Understanding gas and electricity prices
Gas and electricity prices can vary greatly, this is down to many different factors, but you have the power to drive down the price of your bills by addressing how much you are paying on the standing charge and price per kWh. Understanding the meaning of these terms and what is a good price for both is essential to saving your family money on its energy costs.
Standing charge
A standing charge is the cost of having the electricity supply. It is very similar to when you pay line rental on a landline telephone or a base rate charge. This rate is fixed and does not change depending on your usage or what you spend on your gas or electricity. Standing charges can cover a variety of things such as maintenance, meter charges etc.
What about zero / no-standing charge contracts?
This is when you don’t pay anything for having the electricity or gas delivered to you. You just pay for the electricity or gas you use (referred to as the unit rate or kWh). Homeowners, however, need to be mindful though as having a zero-standing charge as it will more than likely be that you pay more for your gas or electricity.
What is Price per Kilowatt Hour (kWh)
A kWh is a measurement of energy. For example, a 1000 watt product will need 1000 watts (1 kWh) of power to make it work and uses 1 kWh of energy in an hour. The kWh is sometime referred to as the unit rate.
The price of a kWh (unit) can vary depending on how much the supplier wants to charge, it can be anything from 10p and 30p.
What we at Edan Home think
It is essential for people to shop around for a better deal as the savings they could be making are impressive and not to be missed out on. Plus, if you do not shop around for a better deal, utility suppliers could carry on charging what they want for the utility as there would be no competition to help keep the prices down.
