Standing charge calculator
Work out what your standing charges cost a year and what share of your bill they are — the part that does not fall however little energy you use.
- A standing charge is payable for every day you are connected, including days you use no energy at all.
- Standing charges are set per tariff and per region, and are regulated as part of the price cap. You cannot opt out of one, but tariffs differ — and a lower standing charge usually comes with a higher unit rate, so which is cheaper depends on how much you use.
Compare it with another tariff
Add a second standing charge to see the annual difference. Add both unit rates as well and it will work out how much energy you would have to use before the cheaper daily charge stops being cheaper overall.
We need a usage figure before we can say anything useful
A usage figure in kWh is the one thing every answer here depends on. It is on your bill, in your online account, or you can work it out from two meter readings.
Confidence Low — this is a starting point, not a finding. More information would change it.
What we do not know
- How much energy you use. Every question about a bill depends on it.
What to do
Everything worth doing here is free.
Send a real meter reading
There is not enough to go on yet, so start with what costs nothing.
If your bill says "estimated", it is a guess based on what the supplier thinks you used — and estimates drift. Submitting an actual reading replaces the guess and rebills the period against it. This is the first thing to do when a bill looks wrong, because until it is done nobody knows whether the bill is wrong or the estimate is.
- Reduces how much energy you use
- Do it now
- Free
- Evidence: moderate
How to tell if it worked: Read your meter before the change and again a week later, at the same time of day, and compare the two weeks.
The most useful next check
Find your annual usage in kWh
Your bill or online account states it. With that figure the calculators here become a check on your own bill rather than an estimate.
Worked out by energy rules 1.1.0. Nothing you entered leaves your browser.
What a standing charge is
A fixed amount charged for every day you are connected, whether or not you use any energy. It covers the cost of maintaining the network, meter reading, and the cost of supplying customers of failed suppliers. It is quoted in pence per day, and it is regulated as part of the price cap.
If you have both gas and electricity you pay two of them — which is why a gas-heated home still has a gas bill in July.
Why it matters more than it looks
At around 60p a day for electricity, a standing charge is roughly £220 a year before a single kilowatt hour is used. For a household using a lot of energy that is a small part of the bill. For a household using very little it can be a third of it or more.
This is the part that explains a bill that never seems to fall. Turning things off reduces the usage part and leaves the fixed part exactly where it was, so the harder you try, the larger a proportion of your bill becomes untouchable.
Can you avoid it?
Not by using less, and not by asking. Every domestic tariff has one. Some tariffs carry a lower daily charge, but they generally carry a higher unit rate to compensate — so whether the swap saves you anything depends entirely on how much you use.
That is what the comparison on this page is for. Enter both standing charges and both unit rates, and it works out the usage at which the trade turns over. Below that figure the lower standing charge wins; above it, it does not.
To compare two tariffs completely rather than just their fixed charges, use the electricity cost calculator with each set of rates in turn.
A note on zero-standing-charge tariffs
These exist, and they are not free money. The fixed cost is recovered through the unit rate instead, which makes them worth considering for a very low-usage household — a second property, or a flat that is empty much of the year — and usually worse for everybody else.