Economy 7 Rates- Why not?

robert_harper_2000

I've never used the storage heaters in my flat but because I have them I have been put on Economy 7 meaning my energy rate drops between 1am - 8 am. But if my brother phoned up his energy supplier and just asked to be put on Economy 7 then (although not much) he would be paying a lot less for his energy during these hours?
What am I missing? lol

Viper_7

You need two electricity supplies to your house - so two separate meter readings.
You can't just ring up and asked to be switched to it!

Your Economy seven rate over night will be just for the heaters and emersion heater, lights/other sockets etc will be on the normal supply.

Some Economy 7 Taiffs also have a night rate (all sockets/lights) , this is seperate to the storage heating supply, and is good for putting the washer on overnight say.

We have this night rate, so actually have 3 supplies and thus 3 meter readings.

This sounds great, and the cost per KW/H is good, but it stops me from switching supplier. No-one else in our area will supply us energy - without us losing the extra two supplies.


Vipes

Cardew

To add to the variations many houses have an Economy 7 tariff where all electricity in the 7 hours is at the cheap rate - so only 2 meters and you have to have, say, the immersion heater on a timer to take advantage of the cheap rate.

The important point to note is that when you have an Economy 7 tariff you pay extra(as much as 20%) for all your daytime electricity, that you would if you had a 'normal' tariff.

You have to calculate the 'break even' point where the gains from 7 hours cheap electricity at night, is not cancelled out by the extra you pay for the other 17 hours.

It is difficult to break even without using storage heating, and without using E7 for immersion heaters, I would think impossible.

jetski690

Cardew wrote: »

To add to the variations many houses have an Economy 7 tariff where all electricity in the 7 hours is at the cheap rate - so only 2 meters and you have to have, say, the immersion heater on a timer to take advantage of the cheap rate.

The important point to note is that when you have an Economy 7 tariff you pay extra(as much as 20%) for all your daytime electricity, that you would if you had a 'normal' tariff.

You have to calculate the 'break even' point where the gains from 7 hours cheap electricity at night, is not cancelled out by the extra you pay for the other 17 hours.

It is difficult to break even without using storage heating, and without using E7 for immersion heaters, I would think impossible.

Cardew that is interesting to know, I moved to a bungalow which had storage heaters so in turn had an E7 meter, First thing I did was to get rid of the storage heaters but i'm obvisouly left with the low and normal readings which it seems like i'm using 3kwh low and 19kwh normal per day which I know is a lot and I'm trying to find out what's using what with one of the plug in calculators. But my question relating to the above is can you elect to just have all electricity read from your normal rate reading from your supplier or would that involve changing the meter over entirely and incuring costs. .

Cardew

jetski690 wrote: »

Cardew that is interesting to know, I moved to a bungalow which had storage heaters so in turn had an E7 meter, First thing I did was to get rid of the storage heaters but i'm obvisouly left with the low and normal readings which it seems like i'm using 3kwh low and 19kwh normal per day which I know is a lot and I'm trying to find out what's using what with one of the plug in calculators. But my question relating to the above is can you elect to just have all electricity read from your normal rate reading from your supplier or would that involve changing the meter over entirely and incuring costs. .

It depends on your company.

I was on E7 with BG and it didn't pay me to stay on that tariff.

BG simply put me on a normal tariff and I retain both meters.

If in a quarter I have used, say, 200kWh on my night meter and 1,000kWh on my day meter, I am billed for 1,200kWh as if it was a single rate meter.

Other people have posted on this forum that their company does the same.

Others have had their meter changed from E7 to normal without any charge.

Some have said that their company have tried to levy a charge, but I believe that can be challenged if you haven't changed meters before and do not have a history of bad credit(you might have to be put on a pre-pay meter). Not sure of my ground on this latter point but a call to Energywatch will give you clarification.

jetski690

Thanks Cardew I'm with Npower so will give them a call to see what they say.

Plushchris

Viper_7 wrote: »

You need two electricity supplies to your house - so two separate meter readings.
You can't just ring up and asked to be switched to it!



Vipes

You dont actually need two meters (or supplies) to go on Economy 7, the newer digital meters can handle Eco7 on one meter. The two meter system is a bit outdated really (although a lot of people will still have them) even some of the older meters have the two rates on one meter.

The only reason you would want 2 supplies to your house is if you wanted the night storage heaters alone on Eco7 although quite why you would want to do that I dont know as you can put everything else on like dishwasher etc overnight if you are on the single meter system.

espresso

Plushchris wrote: »

You dont actually need two meters (or supplies) to go on Economy 7, the newer digital meters can handle Eco7 on one meter.

You don't need a "newer digital meter" for E7. Meters made 30 years ago work just fine!

:rolleyes:

Plushchris

espresso wrote: »

You don't need a "newer digital meter" for E7. Meters made 30 years ago work just fine!

:rolleyes:

Yes, as I said just after that bit you quoted.

Would be nice if you read the entire post before correcting people.

espresso

Plushchris wrote: »

Yes, as I said just after that bit you quoted.

So the bit that I quoted which you made a point of typing was completely irrelevant then! Dual reading meters have been in use for decades and the newer meters have been introduced to reduce costs, nothing to do with E7.

Plushchris

It was only irrelevant when taken out of context like you just did, My reply was to someone saying you need 2 meters which I think we both know is not the case.

Therefore my post was relevant to the post I was replying to.