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None, except you'd need to purchase gas forward under contract in order to get a good price from the supplier. These businesses make money on the "spread" between wholesale contract prices and what they can flog it to you for. They are absorbing part of the risk by predicting demand.
I'm not saying that there isn't some sort of shell game happening here, but it's how retail open markets for utilities work.
Now if you were a friend of David Cameron you'd no doubt say "that's free enterprise; it's good for the economy and jobs". I, like you, am not a friend of David Cameron! 
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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I think it all comes from the same location, but you pay a utility to use it. If you don't pay anyone, then it gets shut off.
I know I am wrong on this, somewhere.
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Quote: I know I am wrong on this, somewhere.
That's OK. America is soft now. You still get a ribbon for participating.
Good job!! 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: That's OK. America is soft now. You still get a ribbon for participating.
Awesome! 
Jeremy Falcon
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Does he get to chant USA! USA! USA! when he receives the ribbon?
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It is all the same gas, it is all the same network.
When you are 'switching' all you are doing is changing who is managing your supply/usage account, i.e. who reads your meter, who bills you and who takes the money.
Transco/National grid still own the network. Commodity suppliers then sell gas onto the market from the refineries etc.
Read this: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Our-company/Gas/[^]
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If I understand it correctly, National Grid manages the infrastructure up to the meter in your home. The company who bills you - Boiler Room Energy or whoever you use - pays National Grid for the energy it delivers to you and then charges a small mark-up [around 3.0e26%] for the privilege of being allowed to send you snotty letters because you failed to pay your bill even though they're charging you something akin to the cost of Bolivia's National Debt.
I do not like the Energy Companies. 
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Nagy Vilmos wrote: charges a small mark-up [around 3.0e26%]
That's too small, or am I just drunk? 
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What really riles me is this concept that you have to be proactive and switch the whole time. Why can't they just send me a bill for the number of KWhs I've used like in the old days. Or two, on-peak and off-peak if you like.
Instead there is an array of tariffs etc. designed to confuse and overcharge people. Why they don't legislate against this I have no idea.
I have a friend who received a letter saying he would have saved £800 in the last year if he had been on an alternative tariff (same provider). This is just daylight robbery!
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Also, the meter is owned by your energy supplyer, BG or whoever. They are tasked with the safety of the meter and must inspect it every 2 years and replace it every 10 yesrs. Or thereabouts. When you change supplier, tadaa! The new supplier rents the existing meter from the original installer of the meter, as the meter ownership remains with the original supplier. This is all managed by a load of mainframes zapping messages between all the utility companies. To say its a dogs breakfast would be an understatement.
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The system is a bit like the paper-boy business model. You pay the paper boy for your daily papers, he pays the supplier and pockets the difference.
I got sacked from paper round as I forget the middle step. 
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When I was a paper boy the newsagent paid me so much per round. I then used to spend most of it on his sweet counter!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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Works the same as for ISPs : same phone line used by different company.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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All that happens is that someone else, at an identical desk in an identical office, counts the beans (presumably the beans that produced the gas).
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Here in my parts, one's gas bill comes with two sets of figures (both, of course, charges).
1) Gas Delivery Fee - this pays the owner (custodian?) of the gas pipelines. Pays by how much gas you use. You're stuck with this.
2) Gas Fee - cost for the gas used (in Therms, thus normalized for to standard heat value).
Item (2) is the one you euphemistically control. All the gas, at one point, is in the national pipelines. Much like the electric grid, all of it is combined and sorted. The suppliers, then, in theory are supplying gas to the pipeline (directly or by proxy) and selling it to you. They're pretty much acting as a broker.
(1), of course, explains why one doesn't get a plumbing change - just a different billing envelope.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I finally found a use for private browsing aside from GSI sites. Checking out airline tickets using private browsing saves me the trouble of clearing my cache since, I'm told, companies keep track of what you've viewed to use against you.
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Rage wrote: To book hotels or airline tickets, search for good prices from a location, and then book them from another network.
I do that too. I think it's a bit effective since I've seen a hundred dollars difference between work and home at different times of the day.
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Easy. From work, they know is a business and will charge more. Unless you are at a non-profit business, or new shopper. The more shopping you do from a given IP at a smart server, the less of a deal they'll cut ya.
Never buy from Home.
Whatever you do, don't download that company's Android or iOS app, cuz then the really got ya.
I found that going to the Library, using their computers, signing up for a new GMail account (and staying logged in while trying) to then book flights, hotels, cars, etc., provided the largest discounts.
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I recently read an article about a university study on price variations between different browsers and hardware (it might have even been from a CP news link!) I seem to remember that purchasing from an Apple device had a higher average price quoted (I could well be wrong!)
One company even has random price variations deliberately as a comparative test on market elasticity.
I could download and Android or iOS app with impunity (since I have no Android or Apple devices!)
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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I remember that article. Yes, Apple users were priced more since companies assume they have more money to spend.
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Quote: assume they have more money to spend waste
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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Has anyone listened to Serial[^]? I heard about through the Torygraph and I am now listening to episode 1.
Is it worth following?
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I think that your are going to be the one that tells us if it is worth following
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