Standing Charges on utilities, Is it possible to rid of

Ectophile

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81961841#Comment_81961841

Have you seen the price of public rapid chargers? It would be cheaper to stay on the grid.

EssexHebridean

I'd just like to congratulate and thank the OP for starting a considered and calm debate around standing charges and the options for avoiding them - it makes a pleasant change when compared with the uninformed and unhinged rants we so often see on this subject!

apcd2

Your meter and the wires between the power stations and your home need to be installed and maintained somehow. It's the cost of that which makes up your standing charge. It doesn't matter whether you use a massive amount of electricity or none at all: the cost of providing those things to you doesn't change.

The alternative to the current situation would be adding up all of those standing charges over the whole country and spreading them out over everyone's unit rate instead. You might think that that would be brilliant, "now we're all even more incentivised to reduce usage" which can only be good right? The problem is that as more and more people reduce consumption the charges for everyone else have to increase even more to make up the difference. Ask yourself who benefits most in that scenario. The biggest winners would be second home owners or people with large solar and battery setups. In other words the biggest winners would be the generally more wealthy who would be getting their bills subsidised by the people who can't afford solar panels and second homes.

Believe it or not the current system of standing charges is the "fairest" solution. Everybody pays what's required to get their electricity/gas/water delivered to their home

matelodave

I guess that you are relatively happy to pay car tax, insurance , mot etc and even maintenance for the convenience of being able to go where you want when you want whether its just one of you or the whole family and whether you drive five miles or 500 miles.

In what way is that fixed cost much different that having gas or leccy delivered right to your door for you to use as much or as little as you want without the hassle of getting it repaired or restored if something goes wrong twixt thee and the power station. Its a bit of a pain if summat goes wrong with the car as its down to you to sort it out, pay extra and take it to a repairer but you dont have that hassle when a fault develops with your gas or leccy supply.

You could go all electric, that would mean you could get rid of the gas standing charge although I guess that your electricity consumption will increase significantly to compensate so you can heat your place, heat hot water and cook. However you also need to take into account that leccy is at least four time time the price of gas unless you want to play with time of use tariffs.

You could also fork out on sufficient solar as well as batteries so you could maintain your leccy supply overnight when the sun doesn't shine. Although that could be problematic during the winter when its cold, the days are short and the sun doesn't shine very much. However without a grid connection you'll be stuffed after a couple of day overcast days or a bit of snow unless you got yourself a standby generator together with the fuel to power it. Likewise all that lovely excess energy from the sun in the summer will be wasted unless you've got a grid connection to send it back and hopefully get some money for it. The maintenance of the panels, inverters and batteries would also be down to you.

As others have said having all that convenience delivered to your door without drama has got to worth the standing charge.

You could also use the same argument for water and sewerage, pay the standing charge or take your stuff down the the launderette (or local river) to wash it, buy bottled water, dig a well or save rain water and install a cess pit/septic tank for your waste. I know what I prefer

always_learning22

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962268#Comment_81962268

Your welcome , there is an ongoing consultation by Ofgem about this . i have put in my two pence , but i don’t really think anything will come off it.

always_learning22

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962657#Comment_81962657

I get why taxes and insurance exist, but it’s frustrating. Road tax doesn’t seem to reflect the actual condition of roads, and insurance often feels stacked against the customer, people pay in consistently, but payouts can be difficult or contested. It highlights why strong regulation matters, especially when private companies are driven by profit.

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962708#Comment_81962708

Road tax hasn't existed for a century. Road maintenance comes out of general taxation.

matelodave

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962741#Comment_81962741

It really doesn't matter what its actually called - its a tax for using your car on the road.

IIRR it used to be called a Road Fund Licence its now called Vehicle Exercise Duty but its still means the same thing - a payment to the government for the "privilege" of using your car.

QrizB

Sound do able but very difficult logistical, you reckon the new plug in coming won’t make much of a difference?

Depending exactly on how it's implemented, plug-in is probably cheaper to install but might earn less (we don't yet know if you'll be allowed to claim export payments or not). And if limited to 800 watts, like in Germany, you're very unlikely to achieve net-grid-zero let alone net-bills-zero.

Have you seen the price of public rapid chargers? It would be cheaper to stay on the grid.

You're probably right! Although you could strike a deal with a neighbour to use their wallbox ...

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962837#Comment_81962837

My point is the money you pay in VED etc. doesn't go to fund road maintenance directly, it's not hypothecated for this purpose. So the cost of VED and the state of the roads have nothing to do with one another.