need help understanding our bills?!

mogwai10

Hello,

I am new on here and sorry if I seem a bit dim but could someone explain how to work out your bills?

Is it as simple as KWH X the unit price in p?

also when using price comparison site I have notice that some suppliers front load the first 500 KWH for example- how do you understand that in relevance to your own usage over a year?

Is it better to know your annual KWH usage or monthly expenditure?

Any other tips gratefully received!
hope I have explained my question adequately..:o

flashg67

In theory, your bill is just Kwh x X pence + any standing charges if you have them on your tariff.

Unless you use candles, it is likely that you will use 500kwh very quickly, but you do need to factor in this extra cost because some suppliers are sneaky and don't spread this useage evenly across the year. Instead they apply it when they know you'll be using more leccy/gas - eg in winter. All this will be there in the small print somewhere, but no 2 suppliers are the same, making it very difficult to compare tariffs yourself, unless you're prepared to sit there with a spreadsheet and/or calculator all night...

That's why it's easier to use a comparison site, but do check more than one and it is better IMO to have yur actual consumption handy!

Premier_2

mogwai10 wrote: »

Hello,

I am new on here and sorry if I seem a bit dim but could someone explain how to work out your bills?

Is it as simple as KWH X the unit price in p? ...

It's only that simple if you buy from Ebico; anyone else it is more complicated and that is why comparison sites exist.

Your bill will explain how you are charged.

mogwai10 wrote: »

Is it better to know your annual KWH usage or monthly expenditure?

Any other tips gratefully received!
hope I have explained my question adequately..:o

Always use annual kWh figures in comparison sites to get the most accurate output. Your supplier will give you your anticipated annual consumption figures in kWh if you don't know them.

tomstickland

Loading up the first 500 hours or whatever is just another way of doing a standing charge really.

Multiply the number of hours it applies to by the price difference and you'll have the equivalent standing charge.

dogshome

Hi mogwai10 - Gas & Elec suppliers have 2 ways of collecting the "Standing Charge":

Some tariffs will literally add a fixed fee for each day the bills covers
Other tariffs allocate a fixed number of Kwh a year that are charged at a higher price, and allocate these high price units to each *day the bill covers (* Except n'power who load up the number that are charged in winter with fewer in summer)

victor2

You can effectively convert a tariff with primary and secondary rates to an equivalent daily standing charge by taking the difference between primary and secondary and multiplying it by the number of kWh the primary is applied for divided by 365. Then calculate your usage all at the secondary rate and add the effective standing charge.
It's almost impossible not to use up the primary charge kWh in a year, but as already mentioned, some suppliers will adjust the changeover points to ensure you do.

mogwai10

7.010 p for the first 670 kWh per quarter, and 2.723 p thereafter

so if it was this then it would be 7.010-2.723=4.28x670=2872.29/365=7.869?

if for talking sakes your kwh were 20,000 it would be 20000x 2.73=54600+7.8969? then /100 to get price in £?

think I may have got a bit lost at end?!:o

victor2

Sorry. I assumed an annual kWh was being used on the primary rate, not a quarterly one.
So using your figures the equivalent daily standing charge would be as you said but times 4:
7.010-2.723=4.28x4x670=11470.4/365=31.47715
Thats pence per day, then usage all calculated at the secondary rate.
So your 20,000 kWh over a year works out at 20000*2.723=54460 plus 31.47715*365=11489 pence.
That gives a total of £659.49 when added together. You were not multiplying the daily charge by the number of days in your calculation, even though it was the wrong daily charge.

Just to prove it, using the primary and secondary rates:
20,000 kWh per year
670kWh per quarter x4 = 2680 kWh at the primary rate and the rest at the secondary
2680*7.010 = 18678.8 pence
(20000-2680)*2.723 = 47162.36 pence
Added together and /100 = £659.49

Thats when a spreadsheet comes in handy. You can just put the key figures in and let it convert them!

Edit:
You'll get a slightly different daily rate plugging the numbers above into a calculator, that's due to a bit of rounding that my spreadsheet avoided, but it makes a very small difference and the principle is right.

mogwai10

gosh,thanks. I think I understand!