E7 etc. / single rate calculator

Spoonie_Turtle

Just wondered if the MSE team could build a calculator for people to easily plug in their usage on multi-rate tariffs to see if they'd be better off on the single rate for their region?

It's obviously been an issue for a while that people are on inappropriate tariffs for their usage but much more so now, and especially as E7 / E10 prices are mostly increasing in January.

Of course it is something people can be capable of working out themselves, if educated how to, but the most vulnerable in this respect will be those who are unable to do so (or unable without difficulty) for whatever reason.

pensionpawn

The percentage of your total energy consumption that must be at night (during the E7 period) must be greater than:
(day rate - single rate) / (day rate - night rate)

if E7 is to be cheaper than single rate for you.

In other words your:
night consumption / total consumption > (day rate - single rate) / (day rate - night rate) 

dunstonh

It's obviously been an issue for a while that people are on inappropriate tariffs for their usage but much more so now, and especially as E7 / E10 prices are mostly increasing in January.

Or mostly decreasing depending on your usage ratio.

Spoonie_Turtle

dunstonh said:

It's obviously been an issue for a while that people are on inappropriate tariffs for their usage but much more so now, and especially as E7 / E10 prices are mostly increasing in January.

Or mostly decreasing depending on your usage ratio.

Depends on supplier (and quite possibly area), I've seen lots of comments from people with both night and day rates increasing.

Gerry1

Heaven help you if you're with British Gas.  I'm on their E7 tariff but with the new rates taking effect on 1 Jan 2023 I wanted to check whether the single rate would be cheaper.  Unfortunately, the website refuses to give a quotation or even to show the rates.

I wanted to make an informed choice, so I telephoned BG to ask what the SVT single rate will be w.e.f. from 1 Jan 2023.  Amazingly, the agent said that they couldn't tell me the prices until after I'd switched to single rate !  Naturally, I didn't want a Pig In A Poke tariff, so I asked to be transferred to the supervisor.  Same answer, he wouldn't tell me what their SVT rates were, I'd have to switch to find out just what I'd let myself in for. 

Of course, it was all a pack of lies.  The SVT single rates are available on the website, but are extraordinarily well hidden; you'd never find them by navigating through the website or by logging into your account.

The E7 day rate will increase by 9.87% from 44.986p/kWh to 49.426p/kWh but the night rate and standing charge remain the same, yet we're being told that we won't notice any change.

IMHO BG's behaviour is anti-competitive and anti-consumer because their call centre is telling lies and their website does not readily make available the information that customers need to make informed choices.  Needless to say, I've raised a formal complaint.

Spoonie_Turtle

Gerry1 said:

IMHO BG's behaviour is anti-competitive and anti-consumer because their call centre is telling lies and their website does not readily make available the information that customers need to make informed choices.  Needless to say, I've raised a formal complaint.

None of the suppliers' websites I've looked at make the information easily accessible.  Even Octopus who do actually give their rate tables on a webpage,  you need to know where to look to stand a chance of finding it (their blog, which is not exactly intuitive).

Gerry1

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Gerry1 said:

IMHO BG's behaviour is anti-competitive and anti-consumer because their call centre is telling lies and their website does not readily make available the information that customers need to make informed choices.  Needless to say, I've raised a formal complaint.

None of the suppliers' websites I've looked at make the information easily accessible.

Did you look at EDF? I'm not one of their biggest fans, but it's extraordinarily easy to find all the info, even including the rates before government assistance applies.

Go to edfenergy dot com and click on the first link then scroll halfway down the page to reach this.

Update: Edited to show EDF link in plain text because skimresources changes the page to which the link takes you.

bristolleedsfan

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Gerry1 said:

IMHO BG's behaviour is anti-competitive and anti-consumer because their call centre is telling lies and their website does not readily make available the information that customers need to make informed choices.  Needless to say, I've raised a formal complaint.

None of the suppliers' websites I've looked at make the information easily accessible.  Even Octopus who do actually give their rate tables on a webpage,  you need to know where to look to stand a chance of finding it (their blog, which is not exactly intuitive).

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/government_energy_price_guarantee_prices._standard_variable_deemed_and_welcome._credit_meters.pdf

Spoonie_Turtle

Gerry1 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Gerry1 said:

IMHO BG's behaviour is anti-competitive and anti-consumer because their call centre is telling lies and their website does not readily make available the information that customers need to make informed choices.  Needless to say, I've raised a formal complaint.

None of the suppliers' websites I've looked at make the information easily accessible.

Did you look at EDF? I'm not one of their biggest fans, but it's extraordinarily easy to find all the info, even including the rates before government assistance applies.

That's actually one I didn't look at because the PDF had been linked here so often already!  And now I know why 😄

[Deleted User]

Calculators are very much old thinking. BEIS has already paid a consortium to build a smart meter tool that does all the calculations for you. The tool, with your permission, extracts 12 months’ worth of smart meter import data in 30 minute usage blocks and it then overlays this data across all available tariffs (single rate through to time-of-use ).

Once the tool is deployed, price comparison websites will have to become a Registered DCC Other User in their own right or partner with an organisation that is already DCC accredited such as Hildebrand. To extract smart meter data, a secure piece of software known as an Adapter has to be used.

The days of kWh/year are numbered.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-meter-enabled-tariffs-comparison-project-smarter-tariffs-smarter-comparisons/smarter-tariffs-smarter-comparisons-project-winning-bid

EssexHebridean

dunstonh said:

It's obviously been an issue for a while that people are on inappropriate tariffs for their usage but much more so now, and especially as E7 / E10 prices are mostly increasing in January.

Or mostly decreasing depending on your usage ratio.

That's an interesting claim. I'm currently running around 90% night use but my annual costs are increasing - as both my day and night rates are increasing I don't think there's a ratio I could hit that would see a decrease, somehow!