overnight electricity

blenky46

hello new here today...could anyone tell me the hours of the cheaper ovenight electricity tariff and is it much cheaper and any advice on how to heat a couple of berooms instead of having the central heating on for the whole house..thanks

Ken68

Hi Blenky....E7 times vary (guessing at 12midnight to 7am), if the whole country switched at the same time, some power station fuses would blow.
Bit like everybody putting on the kettle after Corrie Street.
If you have gas central heating doesn't normally pay to have E7 too.
30% average use is needed to compensate for increased day rate.
Another option is electric blankets. Very cheap to run.
Not that I watch soaps, but you get the drift.

espresso

Ken68 wrote: »

Bit like everybody putting on the kettle after Corrie Street.

Have you not heard of "Electric Mountain"? Well worth a visit down under. More info here

Ken68

Yes Es...some kettle.

SwanJon

See here
Oh, that was too short to enter...

Cardew

blenky46 wrote: »

hello new here today...could anyone tell me the hours of the cheaper ovenight electricity tariff and is it much cheaper and any advice on how to heat a couple of berooms instead of having the central heating on for the whole house..thanks

I am not sure from this post that you have an Economy 7 tariff??

You do appreciate that you have to switch to an Economy 7 tariff and you pay a lot more for all the electricity you use during the day?

Almost certainly if you have gas central heating, you should not change to Economy 7.

The cheapet way to heat 2 rooms is have on your central heating and switch off all the other radiators in the rooms you don't need to heat.

MX5huggy

espresso wrote: »

Have you not heard of "Electric Mountain"? Well worth a visit down under. More info here

I remember going round a few years ago, the tour guide had twaddled on for so long then asked if there were any questions. "Yes how much more energy does it take to pump the water back up the hill than it produces?" I didn't get an answer.

It has its place but it is not the solution they would like you think it is.

PopIsDead_UK

Cardew wrote: »

I am not sure from this post that you have an Economy 7 tariff??

You do appreciate that you have to switch to an Economy 7 tariff and you pay a lot more for all the electricity you use during the day?

Almost certainly if you have gas central heating, you should not change to Economy 7.

The cheapet way to heat 2 rooms is have on your central heating and switch off all the other radiators in the rooms you don't need to heat.

Lets say you have standard heaters (not storage heaters), and an electric immersion heater. Would you still benefit from an E7 tariff there?

Cardew

PopIsDead_UK wrote: »

Lets say you have standard heaters (not storage heaters), and an electric immersion heater. Would you still benefit from an E7 tariff there?

Not unless you stay up all Night and sleep during the day!

You pay quite a bit more for the 17 hours daytime electricity on an Economy 7 tariff than you pay for all electricity on a normal(24/7) tariff.

So you have to work out how much cheap rate E7 electricity you will use in the 7 hours at night to calculate if it is worth while to take an E7 tariff.

The 'break even' point used to be using about 20%-30% on E7 cheap rate.

However most cheap rate electricity has shot up up price far more than 'normal' electricity and break even rates of 50%-60% are now common.

Unless you have starage heaters you have no chance of making E7 a worthwhile proposition; even then it isn't certain you can make E7 pay.

With normal heaters E7 will never pay.

espresso

MX5huggy wrote: »

I remember going round a few years ago, the tour guide had twaddled on for so long then asked if there were any questions. "Yes how much more energy does it take to pump the water back up the hill than it produces?" I didn't get an answer.

It has its place but it is not the solution they would like you think it is.

The plant runs on average at between 70 and 80% efficiency - i.e. it uses 20% more electricity (when pumping the water back up to the Machlyn Mawr) than it actually produces. It fills an important need in the system by responding to sudden surges in electricity demand because of its rapid ability to deliver power on load spikes. The alternative would be to be to produce excess capacity using conventional power stations. This would mean generating an additional 1330-1590GWh of power each year, and releasing more than 140,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. source here More facts and figures here.

blenky46

Cardew wrote: »

I am not sure from this post that you have an Economy 7 tariff??

You do appreciate that you have to switch to an Economy 7 tariff and you pay a lot more for all the electricity you use during the day?

Almost certainly if you have gas central heating, you should not change to Economy 7.

The cheapet way to heat 2 rooms is have on your central heating and switch off all the other radiators in the rooms you don't need to heat.

hello thanks for reply..my central heating is run on a combi so i dont have e7 i just thought electric was automaticly cheaper overnight ? so electric is a rip off price 24/7?..i work nights but the rest of my family are in at night (wife two kids) taking up three bedrooms between them no power on during the day and i think my thermostat is broke cos heating does not do the on off thing it is on constantly during the hours when it is on i live in 3 bed semi its an ex council house so its quite a big house