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Oct 30, 2024

Fixed or price cap? Your choices as newcomer Fuse Energy is launched onto the energy market - Chronicle Live

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info With a tariff that undercuts the price cap and much lower

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info

With a tariff that undercuts the price cap and much lower standing charges, Fuse Energy looks like a good bet, but the deal works differently in a few ways to most other energy suppliers in the UK. Because of this it's unlikely to be a straight swap from your old supplier.

You need to balance the fact that it's an electricity-only tariff and that it's a new company, which isn't yet tried and tested when weighing up the pros and cons of whether to switch.

The main differences are:

Read more: I tried the new Agile Octopus energy tariff that pays you to use electricity and saved £10.19 in the first nine days

Most households are currently paying the Energy Price Cap rates for their gas and electricity. Currently families in the NE who pay by monthly direct debit pay 29.29p per kWh for electricity and a standing charge of 57.03p per day. Fuses charges 29.31p per kWh and 44.3p a day standing charge. For a household with what regulator Ofgem deems typical use of 2,900kWh a year and paying by direct debit, electricity costs on average £1,067 a year under the cap.

The new tariff from Fuse Energy is 5% cheaper than that – so you'd pay £1,012 a year - £55 less - for the same usage. However most of this saving is due to Fuse's lower standing charges, which are £33 a year cheaper on average than the price cap. The lower your use, the higher proportion of your bill is made up of standing charges, so lower users will benefit the most from Fuse's tariff.

Because Fuse is limited by the price cap and because there are no exit fees, the worst that can happen is that the tariff increases to the same level as the price cap, which is what you are paying now anyway. However, before making the switch, consider the other alternatives:

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