Standing charge prices

effie39

I am nearly at the end of my energy deal and now looking to see if I can find some savings - and what I have discovered (and it happened last year) is it not the cost of the price per kilowatt hour or per unit, it is the cost of the standing charge.
Some of these charges are huge and completely skew the costs / savings. I spend ages going through all the company's tariffs and work out a bill using past usage. So far it looks like I will stay where I am as although the cost of the energy has gone up a bit, the standing charges of other companies puts their bills way above what I will be paying using a new tariff

footyguy

You really spend hours going through all the company's tariffs ?

Consult a comparison site to find the best deal for you. Takes 2 minutes!

What is important is the annual cost for you. If that happens to be a tariff with zero standing charge, then it'll be at the top of the list.

System

Agree with the above but it is also worth noting that high standing charge/low kWh tariffs suit high energy users; conversely, high kWh tariffs with low/no standing charges suit low energy users.

My biggest variable is gas so I always run 3 comparisons based on my annual projected consumption plus/minus a percentage. It can change the best overall deal. There really is no need to pour over individual suppliers’ websites.

matelodave

If you are a low user then ideally you should be looking at a low standing charge and a slightly higher cost per kwh whereas a high user can benefit from a higher standing charge but a lower cost per kwh.

For me an extra 1p per kwh = £70 a year more whereas an extra 5p a day standing charge will only cost and extra £18.25.

That's why tyou should put your annual consumption into a comparison site to see which is the most beneficial.

As fooytguy says, it's the overall cost that's important

If you dont know what your annual consumption is then it's a good idea to make your own estimate and plug it into a comparison site. Then do two more comparisons, one by adding 10-15% to your estimate and another with 10-15% less to see what difference it makes.