Moving house to Economy7

stressfulife wrote: »

However as we still have an economy7 meter (seperate day / night meters) we are still paying the economy7 rates which have higher rates for the "day" part than standard (single meter) rates of electricity.We do try to use tumble dryers/washing machines/dishwashers etc on cheaper night rate periods but the night rate is still less than 10% of our consumption.
Does anyone know how to switch from economy7 back to standard tariffs?
Thanks

It depends upon the company I believe.

I did exactly what you require i.e. reverted to a 'normal' tariff.(with BG)

I still retain my Economy 7 meters but BG just aggregate the readings on both and it is treated as one reading. e.g. 'night'(E7) meter reads 200kWh, day meter reads 1,000kWh and I am billed for 1,200kWh at normal rates.

Some people have posted that other companies do the same, some insist on new meters which they fit for free, others charge for fitting the meters.

lizard_king wrote: »

Hi,

However I also have an 'eco-friendly' 3Kw convector heater which switches itself on & off to maintain a set temperature. Do you (or anyone, in fact!) think it would be cheaper to abandon the storage heater as much as possible in favour of the convector?

Thanks.

Believe me there is no such thing as an 'eco friendly' 3 kW heater.

In any discussion about electrical heaters there is one fundamental fact you must remember.

That is, all electrical heaters are 100% efficient and give out exactly the same amount of heat for the power(electricity) consumed and therefore costs the same.

The advantage of storage heaters is simply that they consume power at night when your Economy 7 electricity is approx one third if the price of daytime electricity. They store the heat and release it during the day/evening.

There are of course disadvantages to storage heating(discussed in other threads) but it will be cheaper than using any other form of heater on daytime rates.

DAFFY_DAVEY wrote: »

Apparrently, the electricity just switches over to low rate at around 11.30 pm.
Does this sound right? Don't forget, i am an E7 newbie!!

Yes, that sounds right.

I think you really want this house but I'd be wary about underestimating the cost. If you are currently paying £130 a month, I would budget for this in the new house whatever the current tenant says. Your current usage is by no means low and is unlikely to reduce in a similar sized house with storage heaters, IMO.

DAFFY_DAVEY wrote: »

Hi everyone.
I wanted to say thanks to you all for your responses so far! Just to give you a progress report as well.
I spoke to the current tennant of the cottage we are looking at. He say's that he also pay's a fixed monthly direct debit to E.on of £51 and is managing to say in credit. We are paying £130 a month for both G+E. (sorry, put the wrong figure of £115 in my OP!) If £51 is true then it looks like we could manage there.
He showed me the electricity meter which has 2 lines of numbers, standard rate and low rate if i remember correctly. Apparrently, the electricity just switches over to low rate at around 11.30 pm.
Does this sound right? Don't forget, i am an E7 newbie!!

If you dont have/use storage heaters you NEED to speak to Eon as the T1 rate is much higher than standard rate. By the sound of it you do have a White meter / Economy 7 meter. How do you heat you're water? Is it on an economy 7 timer?

The economy 7 timer controls the meter rather than just the tank. The timer you saw was to switch the hot water on (probably early morning within the E7 period).

In your first post, you said the house had storage heaters and Economy 7, I think amtrakuk had missed that and was warning you that storage heaters would be expensive to run without E7.