Economy 7 - is it better?

Pennylane

My neighbour is on Economy 7 so uses her washing machine, dishwasher & tumble dryer at night and flatly refuses to use these in the day.

As I understand it, her electricity during the daytime will be more expensive than mine. We both have oil central heating NOT storage heaters so I can't see where she saves money really.

Any comments welcome.

penrhyn

She is probably not saving any money.
According to Simply switch:-

Will Economy 7 save me money?

Economy 7 uses more energy during the night and less during the day, so you will save money. You need to be using roughly 20% of your energy consumption at night to be making a saving. However the electricity must be used at night. The cheaper tariff usually starts around midnight and finishes around 7am, although this can vary by supplier and region.
An important factor to take into consideration with Economy 7 is that although you can heat your water and storage heater continually throughout the night, this may be insufficient to last you through the day. The morning is generally nice and warm, with enough hot water for a bath or shower, but as you reach the evening your house will probably start growing colder.
Use our free price comparison service to see which of the gas and electricity suppliers offer the best Economy 7 deals.

macman

Simple enough to check-she just needs to look at her recent bills and establish what proportion of her electricity is being consumed on E7, and what proportion on peak rate. If the former is not at least 20%, then she is not saving money.
PS: I wouldn't want to be her neighbour with all that lot running overnight!

Pennylane

Thanks. I'll suggest she checks her bill. We're "near" neighbours not joined on.

She will have other appliances on in the day like cookers, vacuums, lights, kitchen and power tools (hubby does a lot of DIY projects) so if she's paying extra to use those I don't get it.

Same as the use of the appliances she uses at night - there are only 2 of them and I can't imagine they'd use the washing machine every night and TBH would 2 people use enough stuff to fill a dishwasher each day?

macman

You don't get it, and correctly so, because most likely she is wasting money, not saving it. Especially with daytime power tools and electric cookers in the equation!
Still trying to work out how you use a tumble drier and washing machine simultaneously, presumably you tumble dry the previous night's washing load the next night and have to leave it sitting damp in the machine for 17 hours?
Be careful how you play this though, as he might just decide to do all his DIY at night!

A._Badger

My wife and easily fill a dishwasher every day. We're also on Economy 7, despte not having storage radiators and the last time I checked we were ahead of the game - though only just.

The only thing I would add is that we are very nocturnal and we work from home which may (or may not) help tip the balance.

Starrystarrynight

I have Economy 7 with GCH and did think of asking my utility company if they would combine the readings and give me the single rate tariff for electricity. I've looked at the tariff and the difference in the kwh price is just under1p per kwh less for the day rate. I've never got round to calculating which would be more beneficial for me, and I don't know whether the supplier would even be prepared to change it. I run the washing machine and tumble dryer at night as the night rate is a quarter of the headline rate for the single and two rate tariffs.

macman

Starrystarrynight wrote: »

I have Economy 7 with GCH and did think of asking my utility company if they would combine the readings and give me the single rate tariff for electricity. I've looked at the tariff and the difference in the kwh price is just under1p per kwh less for the day rate. I've never got round to calculating which would be more beneficial for me, and I don't know whether the supplier would even be prepared to change it. I run the washing machine and tumble dryer at night as the night rate is a quarter of the headline rate for the single and two rate tariffs.

But if the rate is (for the sake of argument) 1p less on a non E7 tariff, and assuming about 10p per KwH, that is a 10% difference. And if you use 80% of your consumption on the peak rate, that's a potential saving of 8% on your annual bill.
Well worth doing the sums surely?

macman

A._Badger wrote: »

My wife and easily fill a dishwasher every day. We're also on Economy 7, despte not having storage radiators and the last time I checked we were ahead of the game - though only just.

The only thing I would add is that we are very nocturnal and we work from home which may (or may not) help tip the balance.

Surely working from home increases your peak rate usage and makes E7 less effective?

espresso

Starrystarrynight wrote: »

I've never got round to calculating which would be more beneficial for me

Post your unit prices and the % that you use during the 7 off peak hours from previous bills. Remember that the other 17 hours will cost more.

Starrystarrynight

macman wrote: »

But if the rate is (for the sake of argument) 1p less on a non E7 tariff, and assuming about 10p per KwH,

Wish it was 10p per kwh!

I've got the tariff printed up. Maybe over the coming long weekend I will finally get round to the calcs. Need to see if the utility company are amenable first, though.