariffs.
"My spreadsheet tells me how much I am using as I gather it per month. Not everyone has the time to calculate all this.
"I save £200 every year plus I get £30 for switching with money supermarket.
"Currently I pay £43 per month for gas and electricity, and I get £76 back for overpaying early on. I was paying £48 when I should have been paying £46. I only did that with meter readings."
But even that process is not always straightforward. As well as finding out all the prices, Peter often has to haggle with the companies.
He claims some companies have tried to change his tariff, disagree with his meter readings and calculate his energy usage from the middle of winter, all of which would end up costing him more money.
He spends hours on the phone proving them wrong. Peter said: "I always argue that with 10 years of data, I know how much I am using.
"So when companies come in the middle of winter and say they will have to put your direct debit up because you have used more energy, you say 'well hang on, that was always going to happen'.
"I can then use my data to show exactly what my usage is going to be, and they normally agree with me.
HOW YOU CAN CUT YOUR GAS AND ELECTRICITY BILLS?
The easiest way to cut your bills is by switching suppliers. If you've never switched before then you'll save up to £400. You'll need a recent bill, information about who your supplier is and how much you spend on gas and electricity to compare prices. Use a website like uSwitch.com, Confused.com or Moneysupermarket.com to compare prices. You could also sign up to MoneySavingExpert's Cheap Energy Club - it alerts you when you could switch and save money again.
"I get put on other tariffs sometimes. It's often when companies put the wrong values into their computer, but I still have argue with them to get them changed back.
"Then you have companies who threaten you with termination fees even though their policies state they don't have any.
"You sometimes have to go through several people in the call centre before they realise they have got it wrong.
"It's amazing how many companies do not produce a final bill. The final bill is always wrong. They pocket the different tariff on the final bill. Then they agree they should not have done that.
"We are all being ripped off. It can all be very time consuming, but I don't like to be ripped off.
I was looking after accounts and energy when my mother was alive because she could not cope when my dad died.
Peter Nadin
"I'm sure when I ring some places it flashes 'Nadin' and they don't want to pick it up. But they cannot argue with facts. I don't get emotional, and I just challenge them."
Peter started trying to find the best energy deals for himself and his mother shortly after his father died.
His father had always looked after the money and his mother found it difficult to cope after she passed away.
He used his skills he had learned as a civil engineer to create the spreadsheets and his love of maths to do the sums.
He measures his gas and electricity usage seasonally and colour coordinates his charts accordingly, with yellow for summer, brown for autumn, blue for winter and green for spring.
Peter maintains that the calculations are not that complicated, but it is the amount of time it can take that is the hardest part.
He said: "I was looking after accounts and energy when my mother was alive because she could not cope when my dad died. I did that for 14 years.
"It brought on stress and illness. That was why I started the spreadsheets. I'm so glad I did. I used to use spreadsheets in my job. But I learned the rest myself. The basic maths is not complicated.
"The problem can be time. I can sit for hours on the phone, but other people just can't afford to do that. But I'd still advise people to switch. People are losing three or four hundred pounds a year by not switching. No one is treated fairly."
With his savings, Peter treats himself to nice holidays or experiences. He said: "Sometimes when you complain or switch you get goodwill gestures - I made £2500 once, so it's always worth keeping your finger on the pulse."