Economy 7 scam

putupon

JUST PURCHASED AN ENERGY MONITOR,I NOTICED SATUDAY NIGHT THAT MY ECONOMY 7 SWITCHED ON AT 10.30 PM,WATCHED A FILM AND AT 12,30 THE ECONOMY 7 SWITCHED OFF I CHECKED THE METERS AND SWITCHES NOTHING UNTO WARD,AT 2.30 THE ECONOMY 7 CAME BACK ON.THE THING IS MY WASHER AND DRYER WHICH i SWITCHED ON AT MIDNIGHT TO BENEFIT THE CHEAP RATE SWITCH BACK TO NORMAL RATE FOR 2 HOURS,MY IMMERSION HEATER COMES ON AT 1 AM WHICH ALSO MEANS I AM BEING CHARGED FULL RATE FOR THIS.WHICH WHEN WORKED OUT IS A LOT OF MONEY OVER THE YEAR AT 3 KW PER NIGHT IT WORKS OUTAT OVER £90..MY SUPPLIER SAYS ITS NORMAL FOR MY AREA TO HAVE A GAP OF 2 HOURS,I THOUGHT IT SHOULD BE CONTINUOUS 7 HOURS,i CANT GET HOLD OF ANYONE AT UNITED UTILITIES TO FIND OUT.IF PEOPLE ARE WASHING AND DRYING DURING THIS PERIOD THEY ARE LOSING LOADS.

Boxman

My ears hurt from all that shouting!

Yes, those are my Economy 7 hours as well, 10:30pm to 12:30 then for a further five hours starting around 2 or 2:30am (I always set dish washer, tumble dryer, washing m/c etc to start at around 3:00 am). Works for me with around 35% of our annual usage on the cheap night rate.

If you experiment and keep a close eye on your meter readings you'll soon find the optimum timings. I can tell when the Economy rate kicks in at a glance as a small rectangle on the timer switch goes to red.

Carrot007

Perfectly normal in the south-west.

However the area does also support non split E7 so you could get onto this but it woudl require a meter change (or at least engineer visit to chaneg the switching times).

And OW, find yer caps lock key.

Pincher

10:30~12:30 02:30~07:30!

That's good isn't it? It means you can do the washing from 10:30 to 11:30, and put it in the tumble dryer before going to bed.

In the morning, you can shower, use the hair dryer, cook on Economy 7. Out the door by 07:45, and still have a full cylinder of hot water for the evening. I used to have 11:30~06:30, miserable time slot.

putupon

Thats fine if you know the times, but the sticker on the meter tells me that it comes on between 11.15 to 11.45 for 7 hours .so my washer, dryer and imersion is set , to come on based on these times thus for 6 year been paying peak rates for some or all of my cheap electric

grahamc2003

The e7 times are decided by your network operator. The op is correct that there's an element of misrepresentaion, or dodgy practice going on. My e7 hours according to my contract are 7 hours between 22:30 and 08:30. In practice, mine (seeboard) comes on around 00:00 till 00:15, then 00:30 till 07:30 (with almost certainly 15 mims of peak rate somewheer in that last period). The initial period isn't constant, sometimes it's 00:05 or 00:10, but always lasts for 15mins when I've observed it. It does make a mockery of setting appliances to come on at night if the exact hours aren't known. Given e7 is the most environmentally beneficial an the average person can do (it by far beats windmills/solar panels and most other things thought of as 'green'), e7 cutomers get pretty shoddy treatment imv. If the prices reflected the costs, then e7 night rates would be near zero, based on marginal costs, but instead, prices have risen from around 30% of day rates to 50%, and in addition, day rates are higher for e7 users. Madness, in terms of an efficient and environmental grid system.

neilmcl

putupon wrote: »

Thats fine if you know the times, but the sticker on the meter tells me that it comes on between 11.15 to 11.45 for 7 hours .so my washer, dryer and imersion is set , to come on based on these times thus for 6 year been paying peak rates for some or all of my cheap electric

It's your responsibilty, when choosing a provider that offers E7, to find out what these times are. You signed up to a contract, it's down to you to check the terms of that contract. Don't just assume.

putupon

but there infomation on their web site states 12.30am to 7.30am but this can change,which it must have done but no one told me.

savetilibleed

We are in a Seeboard area, and our E7 timer, a clonking great big thing (don't know if they all are) is clearly set at 12.30am and 7.30am. I can hear it switch over around 12.30 though I don't hear it later.

grahamc2003

savetilibleed wrote: »

We are in a Seeboard area, and our E7 timer, a clonking great big thing (don't know if they all are) is clearly set at 12.30am and 7.30am. I can hear it switch over around 12.30 though I don't hear it later.

Sounds like an old mechanical timer, which will probably soon be replaced with a modern one incorporating a radio teleswitch, so your e7 hours will then be controlled remotely (via a radio signal, on Radio 4 in fact).

savetilibleed

grahamc2003 wrote: »

My e7 hours according to my contract are 7 hours between 22:30 and 08:30. In practice, mine (seeboard) comes on around 00:00 till 00:15, then 00:30 till 07:30 (with almost certainly 15 mims of peak rate somewheer in that last period). The initial period isn't constant, sometimes it's 00:05 or 00:10, but always lasts for 15mins when I've observed it. It does make a mockery of setting appliances to come on at night if the exact hours aren't known.

I don't like that at all, you don't know where you stand with it! Seems unnecessary.

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Sounds like an old mechanical timer, which will probably soon be replaced with a modern one incorporating a radio teleswitch, so your e7 hours will then be controlled remotely (via a radio signal, on Radio 4 in fact).

I hope not. We also have a separate meter (old dial one) that only meters the heating (Elvaco), but the real meter is a modern digital one showing rate 1 (night) and rate 2 (day) and it is only that meter than gets read.