gas company without standing charge

Wywth

Nada666 wrote: »

7p is a perfectly normal price for tier 1 gas. If this two-tier is replaced with a standing charge of £160 then you pay 17p to 21p per kWh.

I know how to compare costs - the cheaper tariffs are being withdrawn.

Just quoting you to ensure the post doesn't get deleted/revised.

Five words.

You could have fooled me! :rotfl:

Nada666

Wywth wrote: »

Just quoting you to ensure the post doesn't get deleted/revised.

Five words.

You could have fooled me! :rotfl:

Eh? Sorry, no idea what you are talking about.

MoneySavingMrsP

Great. Yes, there are a lot of ways around this. I have had solar panels for generating my hot water for around 5-6 years now and they are brilliant - even heating the water in the middle of winter. The hot water tank they fitted with the solar system is large and extremely well insulated - temperature of the water only drops a couple of degrees overnight. I also installed solar panels for generating electricity a couple of years back and generate virtually all our electricity from them (our electricity meter goes backwards on really sunny days which helps!).
Anyway, back to the standing charge discussion - due to the solar panels etc. I also only use gas for around 4 months of the year. I am currently with npower and have been switching between tariffs each year for a while (i.e. no standing charge tariff when I am not using gas) and then back to a cheaper tariff with standing charge during the winter months when I use gas. This has been working fine until they decided to get rid of the standard tariff without standing charge (from 1st May 2013). So I am now also looking around for an alternative. I am a low user of gas even when I do use some so may still be cheaper going elsewhere.

alinwales

MoneySavingMrsP wrote: »

... and then back to a cheaper tariff with standing charge during the winter months when I use gas.

Whan I was with Swalec a couple of years back on a NSC tariff, there was no difference in how much you pay for the power assuming you used in excess of the Tier 1 amount of energy.
I.e, use less than the Tier1 amount, you save money on NSC tariffs, but use more, and it's pennies difference (no point changing). I really could not understand the point of the SC model.

I do recall that different energy cos use different ways of calculating their Tier1 rates and timescales - Swalec were on a quarterly period, which worked well for April-June and July-Sept. Our gas bill for the 6 months was £30! We still used it for hot water.

Alas, very few NSC tariffs around (bloomin ofgem grrr), and as pointed out earlier, the only ones left are not viable for people with fluctuating needs (unless you switch regularly).

Personally, I like the idea of a fixed rate with no SC, and no Tiers as it will encourage people to use less... but I get the feeling that it will end up being more expensive than it is now for most, so wouldn't necessarily support it.