What's Cheaper Gas Or Electricity !

SuccessStory

Being form Canada, I can honestly say I no longer know what's cheaper .

Gas or Electricity ?

When I first bought my home 11 years ago, Gas was definitely the better alternative .

With the price of todays oil markets being the way they are, I honestly don't know if I still feel that way .

Any takers on this one ?

:beer:

BexTech

Here in the UK, gas is about a quarter of the price of electricity.

masonic

I think some Economy 7 customers are beginning to reach the point where their 'Night rate' electricity is costing the same as gas.

BexTech

masonic wrote:

I think some Economy 7 customers are beginning to reach the point where their 'Night rate' electricity is costing the same as gas.

Yes getting a little closer, but with quite high day rate, and you have to put up with those awful storage heaters that never warm at the right times no matter how you fiddle with them.

masonic

BexTech wrote:

Yes, but with quite high day rate, and you have to put up with those awful storage heaters that never warm at the right times no matter how you fiddle with them.

I'm on E7 and my day rate is only 9% more expensive. I don't have any storage heaters either.

BexTech

Day rate: 13.868p for the first 225 kWh per quarter, and 12.822p thereafter

Night unit charge (pence per kWh) 2.691p

The above is the rate some family members are on and that is with the cheapest at the moment on E7.

(Electricity rates depend on region.)

We pay 2.6p for the first 1465 kWh per quarter, and 1.88p thereafter for gas.
We pay 10.52p for the first 225 kWh per quarter, and 6.97p thereafter for standard electricity.

(Family and ourselves in the same region)

(5% VAT inclusive prices).

MarkyMarkD

The prices in your area are very strange indeed.

It would appear that in some areas, the Economy 7 discount on the night-time units is a lot less, but the Economy 7 premium on the day-time units is also a lot less.

In my area, the night-time units with my supplier cost 43.5% of the standard rate and the day-time units only 8.6% more than standard; for your area the equivalent ratios are 38.6% and 84%. But we pay a higher Economy 7 standing charge: £9.18 a quarter compared to £2.35.

Complicated things, electricity prices!

BexTech

MarkyMarkD wrote:

Complicated things, electricity prices!

They certainly are, they like to confuse the market.

MarkyMarkD

Well, I suspect that the different levels in different parts of the country must have some deeper meaning than that. But it certainly does confuse me.

BexTech

MarkyMarkD wrote:

Well, I suspect that the different levels in different parts of the country must have some deeper meaning than that. But it certainly does confuse me.

Yeah the regional variation is due to the local distributors having differing costs running the local network.

For example in The Midlands, Central Networks would be covering a built up area with many homes and businesses, so would be cheaper to run than Scottish Hydro-Electric Power Distribution in the North of Scotland where there wouldn't be many homes and businesses and the network would cover some difficult terrain.

The confusion marketing would come in as the various billing utilities have different rates to each other for the same distribution area using differing tiers etc.

Cardew

BexTech wrote:

Day rate: 13.868p for the first 225 kWh per quarter, and 12.822p thereafter

Night unit charge (pence per kWh) 2.691p

The above is the rate some family members are on and that is with the cheapest at the moment on E7.

(Electricity rates depend on region.)

We pay 2.6p for the first 1465 kWh per quarter, and 1.88p thereafter for gas.
We pay 10.52p for the first 225 kWh per quarter, and 6.97p thereafter for standard electricity.

(Family and ourselves in the same region)

(5% VAT inclusive prices).

The gas (2.6/1.88p) and electricity(10.52/6.97) prices you quote are presumably not now available for new customers and you are on a capped/fixed price tariff taken out some while ago.

Taking currently available tariffs, the difference between different company's E7 tariff(in the same geographic area) is huge; the dreaded BG being quite good in this respect.

Certainly, with the right company, E7 heating/HW is competitive with gas when you take into account the efficiency of gas boilers averaging about 80%. Add in that there is no need for expensive servicing/safety checks for electricity, and it makes E7 even more attractive.

Although I take the point made about the difficulties of using storage heating.