Northern Ireland gas tariffs unfair

paulcam

So I am having natural gas installed and was a bit annoyed when I read this:

https://www.airtricitygasni.com/fs/doc/domestic-tariffs/SSE_Airtricity_Domestic_Tariff_Table_effective_from_01_Oct_2018.pdf

You may note that if you have a "bill pay" meter, as opposed to a "pay as you go" meter, they want to charge me close to 40% more for my first 2000 kWh of gas. They also impose a minimum use tax of 1678 kWh.

How can this be legal?

I also note in terms of climate change that many features of this tariff are designed to encourage increased use.

Further still, their tariffs are in kWh but the meters and gas supply is regulated in cubic meters. They are not a static comparison without regulated values for all manor of things like purity, density, pressure, temperature of the gas and many other things.

Gerry1

It's just the equivalent of a standing charge, and gas meters always measure volume not kilowatt hours. Nothing to see here, move along !

paulcam

Gerry1 wrote: »

It's just the equivalent of a standing charge, and gas meters always measure volume not kilowatt hours. Nothing to see here, move along !

But there is no standing charge on the "Pay as you go".

if the meter measures volume, why do they charge by kWh?

If you read your meter can you work out how much you are required to pay?

JJ_Egan

<If you read your meter can you work out how much you are required to pay?>


Yes you can .

GunJack

(cubic metres (i.e. the meter units) x 1.02664 x calorific value, normally 39.9)/3.6,

so for example if you've used 40 units between meter reads

kwh = (40x1.02664x39.9)/3.6

which equals 453.37 kwh

note:- the calorific value may vary slightly, it's the "quality" of the gas they've supplied. There was a good explanation of t on a thread here recently. My energy co. lists it every month on my bills.. only varies between (I think) 40 and 38 max/min for domestic gas

twhitehousescat

paulcam wrote: »

But there is no standing charge on the "Pay as you go".

if the meter measures volume, why do they charge by kWh?

If you read your meter can you work out how much you are required to pay?

in the rest of the UK there us , you pay (typically) 25-30p per day even if you do not use any power , this amount is taken from your credit

GunJack

Oh, and that 40% is the difference between paying around 5p per kwh (first 2000) and 3.5p per kwh (the rest)

paulcam

twhitehousescat wrote: »

in the rest of the UK there us , you pay (typically) 25-30p per day even if you do not use any power , this amount is taken from your credit

Yes, but this isn't the rest of the UK and no standing charge listed.

Further reading of their tariffs it seems the price hike on the "credit" meter is effective ransom on you providing meter readings and pay direct debit as they give you a "discount" for paying by direct debit.

It's highly confusing to try and work out how much you get charged and how much discount you actually get.

I thought tariffs were meant to be simplified. I also thought it was illegal to elevate a price only to give a discount on it.

Don't belittle me either on tariffs, I did write an entire usage calculator and billing system for an large energy retailer as my last work project, but for electricity and they were not as complicated as these gas tariffs when you start factoring in the price bands and discounts.

(cubic metres (i.e. the meter units) x 1.02664 x calorific value, normally 39.9)/3.6,

So what is the magic number "1.02664" about? Density? Kg/m3? Also 3.6 sounds like the conversion between kilojoules and kwh, but I don't see the conversion between calories and Joules. Can you explain this a little more? Is the density not highly dependant on the pressure the gas is supplied at?

paulcam

GunJack wrote: »

Oh, and that 40% is the difference between paying around 5p per kwh (first 2000) and 3.5p per kwh (the rest)

Yes. The question is... why do credit meters have to pay more for the first 2000 kWh when compared to Pre-pay.

Why do we get charged more because of the type meter we have? It's like pulling into a filling station and paying more because you drive a 4x4 instead of a hatch back.

GunJack

https://edfenergyuk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/487/~/what-does-correction-factor-mean%3F

and

https://www.makeitcheaper.com/domestic-energy/how-to-convert-gas-units-into-kwh

explains the correction factor, etc.

Your higher first 2000kwh charge is particularly good value in lieu of a standing charge, it's about £30 a year as opposed to around £70 us on the mainland are charged, and the infrastructure still needs maintaining.

What costs per kwh are you paying? edit - found it, the credit meter dd discount pretty much takes the difference off, and you never run out of gas due to a lack of top-up