This is a text-only version of an article first published on Friday, 18 December 2020. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
What can we learn from the data in the Energy Footprint Tool and our church energy audits? Quite a bit - which may help your church as you seek new electricity contracts. Key findings from the Energy Footprint Tool The EFT helps us to see the total cost of churches' electricity - what they pay including rates per kWh, standing charges and additional charges, such as VAT.
It doesn't break that figure down.
Excluding churches that used less than 500 kWh of electricity a year, the total cost per kWh that churches were praying ranged from a low of 5. 45 p/kWh to a high of 72. 17 p/kWh.
(1) The median total cost was 16. 67 p/kWh, and the average was around 19. 14 p/kWh.
Churches whose electricity usage is over 2000 kWh/year and whose total cost per kWh is more than around 24p/kWh may wish to check that they are not being charged VAT, and/or to explore other suppliers.
Renewable tariffs can be reasonable! A preliminary comparison of those churches that stated they were using renewable tariffs with the general norm showed that the median for the churches on renewable tariffs was actually lower.
Key Findings from Energy Audits The energy audits give us more detailed data, breaking down total electricity costs into the basic rate per kWh, standing charges, and taxes/other charges.
The audits are over a wider period of time, which makes comparison of basic rates per kWh more difficult.
That said, the range of basic rates was from 8. 404 p/kWh to 31. 18 p/kWh.
The median was about 13. 85 p/kWh.
This may be low, however, as it reflects older electricity prices as well as current ones.
Standing charges also range widely.
Where standing charges were listed, they ranged from a low of 11. 07 p/day (£40. 42/yr) to a high of 46. 49 p/day (£169. 69/yr).
The median was about 27p/day (£97/yr).
Where standing charges exceed 35p/day, churches may wish to check to be sure that there are not cheaper combinations of standing charges and rates per kWh.
It is true that where a church uses a lot of electricity, a high standing charge combined with a low rate per kWh may be financially beneficial.
Of those churches with the highest standing charges, however, the majority were also paying high total costs for their electricity.
;(1) Churches with low energy usage tend to have higher costs per unit of energy used because the standing charges account for a higher percentage of their total.
We have omitted those with the lowest energy usage, because their statistics reflect the relatively high percentage of their costs