Business Electricity

Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 4 mins read Last Updated January 16, 2025 Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 4 mins read Last Updated January 16, 2025 What does ‘standing charge’ mean on an electricity bill? Understanding all the details given to you on your energy bills is key to ensuring you’re being charged fairly for what you use. Part of that means knowing what all the jargon translates as so you can tell what each part of the bill means.  Here, we explore the meaning of the term ‘standing charge’ and how this cost impacts the price you pay for energy. Find The Best Deals Content What does ‘standing charge’ mean on an electricity bill? What does ‘standing charge’ mean on your energy bills? What does a standing charge include? What does ‘standing charge’ mean on your energy bills? When you get your energy bill, whether you receive them online or through the post, it will include a breakdown of the costs incurred during the period of time the bill covers. This is to give you context on what you’re actually paying for – and can help you to make decisions about your future usage.  Typically, there are three charges that make up your overall energy bill, regardless of whether it is for gas or electricity. These are: Unit rates Standing charges Taxes. Your unit rate is the cost of each unit of energy you use – so you’ll see a breakdown of how much energy you’ve consumed over the billing period and how much it costs per unit, followed by the calculation of the total cost. Taxes, such as value added tax (VAT) will also be calculated.  Then there is the standing charge, which will usually show as a price per day and the number of days within the billing period. This is a base charge that is applied for every day you have a supply – regardless of whether you actually use any energy during that time.  Most tariffs involve a standing charge, and you can compare different options to find one that works for you. Some suppliers offer tariffs that don’t include a standing charge, where the first few units of energy are more expensive to compensate. This might be preferable if you expect to be away from the property a lot, and don’t want to be charged while you’re not using energy.  What does a standing charge include? So, if the unit rate covers the cost of the energy and the taxes go to the government, what does the standing charge pay for? Well, the simple fact is that it goes to the energy supplier to help cover costs beyond the purchasing of energy. It works similarly to line rentals for landline phones. For example, energy suppliers are responsible for repairs and maintenance to the energy supply network to help resolve and avoid outages, which takes time and money to achieve. Your standing charge might also cover: Sending out operatives to take meter readings Supporting vulnerable household initiatives Funding green energy efforts The administration of supplying energy in high quantities Providing customer service.  Standing charges are linked to both gas and electricity, so you’ll typically pay a standing charge on each of your tariffs, even if you’re on dual fuel. Suppliers can set their own standing charges – they’re not decreed by the government or Ofgem or any other overseeing authorities. This means that you could find a better deal with a lower standing charge if you compare energy tariffs. However, that doesn’t mean energy companies can simply charge what they like. Every three months, Ofgem announces an energy price cap. This tells suppliers the maximum amount they can charge per unit of energy and as a standing charge on default tariffs (a standard variable tariff) or a prepayment meter. Choosing a fixed tariff could secure you a low standing charge for longer as prices go up. Alternatively, it could also leave you stuck with a higher charge when prices go down, so it’s worth considering your options carefully before making a decision.  It’s also important to bear in mind that your standing charge will depend in part on your local area and the complexity of infrastructure in place. For example, someone in a rural area that suffers more storm damage to the energy network may have a higher standing charge than someone who lives in a city centre to account for the additional costs.  At the end of the day, your standing charge is a bit like a rent you pay to always have an energy supply handy. The cost can differ depending on where you live, the tariff you choose and the energy price cap stipulated by Ofgem – and as always, it’s worth comparing prices to find the best deal for you.

Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 6 min read Last Updated December 25, 2024 Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 6 min read Last Updated December 25, 2024 What is voltage? Voltage – or potential difference, as it’s also known – is a term that you might vaguely associate with electricity, but unless you’ve got expertise on the topic, you probably don’t fully understand what it is and what impact it has on you or your business. In the simplest of terms, voltage is the pressure that pushes a current through a circuit to power an electrical device such as a lamp. Once upon a time when electricity was still in its infancy, voltage was known as electromotive force – a name that gives you a lot more context about its nature and function. Find The Best Deals Content What is voltage? What does voltage mean for the consumer? What is the mains voltage in the UK? What does voltage mean for the consumer? Voltage is rarely brought up by energy companies because it’s not always relevant to most consumers. For many, all they want to know is that the electricity comes into the building, powers their appliances and devices, and they pay for what they use. However, understanding a little bit more about voltage could potentially help you to save money on your electricity bills – and who doesn’t want that? Essentially, mains electricity comes into your premises at a set voltage, ready to be used by your appliances. However, those appliances might work at a lower voltage than what your electricity is supplied at, which can lead to wastage of electricity – using more than you really need to power your home or business.  Not all appliances and devices are voltage dependent – which means not all appliances can lead to lower energy consumption if the voltage of the electricity supply were reduced. However, if your home or business has a large proportion of voltage-dependent appliances, there may be an opportunity to reduce your usage and therefore your bills. This works through a process called voltage optimisation, where a trained electrician – never try this yourself – installs a system at the point where mains electricity enters your home or business. This reduces the supply voltage to a more appropriate level to suit the appliances within, getting rid of that excess voltage that’s costing you money. Naturally, this process of voltage optimisation will have a greater impact on larger scale businesses with lots of voltage-dependent appliances. But it can still lead to significant savings for small businesses or domestic premises, depending on what your voltage needs are. As mentioned, voltage optimisation isn’t for everyone – but if it could save you money, it may be worth looking into. What is the mains voltage in the UK? In the UK, mains electricity is supplied to homes and businesses at roughly 230V, with a small amount of allowed variation (+10% to -6%). In practice, this means that the supply entering your property could be anywhere between 216.2V and 253V.  This is a standard range which applies to many European countries as well as the UK, and a wide range of appliances are designed to handle this amount of variation in voltage. However, ‘handling’ that level of voltage doesn’t necessarily mean that the appliance is functioning optimally, and it could be that running on a higher than needed voltage may lead to the appliance breaking down or wearing out quicker. In the case of voltage-dependent appliances, significant savings could be achieved by taking control of the voltage of your supply. If your appliances are designed to run at 220V, for example, but your supply typically exceeds 250V – still within the acceptable range – you could be using as much as 30V unnecessarily. And as well as costing you more on your bills, this generates a larger carbon footprint, with a greater impact on the environment.  Whether you’re happy with your electricity bills as they are or you’re looking to cut them down, then your first port of call should be to try to reduce your consumption via using appliances less often and choosing more efficient devices. Another option is to switch your energy supplier so you can get a more favourable deal.  But if those measures have left you with bills that are still higher than you’d like, voltage optimisation may be an avenue worth exploring that could save you money over time.

Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 6 min read Last Updated December 25, 2024 Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 6 min read Last Updated December 25, 2024 What is a smart meter? Whether you’ve got one already, you’ve been offered one by your supplier or you’ve simplyheard about them in passing, smart meters have swiftly become synonymous with mains gas and electricity in the UK. In this guide, we explore what they are and how they work to help you understand the basics of these intelligent devices. Find The Best Deals Content What is a smart meter? What are smart meters? How do smart meters work? What are smart meters? Put simply, a smart meter is just a different kind of meter – the equipment located in or around your house or business premises that tracks how much gas and electricity you use. This is how energy companies know how many units of energy you’ve got through, and how they calculate what to charge you for your usage. If you have a traditional or non-smart meter, then you’ll likely need to take meter readings at regular intervals and send them off to your supplier. It’s usually a simple enough task, but it can be time-consuming while you get to grips with it, and it’s not the most enjoyable thing to have to do in the colder months when you’d rather be warm and cosy indoors. What’s more, your required meter readings might not be at the same intervals at which you’re charged for usage, so the energy supplier will have to estimate consumption based on the data they have. This means your bills might not exactly match how much energy you’ve consumed. Naturally, you don’t want to be charged for energy you haven’t used, and this is where smart meters come in handy. They cut out the middle man (i.e., you) and send readings directly to the energy supplier, usually every month. This helps your registered usage to be much more accurate. On top of this, smart meters often come with a small device that you take into your home or business with you, known as an in-home display (IHD). This IHD communicates with your smart meters for gas and electricity and provides you with an easy-to-digest display of your current and daily usage. You can look back at previous days’, weeks’ and months’ usage as well. The idea of this is to help you be more environmentally conscious and notice when you’re usinghigh-consumption appliances, so you can make switches to reduce your energy usage, bills andenvironmental impact. How do smart meters work? Smart meters are very similar to traditional energy meters, but they connect to a wireless network that allows them to transmit data from your home or business premises to your supplier. This information is shared automatically, usually once a month, so you don’t have to do anything at all.  Although smart meters typically report monthly, they actually record data much more frequently than that. Your smart electricity meter, for example, will take note of your electricity usage almost in real time – so your readings are as accurate as can be. For gas, the data takes a little longer to come through, so it’s recorded in half-hourly intervals.  This information, with its highly accurate timestamping, is transmitted to your IHD or smart energy monitor, so you can see what energy you’re using as you go about your day. In the case of electricity usage, you can actually turn on an appliance, wait a few moments for the data to register, and see exactly how much of an impact that single device has on your overall usage.  Smart energy meters and their accompanying IHDs are hugely useful for consumers just like you to keep track of their energy usage and, where needed, make changes to save energy and money. If you haven’t been offered one already, chances are you will soon – and you can always get in touch with your supplier to request one if you’d like to speed things up.

Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 4 min read Last Updated December 05, 2024 Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 4 min read Last Updated December 05, 2024 What does ‘in credit’ mean on your energy bill? Those who pay their gas and electricity costs via direct debit may notice the phrase ‘in credit’ appearing on their bills – but what does it mean? In this blog, we examine the terminology used to describe your balance on your energy bills to help you feel more in control of your finances. Find The Best Deals Content What does ‘in credit’ mean on your energy bill? What does ‘in credit’ mean on energy bills? What does a minus balance mean on your energy bill? What does ‘in credit’ mean on energy bills? If you pay for your energy using a direct debit set-up, you pay a set amount each month that you’ve agreed with your supplier. This is an estimated monthly cost which is directly related to the average amount of energy your supplier thinks you’ll use.  However, the very nature of most people’s and businesses’ energy needs is that you don’t usually need the same amount of energy all throughout the year. Typically, energy costs go up during the winter months when energy is needed for heating homes and commercial buildings, and then they go back down during the summer when the extra heat isn’t needed.  Because of this, it’s almost certain that the estimated average monthly energy usage figure won’t fit your actual monthly usage most of the time. In the summer, you’ll likely use less energy than the estimate suggests, and you may use more than the estimate in the winter.  All this time, though, you’re still paying that same monthly amount – sometimes more than enough to cover your usage, and sometimes less. But in those months where your monthly payment exceeds the amount you actually owe, your energy supplier doesn’t just pocket the excess. That money is stored on your account, ready to be used at a later date. This means that in the winter, when you’re more likely to use more energy than you’re technically paying for, those excess funds you paid during the summer can be used to cover the additional costs of your energy use in the present.  You might also generate credit on your account if you’ve taken measures to reduce your energy usage. By using less, you owe less, and so you’ll build up more credit. Usually, your supplier would seek to change your payments to make them more reflective of your actual usage, though this may not happen immediately. However you’ve built them up, these extra funds show on your energy bills as ‘credit’ so you can keep an eye on how much of your money is going towards your energy usage and how much is saved for later. If you’re ‘in credit’, that means you’ve spent more than you’ve used and you are accumulating excess funds to be used at a later date.  Typically, your supplier will take a look at your account annually and aim to refund you any remaining credit on your account. This could mean a direct lump sum payment, or it may be that they reduce your monthly payments temporarily in order to use up the credit. If you so wish, you can also get in touch with your supplier at any time during your contract to request a refund of your credit. Suppliers are obliged to return your money to you as soon as possible, but there are circumstances where they can refuse. For example, if winter is on its way and your supplier thinks you’ll need the extra funds to stay on top of your energy costs, they can refuse to refund you the money. What does a minus balance mean on your energy bill? Just as you can pay more than needed to cover your energy costs, in some months you’ll likely pay less. If you’ve already built up credit, that’s fine, because your credit will be used to cover your additional costs. However, if you’ve yet to build up credit or you’ve used all of your credit up, you could reach a position where you owe your energy supplier money. This will show up as a negative balance on your energy bill.  This doesn’t always mean that you’re struggling to make ends meet. It could simply mean that your energy contract began in the winter, when costs are higher, and you simply haven’t been able to build up credit yet. Sometimes, your energy supplier may ask for a lump sum payment at the start of your contract to help prevent such situations.  If you find yourself with a negative balance, don’t panic. Your energy supplier won’t immediately switch you off – in fact, you’ll almost always be able to negotiate a deal with them to pay back any debt gradually, making it more affordable for you. And, depending on your contract, you may have a period of time during which no action is taken, allowing you to pay back the money by building up credit. If you have any concerns about what you need to do to pay back your energy debt, speak to Citizens Advice.

