Economy Seven

Lisa46

Thank goodness I found this site and bought Martin's book! I didn't realise that I was PAYING to be on E7! I phoned my supplier, Atlantic, to find out exactly what hours are covered by E7 and discovered that by changing to normal tarriff I will save £30 - £35 a year. We will need a new meter but that is at no charge to us.

Xbigman

They might leave the old meter in and just add the readings together. This is just as easy.
Regards



X

Cagey

I assume you do not have storage heaters if you are changing to standard tariff Lisa.

mattt44

Thats news to me, we have the same thing.
We try to use as much stuff at night as poss, but even doing that only manage to just get to the 20% useage breakeven point and it would be much easier to put things on whenever we wanted.
I called Zest, our electric company and was told that it would cost us about £40 to get the meter changed over, we are in Northamptonshire, where are you?

Lisa46

I'm in Notts. We don't have storage heaters which seems to be the only reason to have E7 really. Atlantic told me that changing the meter would be at no cost to me. I tell everyone I meet about Economy 7 now !!!

Cardew

There was a thread about the 'break even' percentage when using E7.

The main lesson was that the price for the cheap night rate(and daytime rates as well) varied tremendously according to which part of the country you live as well as the utility company supplying. Hence the break even point varied from about 40% to 0%. I think it was for NPower in London that the daytime electricity when you were on the E7 tariff was cheaper than the daytime electricity when you were on a normal tariff - so everyone would be better off on E7 even if they used no electricity at night(seems unbelievable!)

Without doubt some companies have better tariffs for E7 than others but there is no substitute for looking at the tariffs of all the companies. Also because a utility company is cheaper in one geographic area, it doesnt always mean that it will be in another geographic area.

phoebe03cat

We've just done the same with Atlantic and noticed the difference in the bills!! What a con .....and what a difference Martins made to our lives. Martin for next years honours list I say....now that really would be ironic!

Cardew

mattt44 wrote:

Thats news to me, we have the same thing.
We try to use as much stuff at night as poss, but even doing that only manage to just get to the 20% useage breakeven point and it would be much easier to put things on whenever we wanted.
I called Zest, our electric company and was told that it would cost us about £40 to get the meter changed over, we are in Northamptonshire, where are you?

I changed from E7 to normal tariff and retained both meters. As Xbigman states above they simply add the 2 meter readings together.

When on E7 we found we were putting the dishwasher on for an overnight cycle(to take advantage of E7 rates) when it wasnt full. Similar with the washing machine/dryer. It was a false economy.

in_my_wellies

Yes, I agree, you have to work really hard to make it cost effective to gain from E7. I heat 3 greenhouses at night for about 6 weeks in the spring (not greastly, just enough to stop frost) and even doing this I only gain a small amount.

mattt44

Spoke to powergen and they said they would use the two meter option if I was with them.
Rang Zest4 again and got a bit shirty with the woman on the phone who said they didn't do that, so I said what if I leave and come back as a std tariff customer and was told I would have to go back onto a E7 tariff as my meter was E7. Asked her to confirm it all in writing, she can do some of it, but not other bits.

Had a look at std tariff prices and Zest isn't anywhere near anyway, so I'm enquiring of british gas to see if they can do the 2 meter thing, then I'm off from zest4.

British gas prices are a bit wierd though don't you think? The £26 back at the end of 12 months being with them, makes them the cheapest for me, but what happens then if they put up there prices halfway through the year, I'm stuck with them.

Cardew

mattt44 wrote:

, so I'm enquiring of british gas to see if they can do the 2 meter thing, then I'm off from zest4.

I am with BG on standard rates, having been on E7 previously, and I retain both meters.
They simply add the 2 readings together and I get billed for the total.