Last month I posted a question on OzBargain forum, asking who do you use for energy? Well, I did not get much response so I ended up doing the research myself. No, actually I did not do anything but my frugal wife did all the research, and we ended up using Integral Energy for electricity.

The story is, our 3 year contract with Energey Australia is about to expire this month, and they sent us renewal notice, asking us to continue with them with a 4% discount.

Not bad! However, we discovered that there are actually many different companies, either private or state-owned, who provide energy to residential properties. We wondered whether anyone else can give us a better offer!

First we tried AGL since it is one of the biggest. It did not take much effort and they are willing to give us 5% off over regular tariff, if we combine electricity and gas under one account! We have also gone to websites of many other providers. However, the biggest issue is — you get only get the standard tariff price off their websites (and everyone is the same), but they do not tell how much discount they will give you if you sign the contract. You ended up needing to ask for a quote, which is not very convenient.

Integral Energy is one such company. We ended up requesting for a quote from their website, but they never replied back!

Then a few days ago at 7:30pm in the evening, someone knocked on our door — and it turned out to be an Integral Energy salesman! He happened to come around trying to sign up customers, and is not correlated to our quote request at all! He then introduced how Integral is run by NSW government and provides the best rate in the industry. Without much negotiation, we signed up on the spot. And the discount we get over the standard tariff?

10%!!

That is quite a bit of saving consider winter is coming and our electricity bill is going to skyrocket due to heating. Moreover, unlike other energy providers Integral can do 100% green energy at no extra cost. Something you greenies should definitely consider :)

The saving does not just stop here though. All members of Integral Energy can participate in their INrewards Program. The website is guarded with membership username and password (which I’ll only receive 25 days after signing up), but I can give a sneak preview of the kind of saving you can get.

The idea is, you buy pre-paid cards from INrewards and use those cards to shop. These cards are cheaper to buy than their face value, thus you are getting some form of discount. And I am not talking about discount from online shops. How about

• 5% off Coles?
• 5% off Big W?

Yes I am talking about prepaid cards for supermarkets and department stores. You can buy those them at discounted price, and save! I will write more about INrewards next time when I get our membership details.

So, electricity solved. Now, where do I find cheap gas?