Abdullah Shoaib 4 min read Last Updated November 05, 2024 Abdullah Shoaib Managing Director 4 min read Last Updated November 05, 2024 How to reduce energy usage? If you’re looking to reduce your business’s energy usage, the first and most important step that many companies forget about is to find out how much energy you’re actually using. Calculating your energy usage allows you to see a rough average of how much energy you use in a month – or you can calculate it for other periods of time depending on what’s most useful for your business. For example, if your company is very seasonal, then it may be more helpful to look at an annual average to account for fluctuations in energy use. Once you’ve established how much energy your business actually uses, you can get a rough idea of how much you need or would like to reduce that figure by, which gives you something to aim for when making changes within the company. Below, we look at a variety of business changes that could help you to save money on your energy bills. Find The Best Deals Content How to reduce energy usage? How to reduce energy costs in business? Consider working locations Switch things off when not in use Check your hardware How to reduce energy costs in business? The less energy you use, the lower your bills will be – and it’s also better for the environment. Whatever your motivations are, reducing your energy usage can be very beneficial for business. Not all techniques will work well for all types of businesses, so it’s a good idea to pick and choose which methods are achievable and suitable for you. Remember, you can always start small at first and work your way up to bigger changes. Consider working locations If your business works out of office space or a similar set-up, then the majority of your energy costs will come from powering equipment, keeping your employees comfortable and providing the necessary facilities all workplaces should have. Therefore, it’s worth considering whether it would be feasible to introduce a work from home (WFH) policy.  Value that in-office feeling? Instead of going fully WFH, think about a hybrid arrangement, where your employees work from home on some days and the office on others. If you have everyone in on certain days and the office empty on others, that would allow you to save considerably on lighting and heating or air conditioning on those days when nobody is at the office. Even if you have it staggered so that there’s always a group of employees at the office, you’d still make savings on appliance usage, and you may even be able to switch to a smaller office which would be less expensive and easier to heat or cool. Switch things off when not in use Many businesses lose money through simple inefficiencies – and energy inefficiency is no exception. One simple thing that can make a big difference is to switch off appliances when they’re not in use – whether it’s your employees’ individual devices or communal items such as printers or kitchenware. It sounds easy enough to do, but if you have a lot of appliances to account for, it becomes a bigger task to go around every night making sure they’re all switched off. For this reason, it could be a good idea to get your employees involved and create a ‘closing’ checklist to make sure everything that can be safely turned off is. This concept doesn’t just apply to appliances, but also to other culprits for energy usage – namely your lighting and your heating. Installing motion-sensor lighting can be a great way to save energy without anyone having to change their behaviour, which can be particularly useful if your team has got into bad habits. Many businesses lose money through simple inefficiencies – and energy inefficiency is no exception. One simple thing that can make a big difference is to switch off appliances when they’re not in use – whether it’s your employees’ individual devices or communal items such as printers or kitchenware. It sounds easy enough to do, but if you have a lot of appliances to account for, it becomes a bigger task to go around every night making sure they’re all switched off. For this reason, it could be a good idea to get your employees involved and create a ‘closing’ checklist to make sure everything that can be safely turned off is. This concept doesn’t just apply to appliances, but also to other culprits for energy usage – namely your lighting and your heating. Installing motion-sensor lighting can be a great way to save energy without anyone having to change their behaviour, which can be particularly useful if your team has got into bad habits. As for your heating and cooling systems, making sure that they’re not running when nobody’s in the office is a good way to cut a hefty chunk out of your energy costs. Just remember that you’ll need to keep your heating on standby while you’re not around in the winter months. This means it’ll heat your building just enough to prevent the pipes from freezing, which would entail a far costlier repair job than the running costs of having your heating on low. Check your hardware Another excellent way to reduce costs without anyone having to change their habits is to make sure all of your appliances are energy efficient. Calculating the energy cost of a given appliance is simple, and doing so can open your eyes to huge potential savings in the long term. For example, imagine that you currently have a 600W fridge at your workplace. To run it for 365 days with an energy cost of 30 pence per kilowatt-hour (kWh) would cost you £1,576.80. Meanwhile, a 500W fridge would cost £1,314 per year on the same rate. Making that switch would save you over £250 per year, and that’s just a single appliance. Scale this up

