Official MSE Economy 7 Guide discussion

noneleft wrote: »

I live in a flat with underfloor heating ( no storage heaters & no gas) Cannot use washing machine /drier at night because of noise am in all day have been told by southern electric my best deal would be economy 10 can anyone tell me if this sounds right?

We also have 1960's underfloor heating with economy 10 tariff which is served by radio switch (a wireless signal) and Southern electric could not tell us the prices when we moved in! Our hours are 4.30am to 2.30pm so we have to use peak rate electric in a panel heater in the evening. We could not find a fixed tariff deal when we moved in May. The radio signal will be turned off "sometime in 2014" at which point they will change/upgrade our meter foc.

Lisbet wrote: »

Our yearly peak rate consumption is about 2000KWH and our off peak about 13000KWH. As stated before the off peak is about 6 pence per KWH and peak is about 20 pence per KWH.
We do all our washing/tumble drying/water heating and cooking(when practical) in off peak times. No hassle, just saving about 2000 units at 20 pp unit and paying 6 pp unit. Doesn't sound like rubbish to me.

Does to me....13,000 * 6p plus 2,000 * 20p @ £1,180.

Or picking a good tariff online 10,000 * 5.613p plus 5,000 * 12.237p would be £1,173...which is essentially the same cost but you don't need to keep an eye on the time as much. I'd find it highly unlikely that 3,000kWh would move from the off peak rate to the day rate but it gives you some allowance to use a heater in the evening at any time at full day rate. Don't move as much and you can only save.

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

link removed as I am a new poster - not allowed to post links


Once you are generating your hot water with "free" electricity, further savings are likely to be considerably less than £100 a year, so not worth too much effort.

Your problem could be understanding if the gizmo is busy putting power into the water tank when you want to turn on the washing machine.

I will look at the solar panel forums and many thanks for pointing me in that direction. The gizmo for putting power into the water tank is very easy to see and understand. It is right by the water tank and there is lots of information in the display including the amount of power currently going into the tank (I think this is accompanied by a blue flashing light), the amount of power into the tank today, yesterday, this month and since start)

My generation meter looks similar to yours and has attachment sending a signal to a display so I can see what is being produced at any time. The live wire has two clamps on it (or surrounding it) which produce signals, one to the gizmo for switching on the solar panel generated immersion (see above) and the second for an old e-on usage display.

My importing meter has a cycling display, night, day and total with a little flashing bit to indicate the current being used. I have not had a mechanical clock for a long time (although it was wonderfully out of step with reality when I did have it). My friendly electrician installed a double socket that only runs on cheap/night rate electricity which is quite handy.

I would like to ask why you think that further savings are likely to be less than £100 a year after generating hot water with free electricity but fear that I may be diverting this forum from its Economy 7 focus so I am going to raise the question in the solar panel forum (unless I find the answer there already).

Many thanks for your assistance.

I moved into a one-bedroomed house in March this year, with storage heaters and an electric boiler - absolutely no gas supply whatsoever. It was jarring, after having had gas central heating and a gas combi-boiler for the ten years prior at my old flat.

I soon realised that the storage heaters were useless: boiling hot in the morning as I left for work, and stone cold by the time I got home every night. And yes, I downloaded instruction manuals from the net, as to how best set the controls on the things. No amount of knob-twiddling gave the desired effect (that being heat when I came home from work).

I decided to buy cheap free-standing fan-heaters & convector heaters, and rid myself of the storage heating.

My energy supplier, EDF Energy, told me that they couldn't bill me on a Single-Rate tariff, so long as I had a Two-Rate meter. I was aware that e.On allow you to add together day & night reads, without any need for a meter exchange - so I'm unsure why other electricity suppliers can't offer the same service. But I'm happy with EDF at the moment, so didn't want to swap supplier.

I did have to lie to EDF though, before they'd agree to exchange the meter... I told them I was renovating the property and would be fitting gas central heating. :cool:

When the meter engineer arrived with the new Single-Rate meter, he was reticent to fit it. I practically had to beg him on my doorstep. He asked if I had any other form of heating system in my home, and when I said not, he replied, "I'll have to ring me gaffer, mate."

Luckily, he couldn't get through to his "gaffer" and fitted the meter - but not before he asked to look at my fuse-box and ripped out the fuse for the storage heaters, pocketing it. It was really odd behaviour. I'd already turned-off the storage heaters at their power points on the walls, weeks beforehand. They're now covered up behind furniture, screens, etc. - I asked my landlord if I could rip them out entirely, but they wouldn't allow me to.

I have an electric shower, so I never turn the electric water boiler on either. I have a cheap ASDA Smart Price kettle in a bedside cabinet. I boil it to have a shave in the morning, before showering. I hide the kettle again, once I'm dressed, in case I have guests.

When I wash dishes, I just boil the kettle in the kitchen. I never use more than a kettle & a half of boiling water. I live alone, so there's never many dishes really.

Yes, I have to wash my hands with cold water after going to the loo, but I use anti-bacterial hand soap-gel, and I've not died of scurvy yet.

As for the heating now, it's fine. I use one Dimplex convector heater in my living room, when I'm home. My bedroom is open-plan, overlooking the living room on a balcony, so the heater heats the entire house really.

I usually leave the thermostat set at the III mark (which appears to be halfway), and I can hear it click off-and-on when in use. It's honestly off more than on. I've left the output setting at 1KWH since I bought it in April (although 2KWH and 3KWH are available) and it's more than warm enough.

I have a Dimplex fan heater in my bedroom, for nights when I'm not downstairs at all. I've hardly had to switch this on at all.

I believe that the convector heater (set at 1KWH output) would use one unit of electricity every hour, if constantly on. But because of the thermostat, it isn't even constantly on.

I'm using around £50 a month electricity now, which is comparable to the £60 a month duel-fuel I used at my old flat.

All the conventional wisdom out there, states that using standalone heaters (instead of an actual heating system) is more costly.... Take a look at this webpage for instance: http://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/room-heaters

Well, I personally haven't found this to be true.

To reiterate:

I live alone;
I boil kettles to shave in the morning, and wash dishes in the evening;
I have an electric shower, and never put the boiler on to take a bath;
The house is empty between 09:00 till 18:00 most days;
My main source of heat is a convector heater, with the output set at 1KWH and the thermostat never turned higher than halfway.

If you're a similar single person, living alone and out at work most days, I can't stress enough how useless Economy 7 heating is.

p.s. This is the convector heater I have in my living room:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4151955.htm