OFFICIAL - Npower IS Cheaper Than Npower (NPower)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	NPower
Date:	08/11/08 (281 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One company to deal with......

Disadvantages: .....the company is Npower - don't expect them to tell you if they've a cheaper tariff

I've been relatively happy with Npower since changing from British Gas and Southern Electricity for my fuels.

After all, there's a huge groundswell of opinion out there to suggest that throwing your lot in with any ONE supplier has cost benefits, both in economy of scale, but in extra discounts like paying for the whole shebang by direct debit.

Beyond that there's never been much in it, despite what sites like USWitch.com will have you believe.

Why, I even put my precise kilowatt hours per year into their ready-reckoner recently to find that changing from Npower to....errrr...... Npower would be cheaper for me. If you can stick this through to the end, I'll explain how I've now shaved £300 (yes £300) off my bill whilst staying with Npower.

However, my most recent two communications from Npower have led me to believe that they're putting up smoke screens to make it practically impossible to compare like for like.

The most recent letter claims to be making it easier for me by combining my two payments into one. How this helps me, when I can already see what electricity and gas are costing me, is beyond me.

However, it's their previous letter which lays down their new tariffs which gives me the greatest cause for concern, and was obviously the trigger for all those 'gas supplier trebles cost to some users' headlines of a few months ago.

Assessing electricity usage has always been easy. After all, your meter reading shows actually kilowatt hours used, which is how you are charged, so I find tracking my own use against their charging quite easy.

However, it's when you come to assess how much gas is going to cost you that it all goes pear-shaped, and to my mind, in Npower's favour.

A while back, the decision was taken to align gas units with those from electricity, to make charging more 'transparent' That's a laugh.

For one thing, depending on your meter type, the figures may or may not be showing cubic metres of gas. This then needs to be converted to kilowatt hours by a specific factor that you can usually find in the small print or your bill.

Then, because of the varying calorific value of gas, depending on where it's piped or shipped from, you have to apply a further factor.

Eventually, having applied both multipliers to your meter reading (or rather difference between this reading and the last), you arrive at those kilowatt hours that were going to make price comparison 'so much easier'

So far, Npower isn't doing anything the others aren't.

Then, to charge you a standing charge (remember those?) without seeming to, most companies have a two tier system of charging, whereby the first so many kilowatt hours are charged at a higher rate, dropping to a lower bulk rate for the rest.

OK, Npower STILL isn't doing anything the others aren't.

Most gas suppliers factor the first 4572 units of gas at their higher rate, leaving anything over that to be charged at a lower rate of their choosing. Generally, speaking this meant that the first 381 units per month were charged at the premium rate.

Not so, according to the small print on Npower's letter of September 2008.

They were now going to 'seasonalise' the tiered structure, so that in the winter month's of November through to February inclusive, the first 882 (!) units were now going to be charged at the premium rate of 8.27p including VAT, compared to the lower rate of 2.7p. So for 501 extra units (882-371), they were now going to charge about 6p more per unit. This could add £30 to each winter month's gas charges, and all without actually changing the unit rate.

Is there any good news? Well, sort of, he admits begrudgingly. March, April and October, all months when your central heating probably won't be on so much, 100 less units will be charged, but that assumes you even make the threshold of 271 units anyway.

The even better news, well for some but not me is that summer months only have the first 46 units charged at the premium rate. However, since we don't use gas at all in the summer, this is an empty gesture as far as I'm concerned.

Effectively, they're going to charge me £30 a month more for four months, whilst charging me £6 less for three months. The summer months, on which I'd expect to make a 'killing' don't matter 'squat' to me, since we don't cook on gas, have an electric power shower and cold fill washing and dish-washing machines.

My major query is this.

Since November, March and May become months what I call a threshold month where the tariff changes wildly, if they don't take official meter reading at those precise points, how do they know I didn't burn it all in summer when only 46 units are charged at the higher rate? Likewise, do I trust them enough, when using estimated bills not to bung it all into winter so they can charge me more.

How anyone without a working knowledge of MS Excel is supposed to sort this out is anyone's guess.

Maybe that's the idea. I would suggest this though. If, like me, you use no gas in summer, look elsewhere, where the 4572 units charged at a higher rate are still divided evenly across all months.

Methinks I'll be voting with my feet soon.

REVISED DECEMBER 2008

Well, I sort of did. Remember how uSwitch was telling me that even Npower was cheaper than Npower? I received yet another letter from them yesterday (05/12/08) telling me that 'in line with my current usage', my electricity was being raised from £49/month to £58, despite the fact that they OWE me £72!

So I went into the 'new customers' part of their website input my precise kilowatt hours for one year for both gas and electricity, and lo and behold, even nPower confirm that they are £300 cheaper than nPower. As I'd given the details of my current supplier as 'nPower', this made the changeover from Standard Gas + Standard Electricity very easy, as I only needed to know my existing account numbers.

I'm now awaiting a confirmation e-mail, but it just goes to show. Just because I'd set up an on-line account didn't mean I was getting the best of their on-line tariffs, now Online 14 for both gas and electricity.

The difference is phenomenal.

OK, their new tariffs have a £1/week standing charge but they only have one (lower) unit price.

Where I was paying on average 15p/unit for my electricity, I now pay 9.45p, so I've only got to use about 18 units/week for it to be cheaper, even with the standing charge. I use around 90 units.

Gas is a little more complicated. Thanks to the seasonalisation that they are going to introduce this year, I'm probably not yet paying enough under the old tariff.

Their current charges for standard gas are 2.71p rising to 8.268p per unit. Given that most of my winter usage will now fall into the higher rate, costing me something like £30/month in winter more than last year, moving to a tariff which will now be charged at the single rate of 3.59p seems like my best bet. My summer gas usage is practically nil so the fact that the single unit rate is higher than 2.71p is neither here nor there.

So basically, with electricity I stand to save a packet and with gas, I've at the very least staved off the next price hike!

Not a bad evening's work I'd say.

Summary: National supplier of both electricity and gas