cost of energy & service charge

magicbastarder

is there an argument to be made for dropping the service charge of electricity and gas, to be comepnsated for by an increase in the unit charge of each?

i'm probably an relatively unusual case in this, in that i heat my house with a woodburning stove (and in hindsight, am kicking myself that i didn't get one with a back boiler) - but as a result, my last gas bill (for january and february) was about €60 - €2 of which was the actual gas.

there's less impetus for people to try to be more economical with gas or electricity when there's such a high service charge - e.g. dropping your use by half only knocking, say, a quarter off your bill. better to increase the price and abolish the service charge? thoughts?

10-10-20

I see your point, but the higher cost per unit doesn't scale out right.
What the gas board is doing is providing the basic service at a set price (lets say €58) and the use of the resource effectively at 'cost'.
For the vast majority of householders, this is highly effective. An attempt to offset the service charge by increasing the commodity cost will leave the medium to high users paying for the service charges of low users.

I don't want a bigger bill because you use less!

bk

Well Bord Gais have a number of different Tariffs, the reducing rate in particular would probably be the best for your circumstances:
http://www.bordgaisenergysupply.ie/htm/residential/3_existing_customer/your_bill/understanding_bill/index.htm?layer=3

Two-monthly Standing Charge: €9.55
Price per kWh (first 585 kWh): 10.771 cent
Price per kWh (next 585 kWh): 8.074 cent
Price per kWh (over 1170 kWh): 5.709 cent

As you can see your two-monthly standing charge would be much lower. It would seem to be prefect for your needs.
I'm guessing your bill would only be in the region of €15 every two months. There is a tariff calculator on their site that you can check it with.