Southern Electric switching from Economy 7 to standard advice

jonathandaws

Hi

I will be completing on my first property shortly.

The current owner has gas and Economy 7 electric with Southern Electric.

The heating in the house is now gas so I have no need for Economy 7.

Is it easy to switch to a standard electricity tariff or will there be complications with the meter etc?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Jonathan

Gurn_2

no they will just put a single rate meter in.

Gurn_2

And if the 5th terminal of the meter (off peak one) is feeding a seperate fuse board, then they will just bring them both together in a block and feed both from the new meter, easily done.

p.s make sure the water is heated by gas and not electric.

jonathandaws

Hi

Thanks for the advice will defo check the boiler etc.

Will it cost me any money to change the meter over?

Premier_2

jonathandaws wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for the advice will defo check the boiler etc.

Will it cost me any money to change the meter over?

Possibly, depends on the supplier.

Some suppliers will happily supply a single rate tariff even though you have a dual rate meter. Others require a change of meter for which a charge may apply

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2192843

jonathandaws

Cheers Premier

That thread implies that Southern won't charge me a fee to change.

Now just need to get back into the house to check how my water is heated.

The boiler is gas for the central heating I have a water tank that also has an immersion heater.

Bit confusing as I'm wondering if the immersion is used if I just want to heat up some water when needed or is it the only water heating source.

macman

No, your boiler will supply the hot water to the tank, the immersion is there as a back up, or possibly because it was there before the gas CH. But it will be cheaper to heat your hot water using the gas boiler.

jonathandaws

Hi Macman

Cheers for the info!

I was hoping that this would be the case but since he had Economy 7 it had me worried that he had just an immersion heater set up and was heating it overnight to use during the rest of the day.

If what you say is true then it is good times

colacube1965

southern electric will not charge you to change your meter from eco 7 to dom gen (one rate meter)

Premier_2

jonathandaws wrote: »

Hi Macman

Cheers for the info!

I was hoping that this would be the case but since he had Economy 7 it had me worried that he had just an immersion heater set up and was heating it overnight to use during the rest of the day.

If what you say is true then it is good times

Arguably, it probably costs about the same to heat water using gas as it does using E7 electricity.

If you take the cost of gas as 3.675p per kWh (Ebico price) but allow for the fact a typical gas boiler (not a brand new one) is about 60% efficient, then it effectively costs just over 6p per kWh ... about the same price as E7 electricity (and that ignores any heat loss in pipes from the boiler to the tank and the cost of running the electric pump)

That's why some people may elect to switch off thier gas boiler in summer and just use electric.