Economy 7 Help

grown_up_girlie

Hi everyone,

Was wondering if any of you can help me out with this please..... I live on my own and have Powergen with my electricity supplier. I have Economy 7 and was wondering if there is a set period of the night that it comes into effect. Does anyone know the actual hours its on.

I was told by one person that it varies and then a plumber friend of a friend says it kicks in at 9pm until 4am.......... can anyone advise me correctly as I like to think I can do my daily washing load at this time rather than during peak times.

Thanks in advance

Cardew

It normally covers a 7 hour period sometime between Midnight and 8am. The exact time varies.

Look at your meter to see when it changes

paul_h

The standard hours for economy7 are 12 midnight until 7am GMT, but can be a hour or two either way, depending upon your economy7 timeswitch. The most common types are a mechanical timeswitch, or a RTS.

With a mechanical timeswitch, you can see the switching times on these - there are two tabs on the edge of the dial at the two relevant times. There will be a marker showing the current time, which is often wrong - adjust the on/off times by the same amount that current time is wrong by. (if you get my drift...)

If you have a RTS (radio teleswitch), your economy7 is switched remotely by the local electricity company. There is usually an indicator on the RTS which shows when the economy7 rate is active.

If you aim to start your washer between 1am and 3am, you shouldn't go far wrong.

EDIT : Looks like I cross posted with Cardew

grown_up_girlie

Thanks for your help, I figured that it was around the times you both have suggested but that plumber guy who is a friend of a friend insisted it was 9pm - 4am which I thought was very strange and kinda annoyed me with his arrogance - guess I will just have to trust my own judgement more in future, lol. :beer:

tigger2

With a tele switch I thought it was 1am to 8am. Thought it used the radio 4 beeps somehow to switch on and off?

bbruce

You can choose between a couple of options if you contact them. We switched ours from a straight 7 hours so we could benefit both ends. Its now 23:30 to 01:30 and 0330 to 0830 in BST. In GMT it was an hour earlier.

Cardew

bbruce wrote:

You can choose between a couple of options if you contact them. We switched ours from a straight 7 hours so we could benefit both ends. Its now 23:30 to 01:30 and 0330 to 0830 in BST. In GMT it was an hour earlier.

I don't think all companies offer that option.

I know some companies have E10 which has provision for an afternoon period to boost storage heaters, but the prices are normally a little higher than E7.

My E7 meter is mechanical and only has the option for one period of cheap rate. (I changed from E7 but still retain meter - they add both readings together)

Allowing cheap electricity to 0830 would be a real bonus as a high proportion of electricity is used early morning - kettle, cooker, baths/showers etc.

paul_h

bbruce wrote:

You can choose between a couple of options if you contact them. We switched ours from a straight 7 hours so we could benefit both ends. Its now 23:30 to 01:30 and 0330 to 0830 in BST. In GMT it was an hour earlier.

Cardew is right to say that this is very unusual, and potentially very useful. Most RECs do not offer this.

We have a mechanical timeswitch which is quite a way out, we have off-peak rate from 1.30am until 8.30am, which is quite handy...

All customers with radio teleswitches are switched at a number of fixed times. Using the Rugby atomic clock signal transmitted from Droitwich, groups of customers are switched over to economy7 in stages to prevent a large number of storage heaters all switching on at once, thus spreading the increased load.

bbruce

paul_h wrote:

Cardew is right to say that this is very unusual, and potentially very useful. Most RECs do no not offer this.

We have a mechanical timeswitch which is quite a way out, we have off-peak rate from 1.30am until 8.30am, which is quite handy...

All customers with radio teleswitches are switched at a number of fixed times. Using the Rugby atomic clock signal transmitted from Droitwich, groups of customers are switched over to economy7 in stages to prevent a large number of storage heaters all switching on at once, thus spreading the increased load.

I arranged it with my original supplier before deregulation. I'm on my 4th supplier and may soon change again. Each one takes over the E7 without quibble. I've checked the changeover times and they are consistent.
It was a mechanical meter originally but was changed to an electronic one several years ago.

MATH

paul_h wrote:

We have a mechanical timeswitch which is quite a way out, we have off-peak rate from 1.30am until 8.30am, which is quite handy...

My mechanical switch is waaaaay out and I get econ 7 rates between 3:30am and 11:30am BST which is very useful:j It's amazing just how much you can do before an 11:30 coffee. LOL

lottyxx

i have econ 7 but i cannot see where the time is ???,the only thing i can see is a little red tab on the right hand side.