Cheaper overnight?

nickyhutch

Hi

Just a quick question (I think)

I'm with British Gas and have prepayment meters for both gas and electricity. Is it cheaper for me to use electricity overnight than during the day?

Thanks for reading :beer:

littletommytucker

not unless you have an economy 7 ( two rate ) meter. You can identify this by looking at your meter, and seeing if you just have one meter reading, or two. E7 meters are only really in propertys with night storage heaters x

KimYeovil

No, not unless you switch to an Economy 7 (or similar) tariff. And even then the electricity you use during the evening and day would be more expensive than it is now.

You would have to use a certain percentage of your electricity in the middle of the night to offset the higher charge during the morning/day/evening. You'll have to check the tariffs where you live to find the break even point - they vary widely from 7 or 8% to more than 25%.

littletommytucker

with British gas you need to be using more than 40% of your electricity on an evening for this to be cost effective

Cardew

littletommytucker wrote: »

with British gas you need to be using more than 40% of your electricity on an evening for this to be cost effective

It isn't that simple.

It depends on:

1. Which BG tariff you have.

2. Where in UK you live.

3. How much electricity you use

Also the term " on an evening" is misleading. The cheap rate economy 7 electricity is for a 7 hour period typically midnight to 7 am(but can vary slightly)

For instance on BG Click 6 for 15,000kWh(for my area) you need to use about 55% on Economy 7 to break even.

On my BG Tariff(now not available) for 15,000kWk the break even point is approx 30% on economy 7.