How does this compare?

TheMagician

Hi,

I've got a question about electricity prices, if someone could help me I'd be grateful

Strangely, my electricity provider charges me a Standing charge of 94p per day, as far as I understand it's charged no matter what.
Then I'm charged 9p for heat/hot water and 7p for electricity per 1kWh, there's no gas. I don't use heating, the apartment is very warm.

I use around 6kWh per day so my charge is around 6*0.07+0.94=£1.36 per day or around £41 per month.

How does this compare with others? I'm confused about this standing charge, doesn't seem fair... Looks like I'm using only £10ish worth of electricity but charged £30 on top.

Thanks for your help

HappyMJ

There is a tariff on the UK market with a standing charge of 0p.

It's Ebico. Compare and switch if you are against paying standing charges. You may pay more...you may pay less.

Swipe

94p / day? :shocked: Who is your provider and which tariff? Do the two rates you mention mean you are on economy 7? I thought most only charged about 15-30p / day.

dogshome

94p a day Standing Charge? - Probably the most expensive in the UK
9p per Kwh for Hot Water & Heat ? - Expensive for overnight power from an ECO7 meter
6p per Kwh for general useage? - Astoundingly cheap

Is this flat in a block where Hot Water & Heat are supplied by the owners/managers of the building?

TheMagician

That's right dogshome, it's a new apartment block that was purposely built to be powered by 'green energy'

The provider is a monopoly and there's no way to switch

I don't own it so long term it's not that important but I wondered if I use say around 185kWh per month and pay around £40 is that expensive compared? Seems to me

Nada666

Typical price would be £400 (26p per day standing charge and 14p per kWh.)

But the good news is that your kWh prices are very cheap. Although you are paying an extra £250 in standing charges you can offset with your cheap on demand heating. If you use 2,500 kWh (less than that) over winter you are quids in.

Essentially you have cheap on demand electric heating - no need for overnight storage. Of course, if the property is also insulated it is possible you may well not need 20 kWh per day over four months to claw back the standing charges - but for larger properties or people who like it cosy it is a good price.

Before panicking, check how much you use this winter once you have the heating on. If you are stalwart and want to wear several layers and minimise your usage you have a problem. If you want to stick the heating on and be comfortable you may well have a bargain.

But as with all specialist electricity only systems, do the sums including heating for winter, not just your electricity use over summer (which will seem frighteningly expensive.)

dogshome

As you have found, with flats that are heated & hot watered from a central boiler
you are hostage to someone elses fortune

However, the 'Good Value/Poor value' judgment depends on how big the flat is.
Whilst £41 a month is expensive for a very small Studio flat, it looks good for a 2Bed/Living room/Kitchen/Bathroom dwelling

Pincher

It sounds interesting.


I am guessing they built something that needed a lot of capital, which is bleeding interest, so they need to recover the initial investment by charging an obscene standing charge. Some sort of methane producing sewage farm?


If it works, it's quite a good way to relieve the peak demand supply shortage. Stop electricity production at midnight, and start using Economy 7 electricity to use up spare capacity from the National Grid. God knows how they would load balance, though.


Regarding sharing a central boiler for the whole building. I have been getting bills for an apartment that uses hot water from a central boiler for about 15 years. The developer put in different types of water "heat" meters over the three phases of the development, so the management agent was unable to have a coherent accounting system for the first seven years or so. They just charged each flat by the square metre (size of the flat)! You can use as much as you want, but pay the same. Later on, they managed to read the meters, but simply ended up revising the bill again and again to correct mistakes. Lately, they have been buying gas by signing a commercial contract, which meant that we were tied in to these contracts that did not match the wholesale market, so sometime we were paying too much, sometimes nice and cheap. They also keep changing the billing amount, as the gas contracts do not start and finish with the billing cycle for the building.


The upshot is, the lowest year was £300 for the heating, and the most expensive was £800! I would guess it's equivalent to about £400~500 a year in the last five years, so nothing to complain about.


I could easily have freaked out over the £800 bill one year, but it's just a bad combination of accounting periods and maybe high gas fixed price.


As the unit price is nice and low for the OP, I would give them the benefit of the doubt, and just see how it goes.

TheMagician

Guess it works best for the high users

The apartment is so well insulated that temperature even on the few cold nights we've already had hasn't gone below 21C, might need heating if it's well below zero outside

Thanks everyone, just wanted to know

Swipe

TheMagician wrote: »

Guess it works best for the high users

The apartment is so well insulated that temperature even on the few cold nights we've already had hasn't gone below 21C, might need heating if it's well below zero outside

Thanks everyone, just wanted to know

I wish I could keep my whole house at 21C all year round for 94p a day