Gas & electric standing charges

CashStrapped

Hi Tony

Understand your frustration, but what you have to understand is that these days, in the majority of cases the high/low standing charge vs high/low KWH is all smoke and mirrors.

Only in extreme cases....for example.... where your property is empty most of the year, is where a tariff from Ebico (no standing charge) would make sense.

Remember that in the results a comparison site takes into account the standing charge.

So if you put in your yearly KWH use for gas and electric. Whatever comes up the cheapest.....will be the cheapest.

If you are then looking at the individual tariff and going for one with a low standing charge over the cheapest results, you are defeating the point of the comparison.

As long as you use accurate annual KWH estimates for your useage, the chepest result..... will be the cheapest.

At that point, I only filter out the companies showing based on reputation and if there is a switching penalty (that is just a personal choice and is nothing to do with tariff cost).

The standing charge vs KWH does not come into it at all, because as I said...in most cases it is meaningless.

Unless.....like I said above, the house in emtpy for most of the year, in whcich case the few "no standign charge" ones are the way to go!

ASavvyBuyer

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

Three years ago I invested in a 4kw per hour solar panel system at mu own expense. I also use this for heating during daylight hours and gas heating at night. This is the reason my consumption is low and why I want the lowest daily standing charges.

Is it worth considering changing suppliers every 6 months? To one with a low standing charge for the Summer and to one with a low unit rate for the Winter.
We have solar panels too, during the Summer we consume very little gas and the solar panels provide most of our electricty. But during the winter, like most people we use more gas for heating, and the solar panels produce a lot less electricty.
Is it worth the hassle of switching every 6 months?

Nada666

You are contradicting yourself rather badly.

You moan about your bargain tariff coming to an end and that the new ones are more expensive - your solution is to by mandate force them all to be the most expensive so that you will never get a break! Very strange.

Nada666

ASavvyBuyer wrote: »

Is it worth the hassle of switching every 6 months?

Ha! Six months? Back when npower and Scottish Power were offering £120+ cashback I was switching every six weeks and less.

TONY_CROSS

Thanks for that I had not thought about changing suppliers more often. As regards having solar panels I have found that we can use less gas in the winter if we keep the electric oven on low with the door slightly open and on a low setting, ( below 750 watts ) in the daytime. This keeps us at around 21C 8am to 4pm as we at home all day. This stops the gas room stat cutting in at 19C.

TONY_CROSS

I don't think you fully understand how this WOULD work. Are you not up for saving money? Just because they would be forced to all have the same standing DAILY charge, would not mean all charging higher usage charges.

HappyMJ

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

I cant understand why so many people are against putting more restrictions on the energy companies. This would of course give a more even playing field for consumers to choose a supplier.
I am not trying to force all companies to charge the same for unit prices as this would not be allowed under the competition laws.
Even with the all charging the same daily standing charges they can still compete for customers by way of length of contract, pre payments, direct debits and so on. I am aware that some comparison sites do not give 100% results for all energy suppliers tariffs and spend many hours investigating this issue.
Three years ago I invested in a 4kw per hour solar panel system at mu own expense. I also use this for heating during daylight hours and gas heating at night. This is the reason my consumption is low and why I want the lowest daily standing charges.

How low is low consumption?

[Deleted User]

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

I think you will find that these low standing charge plans have almost disappeared from the market over the last few years. Companies vary their standing charge rate, and the public have been at liberty to vote with their feet during this time as well. I have regularly over the last three years changed my plan, free of charge, to reflect market conditions and currently pay £56 a month, though my own standing charge has risen during this period, my actual payment has dropped from over £100 a month.

I have had a look at uswitch, and all the current plans are around 22 to 27 pence per day.

Unless you put up your actual usage, or put your actual usage into the switching sites, you will not benefit. And keeping the same tariff during falling prices has not benefitted you either. I am waiting for my supplier to drop their prices, before I fix again. Knowingly, they will increment the standing charge on a new plan as well.

Or you could wait till you term ends, revert to the normal rate and pay around 36 pence per day.

Electricity usage is around 3,000 kW, heating, gas or electric is around 13,000 kW per year.

When visiting a comp site, try searching for separate gas and electric supplierswhere you should pull up Zog Energy on gas who, in my area offer only 10p daily charge and a quite low 2.6p/kwrh tariff. Maybe the dual fuel discount tariff has had its day. No cashbacks on Zog though.

Nada666

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

I don't think you fully understand how this WOULD work. Are you not up for saving money? Just because they would be forced to all have the same standing DAILY charge, would not mean all charging higher usage charges.

What are you on about?

I think it is you who is lacking understanding. Your op posits the plight for those with a very low usage. A fixed higher daily charge will swamp any variation in unit price for that group of customers.

molerat

I changed to a higher standing charge tariff with the same supplier, an extra 6p per day, and it saved me money. Put your annual kWh into the comparison sites and see what comes out. Also separate suppliers often work out cheaper.