What exactly is Economy 7?

jd87

marvin wrote: »

Should not require a change of meter as all they would have to do is add the day rate to the night rate if you come off E7.

Thanks. I am definitely calling them tomorrow and changing. According to my bill, only about 15% of my electricity is at night. I dread to think how much money we've been wasting all these years.

maz1964

hiya all,

thanks all - points taken
i think i will also call british gas as im with them on dual for gas and elec, and seeing my bill, i guess too im about 15 % only using night time,

i understood from my friend that the day time charge will be be cheaper for us as at the moment we are paying much higher for our day and a lot cheaper for the night, but must do comparison by the kw used i guess to see the real savings,

ciao for now thanks again, another job been meaning to do for so long, now ready to tackle with confidence

MAZ

Aloe-Anna

just looking for anything on the E7 thing as just had conversation with npower to try to get capped and was told if I change my meter to standard from E7 i will save £150 per year as I haven't got storage heaters or under-floor heating it does not benefit me to have E7. They will change meter for free just not sure if good thing to do for future, any suggestions? plus they're only capping prices till mar 09

owain.davies

Just to confirm, you need to be using AT LEAST 20-30% of your electricity on your cheap rate for E7 to be saving you money because the day rate is more expensive (the precise percentage varies by supplier) - to put this in context, on an average 3 bed house, you need to be running a washing machine overnight 4 nights a week for it to be worthwhile.

In almost all cases, your supplier will initate a meter change to switch from E7 to standard, but it is well worth it.

Just as a quick note, if you have a two rate meter, you could also be on Economy 10, which is even worse, and then you'd have to be using 30-40% of your electric in the low rate periods.

Hope that helps.

espresso

owain.davies wrote: »

Just to confirm, you need to be using AT LEAST 20-30% of your electricity on your cheap rate for E7 to be saving you money because the day rate is more expensive (the precise percentage varies by supplier) - to put this in context, on an average 3 bed house, you need to be running a washing machine overnight 4 nights a week for it to be worthwhile.

Sorry but your information is incorrect, as it varies according to region and supplier, so you should not generalise! Example here.

jd87

Just called E.On and got taken off E7. The guy said that it would save us about £60 a year and doing so has let us reduce our direct debit payment! I highly recommend people look into this.

I am angry that companies don't automatically tell people whether they should be on it or not though.

jetski690

I've also realized I would have been better off without Economy 7 but every time I did a price comparison when it asked if you had economy 7, I marked the box and of course then every deal was for an economy 7 tariff. My last quarterly bill was £252 I could have saved nearly £80 by not being on E7 so I asked NPower for a new single tariff meter and they willing agreed no problem. My new day rate goes from 0.11p per Kwh down to 0.05p per KWh.

Mazio_2

If you want to check if E7 is viable for you then I would suggest you take meter readings and use the units you are using during the Peak and Off Peak hours for a few weeks remember you may have a change in % over seasons especially if you are using overnight heating, lights staying on longer or your situation changes ie some one who does not live with you all the time (student).

I dont think using appliances like washing or dishwasher over night will give you the split as you may be using more power in the Peak rate and not know it just by using kettles, tele, ironing etc?

Just take the readings from your meter it will have 2 rates showing 1 should say Night or Low the other Day or High/Standard something like that I have been doing this in the mornings at a set time for nearly a year now but as I have said in a privious post I left E7 after realizing it was actualy costing me more and I could/would not use more units at night to make it viable.

If you find you are using more in the day then at night you could always try to do more things overnight (and then take the readings again) to even it out better and not have to move off E7 ?

Remember the standard rate has 2 tier rate normally with the first x amounts costing more just another bit to add to the maths!

owain.davies

espresso wrote: »

Sorry but your information is incorrect, as it varies according to region and supplier, so you should not generalise! Example here.

I'm sorry, but I think your maths is just wrong. I have run this through both manually and on a spreadsheet to calculate actual payments, using both your old costs and EDF Energy's current rate card and in both cases for all types of house (at average consumption) there are only savings on E7 for usage of over 25% (on all sizes of house).

For example, a 3 bed end of terrace (average usage 2334 units), using your rates (which are higher than current rate card) would pay £289.11 on standard tariff, £314.57 on E7 with 10% night use, £290.87 with 25% night use and would not break even until over 26% night use!

Obviously this is only one supplier in one region, but using the spreadsheet, i've applied several other rate cards, and they all come up the same. You need to be using at least 25% on night rate to make it worth being on E7.

SwanJon

owain.davies wrote: »

For example, a 3 bed end of terrace (average usage 2334 units),

If you are using electricity for heating, the average is 6600 kWh per year.

How easy is it to change the annual consumption on your speadsheet?
I'm just thinking that for higher users a lower percentage might be worthwhile.