So - who knows where they stand on the new energy prices then? If you were already on the Standard Variable pricing on single rate electricity (and gas if you have it) then you should do following the Government announcement of the Energy Price Guarantee - as a rough guideline 34p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas if my recollection is correct. We’re in a slightly more complex situation here though. Firstly as regular readers might recall, our home is almost entirely electric powered - we use gas for cooking and nothing else, meaning we use less than 300kWh of gas per year - a ludicrously small amount. Obviously that is offset with a far higher than “typical” electricity use - and due to that, and the fact that our heating is via night storage heaters, that means an Economy 7 meter - and that in turn complicates things when you’re trying to work out how things like the new EPG affects your rates. To add to that, back in July we took a deep breath and instigated an energy switch for the electricity onto a fixed rate tariff with Green Energy U.K. - one of the three “super-green” suppliers who are not bound by the Ofgem price cap. At the time we opted to switch the fix was looking like being *just* cheaper than the likely October prices, by late August it was looking a LOT cheaper than those October prices. Had no further intervention from the Government been forthcoming it would have been an absolute winner - however now, things are less certain.
As a reminder - the “Price guarantee” says that for the next two years a “typical household” should pay no more for their household energy than £2500. This doesn’t mean that YOUR household will pay £2500 though - that all depends on how you compare to those “typical” use figures - 12,000kWh per annum gas, 2,900kWh per annum electric in case you were wondering. The ONLY way to know how your own use compares to “typical” - and so to that magical £2500 figure - is to work it out. If you keep records of meter readings then you can use those - otherwise go back a year on bills to find a reading from 12 months ago - and then read your meters today as well. Gas is complicated by the conversions needed and quite frankly that one is beyond me - however the formula needed is easily findable online - they key thing to note however is whether your meter reads in m3 or ft3 - it should be marked on the meter itself, as that makes a difference to the required formula. (As a guide, ft3 meters usually have 4 digits ahead of the decimal point, while metric (m3) meters have 5. Ignore everything after the digital point regardless). Electricity is simple - subtract the reading from a year ago from the one taken today, and there is your annual consumption right there. (See, so easy even I can do it!). In simplified terms for regular dual fuel users, if your figures are higher than 12,000/2900 then you’ll be paying more than £2500 p/a - under those amounts and you’ll be paying less.
So to our own complications then - firstly working out the Economy 7 rates is not as simple as working out single rate costs. All suppliers have flexibility in how they work things out on E7 - they just have to reach a point where assuming that an E7 user uses 58% of their energy during the day, and 42% at night, they will pay the same kWh price on average as a single rate user. We don’t fit that profile though - as we use around 75% of our electricity overnight - meaning that for us the lower the night rate, the better, even if that means a slightly higher daytime rate than most E7 users would expect. The second issue we have currently is not knowing exactly how the new guarantee will apply to our current supplier as it’s not yet been confirmed that the Super-green suppliers are included. It HAS been confirmed that some fixed rates - as long as the prices start out higher than the guaranteed rates - will get the benefit of the EPG, so if you have a fix with a “standard” supplier then it’s worth you checking to confirm how your pricing will be affected.
Ultimately - if you are on SVR then you can still expect to see an increase in the cost of your energy from 1st October, however this increase will now be a LOT smaller than it would have been without the EPG being put in place. If you are on a fairly recent fix then you might see your costs dropping a little. Your supplier should be contacting you very soon to let you know where you stand - right now there is probably little point in ringing them to ask because as you might expect they are ludicrously busy at the moment. Remember that the £400 non-repayable energy grant is also coming - suppliers are sending out information about exactly how they are going to deal with that too, but it will be applied to electricity accounts and is to be spread over 6 months. For most people it will take the form of a reduction to your monthly direct debit - so remember that this means that less money will be leaving your bank account - make sure you don’t lose track of this. Personally I will be ensuring that I stash those monthly savings away so that the money is there for the future - we still have a long way to go with the energy crisis and no certainty around any more help forthcoming for next winter. It’s also worth bearing in mind that any use figures from the last 12 months includes a remarkably mild winter and there is no certainty that we’ll be seeing another one of those so it may be that we all have to use more energy this winter for the same internal temperatures in our homes.
Other tips - reduce energy use where you can, I’ve written about this before as has just about every other frugal blogger out there. Start prepping now for winter - think about throws and blankets, warm clothing you can layer and whether things like slippers need replacing. Check hot water bottles for soundness. As the nights draw in remember the gains from pulling curtains as it begins to get dark and temperatures fall - and on warmer sunny mornings, make sure that curtains are opened again to get the benefit of a little “solar heating” where you can.
Right now, we’ll be over here waiting to hear from Green Energy in order that we can do some frantic maths around our upcoming costs to fathom out whether we need to try to find another switch!
Robyn