How to calculate the energy cost of an appliance If you’re looking to shave money off your electricity bill, there are two key ways in which you may be able to do it. These are: In practice, it’s generally a good idea to look into both of these avenues, as there could be significant savings to be made. Here, though, we’ll focus on one way you can make changes to use less energy. Keep reading to learn more. Why calculate energy usage by appliance? Everyone knows that reducing the amount of energy we use is important, not only for cutting down costs but also for helping the environment. But sometimes that advice can feel paralysing – exactly how can we use less energy? This is especially the case if you’ve already tried certain measures, such as turning off sockets when they’re not in use, switching off the lights when you leave the room and making sure not to overcharge devices. Fortunately, there is an evidence-based way to identify changes that you could make to reduce energy consumption in the long term, and that’s to look at how much energy your appliances go through when in use. Even if you only use your washing machine, for example, when you’ve got a full load to save energy, the appliance still has to consume energy at some point in order to function. Calculating how much energy it uses allows you to compare different makes and models of a given appliance to see if there’s a better alternative for your bills.  Luckily, this is a technique that anyone can use to help reduce their utility costs, whether you’re looking to save money on business electricity or domestic energy. In each case, calculating appliance energy usage can help you to save money on energy bills so you can spend it where it really matters, such as recruiting staff or treating your loved ones. How to calculate appliance energy usage Every appliance comes with information about how much energy it consumes in an hour – a figure measured in Watts (W). For example, you might have a 40W light bulb. Similarly, your electricity is sold to you at a given rate per unit, where a unit is one kilowatt-hour (1kWh). This is how much it will cost you to use 1,000W for a duration of an hour. Therefore, in order to calculate how much an appliance costs to run, you need to know the price you pay for electricity per unit, the wattage of the appliance in question and how long you typically use it for over whatever period of time you want to use. For illustrative purposes, we’ll look at the cost per day, but you could also use this calculation to find out how much an appliance costs you per week, per month or per year. This may be more useful for appliances that you don’t use every day, as it gives you a more realistic view of what you can expect to pay on average. So, let’s say you have a 500W fridge. The first step is to convert from watts into kilowatts – so divide the wattage by 1,000.  500W / 1,000 = 0.5kW Next, you need to think about how many hours you’d expect to use the appliance in the time period you’re calculating figures for. We would expect to have a fridge running for 24 hours in a day, so we need to multiply our kilowattage by 24 to get the amount of energy used in that time. 0.5kW x 24 = 12kWh So, that means that our fridge uses 12 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a day. Now we need to know how much we pay per kWh and multiply that by the figure we just got. For this, we’ll use an example of 30 pence per kWh.  12kWh x £0.30 = £3.60 Therefore, running our fridge for a day would cost roughly £3.60. If we were to switch to a lower wattage fridge, we could save money on our energy bills – but it’s always worth taking into account other factors when making decisions on which appliances to have. For example, another fridge might cost a bit more to run, but incorporate additional desirable features like a water dispenser or a touchscreen display. If that’s something you want, you need to take it into account.  It’s also worth considering other aspects of energy efficiency. For example, let’s say there are two washing machines which have the same wattage, but one can finish a wash quicker than the other. Because it’s in use for a shorter period of time, it costs less to run overall than the machine that uses a longer cycle. If you wanted to find out how much your fridge cost to run for a month, you could estimate this by multiplying your daily cost by 28 to get a rough idea. For items that aren’t used all the time, though, you’re better off calculating how many hours on average you use it for during a month and using that figure rather than how many hours in a day. This will give you a more accurate figure with which to calculate energy usage.