How does economy 7 work?

lukemed1

Hi guys

how does the economy 7 system/idea work?

Best Wishes

Luke

Rikki

Is cheap rate electicity avaliable at night between the hours of 1am and 7am.

Be_Happy

Actual number of hours vary depending on region. Here we get cheap rate between midnight and 8.30 am in summer and 11 pm and 7.30 am in winter. Beware, though, that day rate is a good bit dearer than standard electricity rate if not on Economy 7. You have to make good use of the cheap night rate to benefit.

Mine's_a_guinness

We inherited Economy 7 when we bought our house. It was built in the 50's and at that time had storage heaters where the water was heated in the night on cheap rate electricity but was stored to be used throughout the day (sorry it's not a very good explanation, but I'm not that technical). When we moved in we had the heating system replaced and, although we don't have storage heaters any more I kept the Economy 7 rate. I put the washing machine / tumble dryer / dishwasher on timers to come on overnight and try to get everyone to shower before the cut off time for the cheap rate (easier in summer as it's on until 8.30am rather than 7.30am). It's roughly 60% cheaper at night so even though we pay a higher rate during the day, we still seem to save overall on the costs.