Economy 7 Meter but no storage heaters

kimpowell

I am hoping someone can help me because I am so confused.

Eight years ago we had our storage heaters removed and had gas central heating installed. Like a fool I have only just realised that we are still paying for economy 7 with npower.

Can anyone advise whether I should change from economy 7 to a normal tariff. I have spent hours reading comments about it, and now my head is in a spin.

My electric bill just keeps rising and most of the cost is spent on day units and about 20% in night units.

Please help, I don't know where to turn to next.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Is there any way you could sit down with your bills and work out the difference? I don't have storage heaters but it works out cheaper for me to use E7 as I put on all my appliances (dishwasher, washer etc) on at night and it worked out cheaper to have it than not.

If you are only using 20% at night then my feeling is you might be better off with a normal meter.

Don't worry, its not as complicated as it sounds, sit down with a cuppa, a calculator, pen, paper and your bill and any old (accurate meter readings if you have them) and have a go at working it out. If you get really stuck then you can ring your supplier and they should help you, double check their figures though.

Also, another tip is to stick a piece of paper up in your meter cupboard and jot down the reading once a month, you will have accurate meter readings then by this time next year, its really handy then for calculating things like this.
good luck

Magentasue

Depends on your tariff but Economy 7 is probably not saving you money. If you have annual figures, put them into a price comparison site choosing non-E7 tarrifs to see what the savings could be.

If no annual figures, cost your current bill at about 13p per kwh for the total night and day. I think it's reasonable to assume to can get a tariff where you pay that - people will jump in and tell you if that's not true.

Cardew

At 20% of the total consumption being night units, it is very unlikely that E7 is worthwhile and thus you would be better off moving to a standard tariff.

The only way to make sure is do some arithmetic.

or

All you need to do is go to a comparison website and enter your present E7 consumption in kWh for your tariff and note the cost

Then enter the total(night + day units) in the comparison site and put down a standard tariff - and note the costs.

kimpowell

Thanks, I knew if someone told me in plan English I would get there evenutally. I will do as you suggest and get a cuppa tomorrow night and try to work it out.

Your a star.

PrinceGaz

As you had gas heating installed but kept the E7 tariff, whether or not being on E7 saves you money very much depends on when the heavy draining electrical appliances are used.

For instance (and this is probably the easiest one for most households to do), running a washer/dryer within the 7 hours of cheaper electricity every time will save a lot of money compared with running at the non-E7 flat rate. But you must ensure you always set it to run in the cheap period- centered around 2-6am. Depending on how many days per week you use your washing machine, if you currently run it during the day and switch it to running overnight, that could make quite a change in your day and night usage.

The important thing to remember with E7 is that daytime units (everything from around 7am to midnight) are charged at a somewhat higher rate than flat-tariffs, but the night-units intended primarily for charging storage-heaters and boilers but which can be used for anything you have plugged in and running at the time, are charged at a much lower rate than the standard flat-rate.

If it is practical for you to shift most of your electricity usage to that overnight period, E7 would be very worthwhile, but I suspect you are likely to be using most of your electricity before midnight-1am because you need it then, in which case switching to a non-E7 tariff should be cheaper. E7 tariffs are all about using as much electricity as possible during that seven hour period, even if the inefficiency of a storage heater means you use more electricity than you would do with an on-demand heater.

Ken68

Hi Kim...I did the sums a couple of years ago, didn't pay even at 30% night use.