It’s good news that a committee of MPs is looking into why consumers are shying away from from the energy market, as Ofgem pushes for simpler tariffs from the energy companies. Ofgem is looking for energy suppliers to have one standard tariff for each of the three payment methods – pre-payment meter, cheque, and direct debit – and per fuel.
One issue identified is that consumers don’t understand the language of energy, Kilowatt hours (kWh) and how that relates to bills. Or is there another issue here? Do consumers know what there home appliances, electric heaters and electricals cost to run? From our experience they don’t!
My first taste of becoming ‘energy literate’, the term being used, I prefer the phrase ‘energy aware‘, was in the seventies (showing may age here) when, as a child, I fed the electric meter under the stairs with coins. If the emersion heater or electric fire was on it was a endless task of finding the next 10p coin (Two Shillings), or a trip to the shops to get some change, as the house was plunged into darkness! You soon got grips with what was using power, as the spinning disk on meter picked up speed!
Sust-it’s website came about because of our frustration at the lack of meaningful information for consumers about how much electricals actually cost to run. We’re all bombarded with energy information, from energy labels, car CO2 emissions, home energy performance certificates, and even the solar panel gold rush has educated many people on financial benefits of the Kilowatt. But do they mean anything to the consumers about to buy a new TV or turning the fan heater on? Probably not!
Energy labels, are one example of how it could be far simpler to get over the value of energy; these labels are already starting to display Kilowatt hours (kWh) which most consumers don’t understand. So why not convert that into running cost, as our site does? The average cost of a unit of electricity in the UK is around 0.14p per Kilowatt hour, so the maths for most products is fairly straightforward.
The other major obstacle to people switching energy supplier is the hassle involved, see previous post. Finally, how can Ofgem propose one standard tariff for each energy suppliers tariff according to payment methods, when you pay different amounts for your electricity, dependent on your postcode! I’m afraid to say your energy prices are a postcode lottery too!
