Help! Economy 7 Electricity.

Southernmissy

Hi there! :j I am looking for all your expert advice! I've only recently moved out my parents and I rent a small flat with economy 7 electricity. I only have 1 storage heater in the flat & I try to save my electricity by switiching lights off I don't use, turning devices off at the electric point etc. I heard that economy 7 is cheaper at night, but what time does it switch to night rate?

Also my storage heater is a nightmare. My flat is never warm or it's only warm in 1 room! All the windows are wooden frame and the cold weather just breezes through My parents have bought me a portable oil heater. Does any one know if it's best to run the heater when needed and turn my storage heater off? Or are these oil heater electric guzzlers? I am so confused!

Great board by the way, I've just found the OS forum and there are some great tips for money saving.

Thanks guys for any help xxxx

calleyw

I had economy 7 when I first moved in to my first home with my husband. Coupled with being being on a card system we used £85 worth of electric in the first quarter :eek: And that was with out storage heaters. And Using a little electric heater when needed.

I could never work out when the time was it was something like 12.30am until 7.30am. No good for me living in a flat as I could not run my washing machine at that time of day.

So we changed meters and had normal electric hours put in.

I do believe that the oil filled electric heaters do eat a bit of electric as my brother has one at the moment and said the wheel was whizzing around when it was in use.

I have no real answers for you as we put gas and had combi boiler.

If your windows are leaking air then get that plastic film stuff and cover them up. We did this in out first place and it didn make it warmer and also helped with the condensation we suffered from.

Yours

Calley

Rikki

Storage heaters build up their heat during cheap rate electricity at night and let the heat out during the day. This can work well but as the weather turns cold you need to keep it running and the warmth will improve, check the settings , make sure you have the max coming in and the heat release is slower.

Night rate for a storage heater is automatically set. For everything else its 1am till 8am if I remember correctly. Although when you have storage heaters you may have a normal meter for all other electricty apart from the heater.[check with your supplier]

I would run the oil heater along with the storage heater. The storage heater will keep the fabric of the house warm and the oil heater will boost the heat when you need it.

squeaky

I think the best place for this question will be the utilities board where no doubt the experts there will be able to help you.

Cardew

The 7 hour period varies but generally it is between Midnight and 8am - although the timer can be inaccurately set.

All electrical heaters have the roughly the same efficiency(which is close to 100%) so a, say, 2kW heater costs the same to run regardless of type e.g. panel, fan heater, oil filled, 2 bar fire etc etc. The main difference is the way they disperse their heat.

Even night storage heaters are no more efficient than any other heater. HOWEVER they are designed to switch on in the 7 hours that Economy 7 is available. The advantage of this is that Economy 7 electricity is supplied at approx a third of the daytime rates(varies according to company and area of UK) All other devices in use during this 7 hours also use cheap rate electricity.

The downside is you pay slightly more for daytime electricity(usually).

Almost always it will pay you to be on Economy 7 if you have night storage heaters and you should use them as much as you can. However the prices of E7 vary greatly by supplier and area of UK so you should look at the different tariffs available.

Magentasue

We had night storage heaters when we moved in. OK for school hols and weekends but for evenings no good 'cos most of the heat had gone. We ended up lighting coal fires and sitting under quilts. Very OldStyle but it didn't save us money. Even using dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier overnight ran up our highest elec bills ever.

We also have wooden sash windows and I love them! We also have heavy, lined, floor length curtains in every room and these make a huge difference. I pull them closed as soon as it starts to get dark in the winter. If you don't have carpets, put mats or rugs down, heavy curtain across external doors too if you don't have a porch.

If you ring the elec board that supplies you, they will tell you when cheap rate is.

ljonski

living in such accomodation ans such heating you really need to take extra steps to keep warm. If you are on incme support you wil lqualify for free advice on energy saving and installation of one type of of insulation. ( contact local council )Hot air rises and most of the heat loss will be above your head so i advise loft insulation. Other measures to think about are thicker , longer curtains and blocking off any gaps ( ie in floor boards and electricity cupboard)and stopping draughts through windows and doors. A secondary form of heating is mandatory with storage heaters ! For more extensive help a false ceiling is really useful. Best to live basically in one room as going in and out of doors disrupts all these efforts

Southernmissy

Thankyou so so much for all your replies. Very useful indeed! I have been keeping my front room curtains closed since it turned icy and the room is much warmer. I'll extend this to the other rooms! As for the windows the plastic film is a great idea thanks, the condensation on all the windows is a nightmare. Right now I've taken some tips from old style and am wrapped up in a big jumper! Tomorrow I'll be calling Powergen and finding out what the times are. Thanks for taking the time to help :T

maryb

I'm with london energy and i wanted to check when eceonomy 7 is on and when i phoned up they said it just means you get 7 hours at cheap rate some time between 11pm and 8 am - it depends on your meter. So I watched my meter until I worked out when it was clicking over then set machines to come on at the best time. The time is fixed by reference to GMt so it will be an hour later when the clocks go forward. this uits me very well as the cheap rate goes off at 7.30 in the summer. so I set the washing machine to wash at 5.30 then when I get up at 6.30 I can do another wash at cheap rate and hang both out on the line to dry before I go to work.

Southernmissy

Thanks Maryb. I've been doing my washing about 10pm thinking this was late in the evening for it to be night rate :rolleyes: needless to say I'll be making a call to Powergen & asking them this if not watching my meter. Reading other threads not a lot of people rate Powergen but I'll see how I go with them. All the leccy comparison tables blow my mind, don't want to make a wrong decision!

maryb

I was in Ikea last week and they were doing a pack of three timers for £10 - very useful if you want to get the bset from economy 7. Just set things to come on at 3am that's bound to be cheap rate