High or Low Standing Charge

jelliot

I am with British Gas collective fix ending October 3rd and looking for a replacement tariff.

I found one which was cheaper than all the rest but the standing charges are more than double anyone else and the tariff is a lot lower.

43.6661p SC
12.4000p per kWh

37.0307p SC
2.6900p kWh

Using my usage of 4000 kWh of electricity and 14000 kWh of gas will cost about £655 and £512 for a year yet with a standing charge of less than half,

20.8600p SC
15.0200p kWh


19.6600p SC
3.1500p kWh

the costs are £676 and £512

So what is better, high standing charge and low kWh or low standing charge and high kWh?

macman

What matters is the total annual cost-s/c's are irrelevant. So the first tariff will be cheaper by £21pa. However, if your usage is lower than you estimate, then the differential will be less. At some point, the 2nd tariff would become cheaper.
PS: there is no need to do the maths-any comp site will do the calculation for you a lot quicker.

System

You are a high to above the average user: in general terms, this favours a tariff with a high standing charge and low unit cost. The question that I always ask myself is 'what happens if the coming Winter is colder than the norm'? To partially answer this question, I run two more comparisons based on +/- 15% on gas and +/- 10% on electricity to see how outcome changes. It it does then the choice becomes something of a guess.

oldwiring

I did some idle moment calculations. My findings:
unless overall combined consumption drops by more than 15% the low SC option will be dearer

Gas- low SC is dearer but becomes cheaper with 1% reduction of use

Leccy- low SC is dear throughout unless consumption reduces by 22%

Electricity- low SC is dear throughout unless consumption reduces by 22% ISTM that electricity likely to be the less variable element, gas costs should be uppermost in your thoughts.