Gas & electric standing charges

ASavvyBuyer

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

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.

Your oven must work differently to ours and our grill. Our Oven & Grill have a thermostat that cuts in and out full power to the elements when they are switched on, therefore it would use more than the panels are generating for most of the time, even if we left it on a low setting.

ASavvyBuyer

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

Thanks for that I had not thought about changing suppliers more often.

Since getting the solar panels last August, we have found that in the summer 6 months we need to pay for about 20% of the electricty we use, compared to 80% of the total bill in the winter 6 months. And for gas about 10% in the summer compared to the 90% during winter 6 months. That is why we are now looking at changing every 6 months.

joncombe

You can thank OFGEM for this. OFGEM banned the previous practice many suppliers used of no standing charge but two unit rates (the lower starting after a specified number of units had been used). They decided that this was too confusing, so they mandated suppliers must charge with a standing charge and a single unit rate.

So they replaced two charges with two charges and announced that this was "simpler". The stated reason for the standing charge is to recover fixed costs. But it is clearly not doing this with such massive differences in the standing charge different suppliers (and even different traffis on the same supplier) charge.

It is instead just being used to obfuscate as typically tariffs with a lower standing charge have a higher unit rate and vice-versa, yet surely the "fixed" costs would be the same.

Really I think OFGEM should either manadate a fixed standing charge or have tariffs charged with no standing charge and a single unit rate, but I doubt either will happen. Which were campaigning for this (they called it petrol pricing I think, to mirror the way we pay for petrol) but they didn't seem to have much success with it either.

System

joncombe wrote: »

Y
Really I think OFGEM should either manadate a fixed standing charge or have tariffs charged with no standing charge and a single unit rate, but I doubt either will happen. Which were campaigning for this (they called it petrol pricing I think, to mirror the way we pay for petrol) but they didn't seem to have much success with it either.

For clarity, Ofgem has mandated that:

Complex tiered tariffs will be banned. Suppliers will now only be allowed to have one structure for tariffs – a unit rate (or unit rates for time of use tariffs) and standing charge, which can be zero. This will make tariffs more consistent and easier to compare.

Choosing a new deal will be easier, as you will only have to choose from four core tariffs for gas and four for electricity.

Cash discounts will be simplified. Suppliers will only be able to offer two cash discounts, one for dual fuel (where a consumer takes gas and electricity from the same supplier) and one for managing your account online. These will be displayed in a simple pounds-per-year format.

We are also banning restrictive discounts which made it difficult to compare the costs of tariffs.

IMHO, the Ofgem policy works for both high and low users alike. To have a fixed standing charge, would discriminate against those who do not use very much energy.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

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.

Further to my previous answer. BoP now interprets for the could not care less.

OP said the were upset because they are a low user of electricity and did not want to pay standing charges. It now transpires OP has a nuclear power station in their back yard, generating 4kW of leccie during the day when the sun shines. They keep oven on low to heat house during day, and use gas at night. They have not invested in two single bar electric fires that would be more efficient at delivering local heat instead of using an appliance designed to roast meat. The cost of this installation is around £6,000 to do yourself and would take ten years to pay back, st £600 saving a year.

Unfortunately during this time, electricity and energy prices have fallen, andthe envisaged saving have not been as good. As such, instead of using gas lamps to light the house, OP has to use electricity from grid at night, and pay the going rate. they are not on a feed in Tarrif.

Moral. You can't have it both ways.

Perhaps a further investment in a battery storage system could save money, but it would take longer to recoup the cost.

TONY_CROSS

Thank You everyone for your forum comments. The thread on this subject is now closed.

footyguy

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

Thank You everyone for your forum comments. The thread on this subject is now closed.

Well it probably was considered so, until you bumped this thread from last week :cool:

Cardew

TONY_CROSS wrote: »

Thank You everyone for your forum comments. The thread on this subject is now closed.

Who closed it?