When is Economy 7 worth it?

Dizie

Apologies in advance, I'm sure the answer is probably on here but I just can't find it....

I'm sorting out my Mum & Dad's fuel provider as NPower have just hiked their payments up massively. They currently have an economy 7 meter, but their night time usage is only about 27%. Is it worth them staying on economy 7 or getting their meter changed?

Any advise greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

KimYeovil

It varies widely according to region and supplier. Grab their typical annual useage and compare with and without in their area on the comparison sites.

(And, of course, don't confuse a change in the monthly instalment with a change in price per kWh or a catch-up adjustment or an incorrect instalment estimate.)

Vestra

Best way is to find out the annual kwh usage on the economy 7 rates and work it out with the prices for economy 7 v 1 rate on the tariff they are on.

Cardew

As said above you have to work it out individually as the 'break even point' varies by area and company and total consumption - i.e. the break even point for say 6000kWh pa might not be the same as 12000kWh pa.

Generally I think that 27% will not be sufficient to 'break even'.

If you go to energyhelpline you can enter in the annual consumption and the percentage used at night and get an accurate result.

JohnnyM_2

A simple test would be to go to u-switch (or similar site) and get two quotes, one with E7 and one without (i.e. add together the annual usage for day and night).

dunloadin

One thing you havn't mentioned is the type of heating in your parents house. If storage heaters are fitted then fitting a single rate meter will be a non-starter, unless you want the bill to triple come the winter months!

DO NOT do anything untill you are sure that the heating in the house does not require an Eco7 meter to be fitted.

socks_uk

We have just changed to E-ON as the lady salesperson that came to my door assured me that we can come off economy 7. We have gas central heating and we don't have anything on at night that isn't on during the day and the only appliance we have with 'delay start' is a dishwasher that we put on when it's full, maybe twice a week.

We haven't had the first bill yet and I'm hoping we won't have bigger bills, but we'll see.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi socks_uk,

The sales agent that visited you is definitely correct; you can have a non Economy 7 tariff even if you have an E7 meter . The two rates are just added together and charged at primary and secondary units rather than day primary, day secondary and night.

If you’ve now switched check the paperwork (welcome letter) E.ON send you for details of the tariff they’ve quoted you for. That way you can check all is right long before getting a first bill.

Brian

paceinternet

socks_uk, as suggested, check the documents asap. E.ON must have different rules in each delivery area. In the East midlands area, they wanted to change the meter and charge for the work.

allan673

paceinternet wrote: »

socks_uk, as suggested, check the documents asap. E.ON must have different rules in each delivery area. In the East midlands area, they wanted to change the meter and charge for the work.

same in yorkshire - a friend got charged for a new meter, said he needed a meter swap before changing tariffs.
he had to phone a week after the meter change to make sure he was on a standard domestic tariff.

Bluefish_2

I was with Npower a couple of years ago and I enquired about what time the night rate kicked in. They told me it was approx 12am until 7am therefore if I didn't have any heating on during this time it was of no benefit to be on Economy 7 as the cheaper night rate was balanced by a more expensive day rate. They said there must have been storage heaters in the property at some time and that they're really the only time the tariff is of benefit. I changed to their standard tariff which was a cheaper day (and I guess evening) rate with no penalty and no meter change. My bill was cheaper (I can't remember how much but it was enough to shock my partner who thought what I was doing was ridiculous!). I now tell everyone whos on Economy 7 without storage heaters to do it!:money: