Save £££ using Economy 10

manintheglass

I have had this metering system running for 6 months to see if it really worked and it has so here are the details:I had heard of economy 7 which gives low cost electricity for 7 hours to allow storage heaters to warm up so when I pressured my electricity supplier into helping me save money I was put through to a team who told me about economy 10. This gives a 50% discount on electricity (standard rate) for 10 hours per day - great for washing machines, dryers etc. I have four kids so this is an issue.The process involves installing a meter with two readings - one that reads for the 14 hours at normal rate and one for the 10 half price hours.Since we started using the system our electricity bills have more than halved.

espresso

So what rate do you pay per kWh?

Cardew

What tariff were you on before E10? E7 or a normal(24/7) tariff?

You presumably are aware that on E10/E7 you pay considerably more for the 14/17 hours electricity you use during the day.

Can you please give some figures showing how your electricity bills halved by using E10.

dfh4np

Everyones circumstances and usage are different and this is my scenario.

I just moved off E10 with Hydro and back to Scottish power on comfort plus control.

The main reason I moved to Hydro E10 was to give greater control over the storage heaters, IE instead of charging up to 7 hours at night I could split the charging times to the afternoon IE 2 hours between 5.30 am and 7.30am and 2 hours in the afternoon between 2.00pm and 4.00pm. (This did work and the house was alot warmer till later at night, plus my costs were regulated to what I wanted to spend)

When I took out E10 in Oct 2007 the cost was 8.62ppu peak and 4.97ppu cheap rate, which compared favourably with Scottish power at 9.70ppu domestic and 4.26ppu heating.

E10 increased in April 2008 to 10.59ppu peak and 5.95ppu off peak.
Hydro advertised a 15% average increase, the actual increase was nearly 23% peak and 20% off peak on the E10 product.

E10 increased again in sept 2008 to 13.57ppu peak and 7.91ppu off peak
Hydro advertised a 29% average increase, was 28% peak and 32% off peak on the E10 product.

Overall in less than a year the E10 product became 57% more expensive peak and 59% off peak against an average electricity increase of 44% on all hydro products.

Current rates with Scottish power are 12.094ppu domestic and 5.45ppu for all heating and hot water both available 24 hours a day. As the storage heater control contactor that I had installed after fitting E10 is still connected I am able to fully control the storage heater times to the ones that I know are most effective and not just during a fixed slot cheap rate but all day as and when required.

Having done my sums , given the amounts of electric I use every year, E10 is just not viable for me and at the current rates is about £120 a year more expensive, this is factoring in the whole house off peak benefits as well, which in reality only works out at an average of 3 units a day that would otherwise have been on peak rate.

My own feelings is at best electric heating is twice the price of gas and at worst 3 times the cost. There needs to be more protection for electric only tariffs where people have limited choice like these and in alot of cases cannot switch at all due to metering issues or lack of tariffs from other companies.


dfh4np