All electric home

joshly

I have always had gas central heating but am moving to a home with no gas supply.


I have been to a comparison site and the ones I have looked at are quoting me a tariff and a daily standing charge, I do not want to pay a standing charge, are the any companies offering that option?


The previous owner has passed away and I do not know if the property that was built in 1993 has an economy 7 meter, how do I check that?

Hazzanet

Ofgem decided that to make it easier, all tariffs must be a unit rate + standing charge (which can be zero). I believe that Ebico is the only one with a zero standing charge.

Nada666

If it has no gas supply then the last thing you want is Ebico's electricity tariff.

facade

You need to do the maths I'm afraid.

Gas is around 1/3rd the price of electricity, but you have to factor in the 90% boiler efficiency, electric heating is 100% efficient as any heat produced, even in the wires to the heater is going into the house, not up the chimney, gas heating may or may not be a future option worth considering.

However talking electricity only, some companies have a massive standing charge, and the units are dirt cheap, others have a tiny standing charge and the units are exorbitant.

The first benefits people who have the electricity comsumptuion of a small city, the second people who sit around a 15W lightbulb playing cards, with gas or coal heating.

For example I'm with EON who fall into the first category, NPower are in the second, doing The Maths, if I stupidly economise on electricity, I need to switch to NPower, if I leave more lights on EON is my best deal.

matelodave

As façade says, you need to have a reasonable estimate of your consumption to try and get the best deal and to decide the optimum balance between standing charge and unit rates. High use favours higher standing charges and lower unit rates whereas lower consumption is usually better with low standing charges and higher unit rates.

All you can do is to use the comparison sites with three or four different consumption figures, say 8000kwh, 12,000, 16,000, 20,000 to see what happens. You need to see what sort of heating set up you've got, whether you are on an E7 or even some other strange heatwise or E10 tariff before you can estimate which might be the best.

A no standing charge tariff like Ebico is unlikely to be the cheapest unless you have a very low consumption which is unlikely if you are all electric.

We are all electric and use about 8000kwh a year but we have a heatpump which isn't representative of a normal all electric system. In my case Ebico would cost me £371 a year more than the single rate tariff that I'm on at the moment and over £400 more than the cheapest (Scottish Power).
However if I let my fixed deal roll over onto my suppliers standard variable rate I'll pay nearly £600 a year more, so it's really worthwhile putting some effort into selecting the best deal if you are all electric.

footyguy

joshly wrote: »

...I have been to a comparison site and the ones I have looked at are quoting me a tariff and a daily standing charge, I do not want to pay a standing charge, are the any companies offering that option?...

The MSE Cheap Energy Club (as one example, there may be others) allows you to filter your results to show only tariffs that have no standing charge applied.

Green Energy and Ebico are 2 electricity suppliers that come up for me with no applied standing charge.

You may also like to take the opportunity to then do the search without that filter in place to see the difference your restrictive choice makes

ChumpusRex

First thing to do is to determine what type of heating and type of meter your new home has.

Is it night storage heaters (likely), panel heaters (hope not), some sort of heat pump system (if very modern)?

How is the water heated? How large is the water tank? 50 litres, 100 litres, 300 litres? Do you have electric showers, or do they just plumb into the hot water system?

What sort of insulation does the house have?

You'll need this to get a sort of ball-park estimate of what your electricity consumption will be.

For example, if you have a 2 bed flat, with EPC class D insulation, night storage heaters and a 200 litre hot water tank with 2 occupants, then I would estimate around 5000 kWh day and about 5000 kWh night on economy 7.

In general, however, if you have an all electric property - tariffs with the highest standing charges usually work out cheapest - you use so many units, that a lower unit price is much more important.

I'd suggest you go to a comparison site and plug in a variety of scenarios with consumption between 8000 and 12000 kWh and between 35 and 60% night consumption.

See if there are any tariffs that come out consistently reasonably near the top for most of these scenarios. With my testing, I've found that there are 2 or 3 tariffs that are consistently in the top 5 with any of these scenarios.

footyguy

joshly wrote: »

...The previous owner has passed away and I do not know if the property that was built in 1993 has an economy 7 meter, how do I check that?

It should be obvious when you look at the meter if it has more than one registry.

Or when you call the existing supplier to take over the account, they should be able to advise you - it's possible to tell from the MPAN

footyguy

Nada666 wrote: »

If it has no gas supply then the last thing you want is Ebico's electricity tariff.

Since Ofgem has banned 2 tier pricing (which effectively allowed a standing charge to be applied spread over the first x units consumed, after which the cost per unit would drop to that of the equivilent standing charge tariff), then any tariff today that does not apply a standing charge will for all but low users result in a higher cost than necessary.

But I presume the OP is not so interested in overall price, but rather how the charge is applied.
(But I have suggested the OP can see the cost difference for themselves by using a comparison site)

matelodave

My meter was a two rate and is now a single rate - it only has one readout but with a button to scroll through the different tariffs so it's not all that easy to see whether it's E7 or not. Older meters with two registers or a timeswitch by the side of it will probably be dual tariff but as said the existing supplier should be able to tell you.

Make sure you read the meters and give the reading to the existing supplier on the day that you move in - do not rely on anyone else doing it for you.
Also make sure you keep a record of the readings, take a photo if possible. Once you've registered and opened an account with the existing supplier they will put you onto their standard variable tariff (SVT).You should then make sure you sort out the best deal either with the existing supplier or swap to another one as you don't want to pay any more than you need.

joshly

Thank-you for the detailed replies, much appreciated.

I will be going back to the property on Monday for a final look and hope to complete Wednesday. So I will take a look at the meter Monday.

I do not know what my consumption will be, but I will be living alone in a 2 bed bungalow that was built in 1993, it has cavity wall insulation and 300+mm of loft insulation.
Fully double glazed. Solid floor.
I will be home most of the time but do not feel the cold as much as most people I know.

No electric shower, it is plumbed into the bath tap.

The current energy efficiency rating is 63, so a D.

On the document it says main heating, Electric storage heaters.
Hot water, Electric emersion, off peak.

Apparently typical energy use for space heating is 7390 Kwh per year and typical water heating 2007 Kwh per year.

If that is the case would you call that low usage? If so I would assume a higher standing charge would be my best option.


First utility come out cheapest at £961 a year.
iSave Fixed March 2016 (v44) (electricity only).