Energy bills

bobamse

The advice from Martin today is it might make sense to lock in a fixed energy deal at +30% or even +35% if you can get it.

I just looked and I use 30% of my annual energy JUN-SEP and 70% during the other 8 months. On energy prices alone it'd cost me more to move at the available +35% than stay on variable unless the cap moves again between Oct and Apr but I cannot figure out if the move makes sense or not because I have no idea what the standing charges'll be. I'm on electricity only (no gas) and the standing charge went from 28.04p to 47.58 p last time while the KwHr went from 23.17 to 29.58 so depending on usage here's how  standing charge fits in there:



So the std charge increase is anywhere from 8% to 23% of the total increase and you cannot tell that beforehand -this means you cannot determine if a fixed deal makes sense.

Also the more of the increase they put in the standing charge the less you can affect costs by cutting usage - you can see from the figures that lower energy users are penalised most here. So much for net zero.

I would urge Martin and anyone else with any clout to push the Govt to put restrictions on standing charges and impose come clarity so people know what they're getting into / whether a fixed deal is really value.

And why do we keep getting "typical" usage figures ? Just give us actual figures for electricity, gas and std charges - then we could all work out exactly what it was costing us - ie. +30% on electricity, +100% on std charges instead of "the average household...blah blah.. so however you compare to that, well that's you!" all clear as mud and makes you wonder if anyone in govt/ofgem has a GCSE in ... anything other than being vague.