Best Energy Tariffs for Solar Panels and immersion diversion..

JimLad

Hi Guys, Ive been wondering after the cheap energy club emailed saying i could save £50 by switching...

Is it better to have an energy tariff with slightly higher unit rate but lower standing charge?

I have an iboost so in the summer months i use next to no gas and the standing charge adds up!

My current gas rates:
2.275p per kWh Standing charge 26.250p per day

Could change to:
2.825p per kWh Standing charge 11.214p per day

Mr Current Electricity rate:
11.120p per kWh Standing charge 18.900p per day

Could change to:
12.043p per kWh Standing charge 12.453p per day

pinnks

Interesting. This is not really a diverter issue as it matters only how much gas or leccy you use over the year as a whole. The fact that you pay the daily charge over the summer when the gas is off has no impact on an annual basis given the amounts used in winter.

Based on my imported figures the answer for leccy is a lemon - only pence different - and for gas swapping to the higher rate and lower daily charge would save about £5...

ASavvyBuyer

I found by switching to Zog for Gas and E-on for Electric that we saved nearly £80 a year compared to the EDF dual fuel fixed tariff I was on. A significant part of the difference was because of the lower standing charge.

Because of the Solar Panels and diverting supplus electric to water heating, we are expecting that we will use hardly any gas from April till September, unless we have a cold spell where we need the heating on.

It is worth doing a detailed comparison of your gas & electric use per month for the whole year to work out what is best for you.

michaels

Presumably there is nothing stopping you from choosing a low standing charge tariff during the summer months and a low unit rate one during the winter. Simply a matter of tweaking your usage figures in the calculators to get the right answer depending on the season.

ASavvyBuyer

michaels wrote: »

Presumably there is nothing stopping you from choosing a low standing charge tariff during the summer months and a low unit rate one during the winter. Simply a matter of tweaking your usage figures in the calculators to get the right answer depending on the season.

Tried that, and saving was less than £10. That was mainy because the company with no standing charge for gas in the summer, had a very expensive rate for any gas we might need to use; therefore cancelled out any real benefit.

Suppose we were lucky, managed to switch to E.on v19 fixed for electricity before it closed, and just managed to get the new rate for Zog for Gas.

zeupater

JimLad wrote: »

Hi Guys, Ive been wondering after the cheap energy club emailed saying i could save £50 by switching...

Is it better to have an energy tariff with slightly higher unit rate but lower standing charge?

I have an iboost so in the summer months i use next to no gas and the standing charge adds up!

My current gas rates:
2.275p per kWh Standing charge 26.250p per day

Could change to:
2.825p per kWh Standing charge 11.214p per day

Mr Current Electricity rate:
11.120p per kWh Standing charge 18.900p per day

Could change to:
12.043p per kWh Standing charge 12.453p per day

Hi

The values above are irrelevant without knowing/understanding your usage.

For us, paying a higher unit price with no standing charge makes perfect sense as we have an extremely low usage on both gas & electricity, but for others, as average usage increases the cost-benefit of this strategy becomes diluted and soon reverses. It's pretty straightforward to check out the relative costs by apportioning the standing charge over the anticipated usage, adding it to the unit price and comparing to a zero standing charge tariff - easier still, use a cost comparison site .... the important thing is to accurately know your usage history and understand that any future changes in usage patterns (eg extremely cold winter or additional freezer) will have a disproportional impact on overall bills and therefore to not lose focus on energy usage.

HTH
Z

silverwhistle

I'm in a similar situation to Zeupater and have a zero standing charge tariff due to low usage. My gas bill is less than the lowest annual standing charge available, due to PV and a diverter and a wood-burning stove.

As pointed out you need to be aware of your usage and changes to it. I've a few non-LED bulbs to go, a less draughty back door to fit and I'm thinking of getting a MHRV unit for the bathroom: all incremental changes that should help keep my usage down. A cold winter would mainly mean burning more wood, and more scrounging.. :-) If I were to finally get a television it would have to be very low consumption. I keep a closer watch on electricity as that is the one where usage changes and a different optimum tariff are likelier: can't see that changing for the gas.