Why are there differences in the results?

On occasion you may find differences in the results when you do price comparisons on different Energywatch approved websites and you may wonder why this is.

This page will help explain how the UK Power website arrives at its results and what possible reasons there are for differences.

Possible Reasons

Utility Warehouse/Telecom Plus
Rounding of figures in price comparison calculators
Comparison using cost figures, rather than kWh's
VAT
Staywarm
Has your supplier just increased your prices?
Discounts
Regions

Utility Warehouse/Telecom Plus

On the UK Power website, we include the monthly membership fee as part of the cost that new customers would have to pay if they were to switch to Utility Warehouse. This is not a direct part of the cost, but it is an additional charge that new customers would need to pay. In order to show full and complete costs, we include this extra charge as part of the total cost for the year (added to the annual standing charge figure). This amounts to £21.12 an year. Existing customers may take this off the total costs because as an existing customer you are already paying this membership fee.

Rounding of figures in price comparison calculators

Prices from suppliers can sometimes contain figures with several decimal places when calculating yearly figures from daily figures. Some price comparison services choose to round unneccessary long figures to a set number of decimal places. Some may decide to round figures to 3 decimal place, some may choose to round to 2 decimal places etc. This can cause slight differences in calculated totals, usually a few pence.

Comparison using cost figures, rather than kWh's

The most accurate way to do a price comparison is entering your consumption in kWhs. You may encounter slight differences if you making comparisons by entering your costs. This is caused by the rounding of figures as the calculator works out your kWhs used by the cost you entered and the figures from the selected current suppliers tariff.

VAT

If you are comparing unit rates or costs, please take into account VAT charges. All prices quoted on UK Power include VAT at 5%. Suppliers can often quote unit rates which are + VAT.

Staywarm

If you are trying to compare staywarm prices you may have found that figures in the save colmn don't seem to reflect the correct figures. We have a special guide for staywarm users which is just as quick and easy but will help clarify how do compare prices. <click here>

Has your supplier just increased your prices?

If your supplier has just increased their prices, please check our price updates page. Our system is kept up to date with the latest prices as a matter of priority. Once the latest prices have been added, your comparison will be related to the new prices you will be paying, not the prices you have paid previously. This will mean the calculated cost of your current tariff will be different. This cost now reflects the price you would pay if you stayed with your supplier, providing you used the same amount of gas and/or electricity.

Discounts

UK Power displays all its discounts as a combined total. This will be all the applicable discounts added together. Some other switching sites may display them separately.

Regions

If you have found different prices for an identical tariff this could be due you being positioned on the borderline of a region. All suppliers quote different prices for different regions of the UK. If two different switching sites calculate prices from two different regions, this will create differences. You can check the region we calculate from on our website by clicking on the "i" in the cost column.