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Our fixed rate Gas and Electric is coming to an end . Been doing some comparisons ( oh the joy !)I've concluded all the companies appear to be in a lets pretend there's a difference game 🙄
Some are cheaper per unit but the daily standing charge is higher others vice versa the end result estimated monthly cost works out around the same with no clear winner .
So pay more per unit less SC or other way round? Good job there's robust competition 🙄
With EON at the moment may as well the devil you know it seems. Either OVO or Octopus were offering cheaper or free electricity at certain times but their monthly costs worked out higher 🙄
I guess because we are very low users the comparisons aren't going to be as great?
If you can be bothered, look at you usage and do the sums! As you say, there's probably not enough in it to get that worried about. Most of the competition seems to be in EV tariff these days.
Yeah EON have done those sums for me and as you say competition is all much of a muchness . Interestingly U Switch already had my usage figures without me telling them plus told me how much our house was worth apparently?
Totally agree it's all smoke & mirrors, at one time I found it very difficult to even get some of the energy companies to give me the unit & standing charge costs to allow me to do my own calcs.
Just go with Octopus, which is by far the least evil of the bunch and actually has good customer support (while they did screw me around with a heat pump installation, I did get a personal apology from the CEO and a quick fix). Let me know if you want a referral code.
Counter view is that between the wholesale price and the price cap, there isn't a whole load of room for manoeuvre so much like petrol, everyone's charging pretty much the same in the end
If your usage isn't averageish, then you may benefit more from low standing rate than others, or v/v but for most of us it's much of a muchness.
Even the ev rates only differ by a penny or so, my Octopus rate's at the higher end and I could save a bit moving to E.On but across my charging it would be sth like £3 a month and like others, I've found Octopus cust serv to be pretty good
Until energy prices are linked to renewable rather than fossil fuels prices remain high. As theotherjonv points out there's very little the suppliers can do with what they charge so it's really down to service and tailoring your plan.
If you can put your usage on off-peak - worth doing the sums?
I've got 70% of my energy on the off-peak with timers (but that includes EV, tumble-dryer, dishwasher.) And at weekends where it's off-peak too. (Approx 13ppkWh) Not the cheapest but the most suited to my lifestyle.
The energy market is a sham in the UK. Sure, of your bill 50% is wholesale gas and 36% wholesale leccy but look at the rest of it! Simply lack of investment and a market that doesn't really do what is says it does. You could remove a big chunk of that margin by having one state provider. Pragmatism would be fixing this. There is zero need for competing providers driven ever more to complex calculations to deliver your bill.
Who cares who makes your bill? Whats the point of a market if they all jump through hoops to charge the same and have little leverage on whole-sale prices.
Bills are supposed to be going down by 10% in July but they've risen so much more - the long time trajectory is up without change.
It definitely could be done better.
What bothers me about their game is...
If you as a company can afford to give a fix at below your new rate.
Why the **** you raising the rates for those that can't get a fix.....
They are at it and there's nothing you can do about it........
Fortunate enough to have been able to fit solar but that doesn't work for everyone.
Some are cheaper per unit but the daily standing charge is higher others vice versa the
Which one(s) did you find with the lowest standing charge? Mine is due, I'm a very low user and the standing charge is half my bill. Would happily pay more per unit for a lower fixed cost. All the ones I looked at seemed the same
least evil of the bunch and actually has good customer support
Ha! Two instances of back-billing for me in the last 18 months. The second one is ongoing. Randomly reducing my S/O despite me setting a higher rate on it. Getting a smart meter was a pain with delay after delay and some pretty poor excuses for them.
What bothers me about their game is...
If you as a company can afford to give a fix at below your new rate.
Why the **** you raising the rates for those that can't get a fix...
While I see a PoV that says it's a cartel, this is just a calculation - they (the Energy Co's) say they can offer lower fixed rates because by committing to them for a year they can buy ahead as well and pass that on. Reality is that they're doing an estimate of where price will go, just the same as you can, except they have all the insights and experts who do this day in day out. It's gambling in another market, and you don't see many poor bookies.
The difference is on one hand, you're not forced to gamble if you don't like the odds on a horse, but we're all pretty well obliged to buy energy. OTOH, there are other companies so you have some choice still, of where to buy, as well as whether to fix - so while proces don't differ much they're all keeping each other pegged pretty much.
So the choice on a fixed rate is whether you want to insulate against a future price rise....but at the same time you at least have the insight that if they're offering at that fixed rate then their experts reckon that overall likelihood is that the fix will be at a higher rate than their predictions for the market. Otherwise, they wouldn't be offering it. No real difference than if a bookie offers 5-1 on a horse, then the horse actually has less than that chance of winning.
And just sometimes they'll get it wrong, market price will go higher and then they're committed to sell to you at a lower rate. But not often - I've been watching fixed rates vs market for a while and barring stuff like invasions* my conclusion is to not take the fixed rates. But I'm lucky in that if the rate does go a bit higher I have enough flex to absorb my bad choice.
* and in the case of an invasion the Gov stepped in to underpin anyway.
Thats all very well if your able to fix.
If your not your ****ed.
Prepayment meter for example.
I think we have more than enough examples to show privatisation of critical infrastructure just doesn't work for the end user
We don't have a dishwasher or an EV only use the Tumble Dryer when absolutely necessary and over 48 years of marriage have been extremely careful how much Gas and Electricity we use so as I said any potential savings are going to be small anyway.
Strangely the cheaper tariff that EON recommended in their email is no longer available? 🤔
Those pennies difference in the Standing Charge don't sound much but EDFs tariff will save £45 a year which I guess will be made up by the dearer unit cost 🙄
Octopus agile tariff for the low usage win. I use very little energy and I'm willing to avoid a peak pricing periods.
Yesterday I knocked £4 off my bill because the agile tariff is based on how windy and sunny it is.
Last year my cost per kWh of energy was around 1p per kWh 🤔.
@retrorick I'm not sure how that would work for us as the only " high " usage items we have are a tumble dryer ( used very sparingly) and the washing machine 2 full loads a week.
It's around £2 a day for us. Who cares about a few pence either way? We stick with Octopus because the website is the most user friendly of any suppliers we have used.
We rarely use the tumble drier and put the amount of water we need in the kettle other than that I don't care. We use what we use.
If I was worried about saving £50 or £100 a year I would cut the number of takeaway coffees I buy.
Here is my usage for the 23rd of May. Power spike was charging the DJI power bank.
I don't use my dryer unless it's cheap.