Which one should I hire? How much power do I need? These are the questions every person trying to hire electrical service for the first time has to answer, and with this article we’re gonna help you sort it out.

Eleven years ago, the electrical sector was liberated so now it’s up to the client to choose between 425 electrical companies and their respective offers. There are so many that the difference between the most expensive and the least expensive is near the 200 Euros annually.

This a comparative table between a variety of electrical companies to show you their characteristics

The right bill

Comparing bills is every day more and more important. Changing our supplier might make us save a lot of money annually, but a lot of the times we don’t know what we have to have in mind when comparing prices

It’s important to decide our preferences to make a good choice. Power and time of use are two factors we should pay special attention to.

Electrical power range

This is the first thing you have to take in consideration. This range should be the one fittest for your power usage as this will directly affect your bill

To make this choice, please bare in mind the size of your home, and the quantity and amount of use of all your technical appliances. It’s also useful to think about the amount of people living under the same roof.

A good start point would be finding out if our requirements are above or below 10kW

• If below 10kW we would to compare all the 2.0 (with night-time billing or not)
• If above 10 kW, we would have to compare all 2.1 (with time-discrimination or not ) or 3.0.

Heating is a big factor, as a home without electric heating and without any major electrical appliances such as a climatized pool, would get by with under 10kW

If your home has electric heating or energy accumulators, which have a high power usage, the electrical power range would be between 6 and 9 kW for medium sized houses and between 10 and 14kW for bigger properties.

If your house has elevator, climatized pool, or another high power usage installation, you would probably need more than 15 kW

After getting clear regarding the power range we would need, we have to choose between the normalized values available by the companies in the market. Even though the best choice would be to call the company and ask for more information, these are some general guidelines

• Apartments, and small to medium houses: Usually ranges from 2 to 5 kW of hired power range. It is recommended 4.4 and above if you own an air conditioner, heating, oven or heating ceramics.
• Big apartments, big houses or multiple floors: los valores típicos están entre 5 y 7 kW de potencia contratada.

Time of use

Now it’s time to pick what kind of usage schedule is better fitted for our needs. We should decide if we would like one billing period or if we want some kind of time-discrimination.

Below 10 kW represents 2.0 type bill, these are two types of 2.0:

• 2.0A Bill: único precio para el consumo en kilovatio-hora durante las 24 horas del día. Recomendable para las viviendas sin calefacción de gas. One price to all kW/hr during the 24 hours of the day. Recommended for houses without gas heating
• 2.0 DHA Bill: High price per kW/hr at pique hours and a lower price per kW/hr at valley hours. Good choice to save money according to our usage habits

2.0 DHA Bill Recommended for houses with electric heating or accumulators. If we have plenty of usage during valley hours, it’s advisable to hire the nighttime discrimination.

The biggest problem when choosing the nighttime discrimination bill would be keeping an eye on the usage of electrical appliances during the weekends.

Taking into consideration the referential companies, we have elaborated this board to calculate how much you’d pay annually

Options for regular clients (4,4kW)

10 advices for your bill

The CNMC (National commission of markets and competition, for its initials in spanish) made a list of things to take in consideration when picking or chaging electric companies.

• Compare prices and services of at least two different carriers. The CNMC has a comparative tool to help you in this process:

https://comparadorofertasenergia.cnmc.es/comparador/index.cfm?js=1&e=N

1. Averiguar si se tiene derecho al bono social, que ofrece un descuento del 25% sobre el precio final del recibo. Find out if you’d have access to the social bonus, that offers a 25% discount over the final bill
2. Read the terms and conditions
3. Check the contract in case of adding other services, which are the conditions over price reviewing and claim process.
4. Check if there’s a permanency contract or some type of penalty in case of cancellation
5. If you get a phone call or a visit of a seller, ask for a copy of the contract if the offer interests you and study the details before signing.
6. No facilites al vendedor los datos bancarios o facturas anteriores si no quieres cambiar de suministrador.
7. If you hire for the service on the internet, keep a copy of the offer of the contract.
8. If you hire the service outside of a commercial establishment, you have a maximum of 14 days to withdrawal of the offer without justification
9. Regularly check your offer in contrast of other options in the market.

The general advice of the expertes would be opting for time discriminatory schedules, as long as we spend at least ⅓ of our usage in valley hours. Always read the small letters.

If this article at Dompick has been helpful, we offer more of them and plenty of housing offers waiting for people like you to see them and keep them… with sea views, quiet zones or more active ones, come and see them!

We’ll help you with a free analysis if you need help deciding which would be the best power range for you and which company would be a good fit for your budget