Help requested: Standing Charges and gas supply

Mac9091_2

Issue: A friend has come to me for more advice (normally does regarding money) and said that EON has now stated they won't be refunding the Standing Charges (SC) as she does not use any gas at all. They have also moved her to EON Next for some reason. Current electric spend per year is IRO £650 for daily use and heating water via electricity rather than gas.

The electricity is via Bulb on a prepayment meter and the gas is DD but gets refunded as there is no change in the meter reading.

Problem: I can't find any gas tariffs that offer a zero SC, the cheapest I can find is British Gas which would work out at £62.53 per year for nothing and I don't see there being enough of a saving switching to gas to heat the water to cover the £62.53 standing charge plus however much gas she actually ends up using. As the property is rented I'm sure she can't get the gas capped and the meter removed (or if she did would probably cost more to remove and replace it when she moves out)

Is there anything that can be done about being forced to pay for a SC when there is no requirement for the gas to be supplied? TIA.

Mac9091_2

Oh best to add, yes i have looked at the several other posts on lack of SCs but none of them allude to zero use of gas at all.

Neil_Jones

Are there any gas appliances in the house at all?  Oven?  Boiler?  Fire?  Something else?  Are there radiators?

As a general rule if the option is available to use gas to heat/cook/wash/eat then it will always be cheaper to make use of it.  The presence of a meter would imply there is (or has been) a gas supply at some point in the past, and your standing charges account for the infrastructure and its upkeep.  The fact your friend happens not to use it for whatever reason is relatively moot.  It's there, its connected (presumably) and available (presumably).

Robin9

Does she have a gas boiler ? If so it will be cheaper to heat water by gas than electric.

Eon Next is the new Eon

Gerry1

Bulb prepayment will be costing an arm and a leg.

jbuchanangb

Being in a rented property presumably means she has limited scope for installing any gas appliances, particularly for heating. Was the gas already capped off when she moved into the property? If so she may be able to use a loophole, and pay nothing for the existence of the gas supply, as it has been shown that as long as absolutely no gas has been used by a customer from the day they moved in, there is no deemed contract between them and the incumbent supplier. There are other threads in this forum which explain this better.

MWT

jbuchanangb said:

If so she may be able to use a loophole, and pay nothing for the existence of the gas supply, as it has been shown that as long as absolutely no gas has been used by a customer from the day they moved in, there is no deemed contract between them and the incumbent supplier. There are other threads in this forum which explain this better.

It is too late to use that option as she has an account set up and is already paying the SC.

This route only works if you do it upon taking possession of the property and before you enter into a contract with the supplier.

Now the only path would be to have the supply and the meter removed, but as she is renting that would require the landlord to agree as well since it is an alteration to their 'property', and it would not be free...

Mac9091_2

Yes, it would be cheaper to heat the water by gas but this was discussed and calculated previously and the cost of gas and SC would outweigh the savings that would be made by just using electricity.

The only gas appliance is the boiler and there's GCH but she never uses or needs it, again this was part of the discussion about only using electricity to heat the water.

Boiler gets serviced each year as required due to it being rented and its never been capped off. 

The concern is that she is being forced now to pay a SC for something she doesn't use and if she does use gas she would still be financially worse off. Granted not by much but every saving is a saving.

QrizB

Mac9091_2 said:

The concern is that she is being forced now to pay a SC for something she doesn't use and if she does use gas she would still be financially worse off. Granted not by much but every saving is a saving.

There are no "zero standing charge" tariffs (at least, no-one on this board has been able to find one recently).

If she has to pay the SC anyway, she will probably save money by using the boiler for CH and HW.

Neil_Jones

Mac9091_2 said:

Yes, it would be cheaper to heat the water by gas but this was discussed and calculated previously and the cost of gas and SC would outweigh the savings that would be made by just using electricity.

The only gas appliance is the boiler and there's GCH but she never uses or needs it, again this was part of the discussion about only using electricity to heat the water.

Boiler gets serviced each year as required due to it being rented and its never been capped off. 

The concern is that she is being forced now to pay a SC for something she doesn't use and if she does use gas she would still be financially worse off. Granted not by much but every saving is a saving.

Sorry I don't quite follow.  Why is your friend not using the boiler for hot water?  Are you seriously suggesting for hot water they boil the kettle up or heat up a saucepan on the stove (presume that's electric too?) when they've got a perfectly good boiler just sitting there on a wall somewhere doing nothing?

You do realise gas is  on average a quarter of the price per unit than electricity?  It would save you boiling water up needlessly in the kettle/saucepan at some ridiculous rate when the boiler will boil what you need when you need it - washing the dishes or washing your hands or even having a shower if that's the sort you've got, though you're more likely to have an electric shower.

What does your friend do for heating in the winter?  Electric fires?  That'll cost the earth and some more.  The boiler will heat multiple rooms in one go at a far more economical rate.

molerat

It makes me laugh when I see the news reports with little old ladies sitting in front of an electric fire because "they can't afford to have the gas heating on".  I have an antique 35 year old inefficient gas boiler and in mid winter have the heating and hot water on 24/7 in my 3 bed detached in N Scotland keeping the whole house at a minimum of 18 deg plus background heating in the conservatory for less than the cost of a 1 bar electric fire for 24 hrs.