Gas bills for most users are set to increase as standing charges to be abolished. Low users will benefit but costs will be loaded onto the bills of others.
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It's time for the old 'why will it be different this time' question.
Something similar, loading fixed costs onto the unit charge, was tried 20 or so years ago and failed.
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Always thought it was odd having 2 charges, you don't pay 2 charges for most things that need lots of infrastructure.
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doesnt affect us as we have a gas hob, but if you had electric hob, wonder if during the non heating months, it would be cheaper to just switch your boiler off and use the immerser as and when required
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>> doesnt affect us as we have a gas hob, but if you had electric hob,
>> wonder if during the non heating months, it would be cheaper to just switch your
>> boiler off and use the immerser as and when required
That would depend on the price of electricity per kwh. I ran this calculation just this morning funnily enough as the thought has been bugging me for a while, because I'm on Octopus Agile for leccy.
My current gas price is 8.17p, and AI worked out that my break even electricity price would be 12.57p. The calculation I asked it to do included my gas boiler's (lack of) efficiency.
So from now on, when I check my electricity prices every day, if I see rates below 12.57p overnight I'll stop the boiler doing it's hot water job for the morning and set my immersion on a timer.
AI even worked out for me that the 10 minute burst for hot water I run every morning would be equivalent to a 60 minute stretch on the immersion to provide the same amount of hot water.
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>> doesnt affect us as we have a gas hob, but if you had electric hob,
>> wonder if during the non heating months, it would be cheaper to just switch your
>> boiler off and use the immerser as and when required
We looked at this prospect and concluded the hour or so the boiler is on morning and evening to get the tank to 50 or whatever it's set at was cheaper than E7 leccy at night.
I'm looking at Octopus Agile as mentioned by Al but I don't think it would work for us. We can was/dry clothes and use the dishwasher when it's cheap but I think you need a leccy car or two for it to be worthwhile.
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Leccy car or a house battery is good for Agile. But I'll say this, my mileage has collapsed recently now the children have left home and I WFH. I barely ever need to charge the cars (I have a 40kwh Nissan Leaf and a 77kwh VW ID5). In fact I'm thinking of ditching one. And yet still, on Agile, my average price I've paid every month is always about 10p below price cap. I have no solar, no house battery, nothing else, I just load shift laundry and try not to run the oven at the worst times. And I've already been using the immersion when it's below about 2p or in negative rates. But I'll be using that trick more now that I've worked out where my break even is and saving on gas.
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The total price/cost of domestic gas supplies does not change - it makes no difference whether the fixed costs of distribution are a separate fixed charge or the usage charge increased.
In the UK average gas standing charges are £100pa, and usage charges £800pa per household. In future a typical household will have usage charges of £900pa.
The bill for a high gas user using double would increase from £1700 (£1600+£100) to £1800. A £100 increase is unlikely to be a major financial burden (large house, higher income?). The additional cost is most unlikely to have any impact on heat pump or other efficiency measures.
The big impact - low users of gas have smaller bills, offset by higher users who will pay more. This may be regarded as socially equitable. It may even enourage higher users to reconsider heat pump installation. Otherwise a piece of trivia.
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I'm still on Agile and having spent he last 6 weeks or so away form home I've been watching the increasing costs but not worrying too much about it.
I have 1 electric car for about 6k miles pa and that and the loa shifting meant my unit cost in 2025 was 16p, which I'm happy with. It will be more tis year but there's just the two of us, and she is quite tuned in with Agile ( - nothing much happens between 1600 and 1900).
A diverter taking out spare power from the solar panels heats enough water over the summer and is still managing to most days now, but that will tail off so I have Home Assistant turning on the gas boiler if the tank of below a certain temp at 0700.
Somehow I've been earning free hours over the past few weeks in their promotion and as I've not been there to use them next door has put his car on my charger. I still have 5 unused I think=, and they've just announced that you can carry them over till end Nov.
I do manage load (lighting, domestic appliances and computer equipment mainly) with Home Assistant, for instance discovering recently I can save about £10 a yar just by turning off my Synology NAS for the few hours overnight when would rarely be used.
My base load reaches about 6 kWh a day even when we're not there when there is virtually no solar. Two freezers, a fridge, routers, smart plugs and switches, and LED bulbs on and off at predetermined times. Which to me is surprisingly high and I may, if I can be bothered, have a look specifically which devices are the hungry ones.
I was lazy and stayed on gas tracker and that nearly hit 11p yesterday!
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 28 Oct 26 at 17:25
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I got off gas tracker earlier this year, thankfully. 8.something p at the moment. Bad but could be worse.
Bad Agile prices at the moment, but Darren Bett tells me the wind will pick a bit up again mid-next week, and I won't need to charge a car before then.
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Gas tracker 11.06 tomorrow, ouch!
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>> Leccy car or a house battery is good for Agile. But I'll say this, my
>> mileage has collapsed recently now the children have left home and I WFH. I barely
>> ever need to charge the cars (I have a 40kwh Nissan Leaf and a 77kwh
>> VW ID5). In fact I'm thinking of ditching one. And yet still, on Agile, my
>> average price I've paid every month is always about 10p below price cap. I have
>> no solar, no house battery, nothing else, I just load shift laundry and try not
>> to run the oven at the worst times. And I've already been using the immersion
>> when it's below about 2p or in negative rates. But I'll be using that trick
>> more now that I've worked out where my break even is and saving on gas.
Looking at Agile again it's apparent that, and it's actually obvious, cheap days/times are those when wind/solar create surplus.
Not had many of those recently!!
Wind solar combined right now are approx 18% of demand.
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I'm still on Agile but been here in Portugal since 20 Sept so it's not really made much difference to me.
I have everything crossed that it falls back soon because if I jump from it I can't go back onto it for 6 (or maybe it's 9) months.
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 1 Nov 26 at 13:42
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Gas Bills - Bromptonaut
