Energy supplier quotes - just list standing charge & unit rates

I hate comparing energy suppliers and entering silly things like number of bedrooms to get a completely uncomparable ‘quote’.

Why not just list the standing charge and £/kWh? Then it’s easily comparable to others and current supplier.

(I know this information is eventually displayed in Monzo, but you have to enter #bedrooms first, ignore a nonsense figure, and then click in to see more details.)

That works on simple flat tariffs but multi rate tariffs can’t be compared like that… you have to have a typical usage profile to be able to calculate the cost as it varies by time of day.

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But nobody (including Monzo) does it for ‘simple flat tariffs’ either, even if you say you have a boring old ordinary dumb meter.

And #bedrooms is still meaningless.

Yes, I’ve never understood the purpose of any of that. Nothing that goes on in my house depends on the number of bedrooms I have, not even the amount of heat generated by the boiler since not all rooms are ‘on’ all the time. Simple or complex tariff makes no difference.

I’m sure it works for some types of people but, for me, it’s just an irritation to be bypassed where possible.

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I think the idea is you pick the numbers of bedrooms so that it if you enter your figures you get added to the stats for that number, so the next person who enters say two beds but doesn’t know their usage the lookup will see what the average usage is for people that also entered two beds. Six beds, well the average usage for people that entered six beds is xxx etc

So if you know your usage it doesn’t help you but helps others.

But I don’t think that’s a meaningful average. A better question would be #occupants (since you might have 2 adults and a baby in 1-bed flat, or 3 people in a 4 or 5-bed house).

I don’t know my usage. I know (roughly enough) how much I pay per day and per unit though. (That’s the other question that annoys me - kWh/year - since I have no idea, and it’s only so that they can multiply by £/kWh to give me a £/year figure, which I could do myself if I cared, given the £/kWh rate!

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Your energy supplier should be sending an annual statement with these figures.

Personally, I find it to be the best way to get an accurate comparison.

Of course, but then I have to look it up.

And the rate at which they charge doesn’t vary according to how much you use, so they could just state clearly ‘£X/day standing charge + £Y/kWh’ without requiring any interaction from the potential customer whatsoever.

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