Standing Charges guide - official forum discussion

Miniman

The scheme would not necessarily be anti competitive because each supplier would be able to negotiate their own standing charge with the infrastructure companies in each area. That would encourage more transparency.

Low users would be able to choose the supplier with the lowest standing charge. They are already penalised by having to pay much higher rates for the energy they use to offset the low standing charge.

At present a spreadsheet is needed to compare all the rates even for one supplier to arrive at a satisfactory comparison. For my npower comparison the standing charge for electricity varies between 20p/day to 0p/day and for gas from 24p/day to 14p/day. It so happens that the standard tariff with a standing charge of 0p/day is the cheapest with a rate of 16.26p/Kwh for an annual consumption of 1000 kwh. However this rate is variable and one hasto take a punt on rising (or falling?? ) prices.

I still wonder if the reducing oil price will be reflected in revised tariffs anytime soon. Perhaps after the winter when energy use falls! As we all know, energy is bought some time in advance, but I wonder what the lead time actually is.

System

I am not sure how much further people expect prices to fall. I fixed in June and I have just switched again with a saving of £102 per annum. All that is required to keep up to date is a weekly look at MSE CEC.

tim_n

I'd like to understand why a lower energy usage should be rewarded by higher prices and why higher energy usage is lower cost. Does investment in the infrastructure get factored into the standing charge? Obviously not if you can charge zero standing charge.

Doesn't exactly fit with green targets and companies trying to kerb carbon emissions.

It's almost like the energy companies have a vested interest in selling more energy.

feelingskint

We are going to be having building work done and not be living in the house. We do not have an exit fee from out old energy supplier and its time to change anyway. I am wondering about changing to a no standing charge tariff for the 3 months. The heating will be on low sometimes to prevent freezing (although we are having the central heating pipes replaced so it won't be on all the time). The electricity will be the builders tools and some kettle boils etc. (no phone computers washing machine TV or fridge etc). Occasional lights if they are working late or if we are popping in to see what they've done so far. Any thoughts?

mickbuzz

Hi, just joined this Forum.
Can anyone help with no standing charge with a solar panel / battery system.
I have had solar panels installed with a battery of 6.4 Kw, this allows me to use the battery power stored each day and not use any electricity while also feeding Kw's back into the grid.
I am a very low user of fuel about 7.5 kw a day on average (which comes from the battery as it charges and discharges all day and night) and will only use gas as back up heating in the winter months.
So at present I have duel fuel tariff with two daily standing charges 16.5 p and 21.9 p which over the year comes to about £135 a year.
My payment for feed in tariff should be about £240 year so would loose a chunk of this in standing charges.
Being a low user ( I estimate no electricity bill and possibly a gas bill of less than £100) should I find a no standing charge tariff.
Kind regards
Mick

molerat

If you genuinely are going to use 0 electricity then Ebico offer no standing charge tariffs. Put your estimated usage figures into one of the comparison sites and see what comes out for your personal situation, be sure to check out separate suppliers to ensure you get the best options.

Rubidium

mickbuzz wrote: »

Hi, just joined this Forum.
Can anyone help with no standing charge with a solar panel / battery system.
I have had solar panels installed with a battery of 6.4 Kw, this allows me to use the battery power stored each day and not use any electricity while also feeding Kw's back into the grid.
I am a very low user of fuel about 7.5 kw a day on average (which comes from the battery as it charges and discharges all day and night) and will only use gas as back up heating in the winter months.
So at present I have duel fuel tariff with two daily standing charges 16.5 p and 21.9 p which over the year comes to about £135 a year.
My payment for feed in tariff should be about £240 year so would loose a chunk of this in standing charges.
Being a low user ( I estimate no electricity bill and possibly a gas bill of less than £100) should I find a no standing charge tariff.
Kind regards
Mick

For low energy usage Ebico tariffs with zero standing charge are worthwhile see here

mickbuzz

Thanks just took a peep at their website think this set up would suit me, also electricity unit rate is lower than I pay at the moment (if I pay anything anymore) gas is a bit higher but hay the saving in standing charges would well out way the balances.

ASavvyBuyer

mickbuzz wrote: »

Hi, just joined this Forum.
I am a very low user of fuel about 7.5 kw a day on average (which comes from the battery as it charges and discharges all day and night) and will only use gas as back up heating in the winter months.

Being a low user ( I estimate no electricity bill and possibly a gas bill of less than £100) should I find a no standing charge tariff.
Kind regards
Mick

Your solar panels are probably producing more than 7.5kwh per day during the summer; but what about in the winter? If you need to import any electricity during the winter, you need to work out carefully how much it is likely to cost. The saving in Standing Charge could easily be wiped out by a higher unit cost.

Martyn1981

mickbuzz wrote: »

Hi, just joined this Forum.
Can anyone help with no standing charge with a solar panel / battery system.
I have had solar panels installed with a battery of 6.4 Kw, this allows me to use the battery power stored each day and not use any electricity while also feeding Kw's back into the grid.
I am a very low user of fuel about 7.5 kw a day on average (which comes from the battery as it charges and discharges all day and night) and will only use gas as back up heating in the winter months.
So at present I have duel fuel tariff with two daily standing charges 16.5 p and 21.9 p which over the year comes to about £135 a year.
My payment for feed in tariff should be about £240 year so would loose a chunk of this in standing charges.
Being a low user ( I estimate no electricity bill and possibly a gas bill of less than £100) should I find a no standing charge tariff.
Kind regards
Mick

Hiya Mick. I think it's highly unlikely you will reduce import to zero. The crucial factors here will be PV generation, particularly system size, orientation and even pitch.

Assuming your 7.5kWh is spread evenly (it might be higher in the winter and lower in the summer) then you'll need an average generation of 7.5kWh in December.

A quick check of PVGIS (picking Oxford at random) shows a December generation of approx 31kWh/kWp, so you'd need nearly 8kWp of PV (plus the battery) to cover winter generation. But crucially, on average, as several poor days will throw this out a bit.

A steep 50d roof will improve December gen by about 10%.

That said, so long as you have a reasonably sized system, say 3kWp plus, then you will hopefully have close to zero import Mch to Oct. But will probably still be importing 400/500kWh or so pa spread over the 4 remaining months.

Regardless, I would have thought a no standing charge deal would suit you best. Even at 18p, 500kWh comes out at £90, whilst a daily charge of 20p is £70+ before paying for the leccy.

Does any of that make sense?

Mart.