How to find out tariff name?

Enigmaman

I'm trying to help my parents put an end to their profligacy and have got as far as Gas and Electricity bills.

They are on a BG dual fuel (Economy 7) tariff but in order to use a comparison site we obviously need to know the name of this tariff.

I phoned BG and they would not supply the information - they just said "It's called Economy 7". But there is no such option on any of the sites I have visited.

They have no electricity bill to hand but their gas is charged at 3.277p/kWh (rate 1) and 2119.88 kWh (rate 2). BG did tell me they use double the national average for electricity (their total DD is £77 a month) and that it is probably uneconomic to use Economy 7 as they have no storage heaters and gas central heating, and their E7 % is around 40.

Can anyone suggest how I might discover the tariff names and whether they should drop Economy 7?

WTIA

masonic

It is more than likely they are on BG's Standard tariff. That unit price for gas appears to correspond to their pre-September rate for that tariff. If they were on anything else, it's likely they'd know about it.

The easiest way to check whether E7 is worth having is to compare the cost with and without it. This calculator can come in handy for such purposes.

Enigmaman

Thanks, I forgot to mention the bill was dated July 06.

Cardew

Enigmaman wrote:

I'm trying to help my parents put an end to their profligacy and have got as far as Gas and Electricity bills.

They are on a BG dual fuel (Economy 7) tariff but in order to use a comparison site we obviously need to know the name of this tariff.

I phoned BG and they would not supply the information - they just said "It's called Economy 7". But there is no such option on any of the sites I have visited.

They have no electricity bill to hand but their gas is charged at 3.277p/kWh (rate 1) and 2119.88 kWh (rate 2). BG did tell me they use double the national average for electricity (their total DD is £77 a month) and that it is probably uneconomic to use Economy 7 as they have no storage heaters and gas central heating, and their E7 % is around 40.

Can anyone suggest how I might discover the tariff names and whether they should drop Economy 7?

WTIA

You have a typo for your rate 2 gas and you haven't said if those prices are with or without VAT. If you are reading them off the bill they will be without VAT as that is added at the end.

However the rate one(3.277p) corresponds to the BG standard rate(before VAT @5%) payment by DD (3.441p) prior to the Sept 06 rise. The rate 2 price was 2.553p(2.431p before VAT)
So assuming he is on Standard Rate Dual Fuel you just enter that in the boxes and tick the E7 box.

If you don't have electricity bills to hand, how do you calculate they use 40% electricity at E7 rates?

40% at E7 is very high - are you sure that is correct? Even if they use E7 for their Immersion heater(and not Gas CH for DHW) it is difficult to see how they achieve such a high proportion - unless they are up all night cooking and using their appliances.
At 40% on E7 it will probably pay them to stay on E7 tariff- depends on your area. Once you have the bills it is simple arithmetic to work out which is best.

National Average for Electricity is 3,300kWh so if they use double ......