Gas and electricity unit rates

Jibber123

Just been speaking to a neighbour and he seems to think our electricity and gas unit rates are ridiculously high. I've not switched for a few years as you've not been able to due to the turmoil in the energy markets but I thought I was still on a got deal. I'm currently with Scottish power paying 34.076p day 16.633p night, standing charge 44.03p. Gas 6.784p and standing charge 29.62p. I've had a quick search on line and all the uswitch sites are showing about the same I found 2 companies that saved £100 a year but variable so could easily go up. Do my unit rates seem about right?

ArbitraryRandom

Your gas unit rate is below the cap, which can be good this time of year if you use it for heating. 

To know if your electricity is good value for you or not then you'd need to know the split of your day/night usage - do you happen to have meter readings? 

dunstonh

l. I'm currently with Scottish power paying 34.076p day 16.633p night, standing charge 44.03p

That means you have a TOU tariff.  e.g. economy 7 or other variant

 Do my unit rates seem about right?

Nothing wrong with them.    The off peak/peak ratio is better priced for a lower off peak user than a higher off peak user but depending on your region, you may not get the super low off peak rates.

Just been speaking to a neighbour and he seems to think our electricity and gas unit rates are ridiculously high. 

What gave him that impression?   perhaps he isn't on a TOU tariff and doesn't understand how they work.

What is your off peak to peak ratio.      For example, my off peak units are around 67% of my overall units.   That means I am better off with a supplier that has the lowest off peak rate (8p in my case).    If you are closer to 35% then a higher off peak rate is better (around 16p).    If you are less than 35% then a TOU tariff may not be best for you and moving to a single rate could be better.

Tell us you meter readings for off peak and peak covering a year if you are unable to work out the ratio for yourself.

la531983

The neighbour is merely comparing the day time rate to his own rate (probably 27p or so), and coming to the wrong conclusion

Jibber123

The average over the past 3 years is 54% day 46% night. Were a bit better than that now, probably nearer 50/50. The last weeks figures have messed things up as we've had family visiting from Scotland and charging their EV during the day.

ArbitraryRandom

If you use 50% of your energy at the day rate then you are probably better off switching to a single rate tariff (assuming no high penalty for leaving a fix or similar). 

There are some fixes available at or around the cap - or you could stay on the variable rate... honestly the forecasts suggest not much difference either way, so it really depends on which you feel most comfortable with and if you're on the variable it only changes every 3 months so you could fix at any point. There's also the octopus tracker if you are comfortable with something that changes more regularly (daily). People have saved a lot of money on it, but I think the savings are probably better in summer than winter (given energy price trends). 

...I'd normally include here reference to the time of use tariffs offered by octopus... but if you're not on top of when you use your energy then they can end up costing you a fair bit more. 

Jibber123

Thanks for the info. I've just done some sums and even at nearly 50/50 split i'm still a few £100 better off on an economy7 tariff.  

the last set of figures were from charging an EV during the day for a week. Apart from that I am always better off apart from a couple of small figures in the red. We do our best to only put the dishwasher and washing machine on at night, and charge as much other stuff on timers and even use the slow cooker. In the summer we've got a heat pump heater for a hot tub that also runs some nights, but only of the solar thermal doesn't heat up enough during the day.

debitcardmayhem

Are those figures just for a week?

ArbitraryRandom

Great

But note that the one row where you've actually got a 50/50 the difference is only £5, not £100 - so worth keeping an eye on it over a longer period as your use changes with the seasons - and on those days where the difference is pence you might want to consider the standing charge as well. 

Also just checking that you've compared like for like (both e7 and the variable rate are before you add 5% VAT)? As quoted rates from suppliers sometimes roll it in. 

QrizB

ArbitraryRandom said:

If you use 50% of your energy at the day rate then you are probably better off switching to a single rate tariff

The break even is closer to 60/40 day/night. It does vary slightly between suppliers (at last, it did the last time I compared the Big 6 for my region, a couple of years ago).

Jibber123

those figures are just 2 1/2 years reading, i try and reead the meters once a month but sometimes its 2 or 3 weeks apart other times it 6 or 7, the first readings were for a year when we first moved in.