not sure economy 7 tariff is worth it

Tr1pp

I appologise if this has been asked but there are so many threads on economy 7 i couldnt sift through them all

ok, so im moving into my new house soon which is electricity only and has storage heaters / economy 7. ok thats great

BUT

where i currently live i have never used the storage heaters and it is not as well insulated as the new property im moving to.

I am a student so i am at uni 3 days a week, monday and tuesday im usually at home working so tend to have the tv (42 inch plasm going) and use of xbox and laptops. I also have to top up the boiler in the afternoon as its really small and runs out of hot otherwise. when it got really cold over this winter we had an oil heater in the front room for some spot heat during the day.

only usage from economy 7 is when we heat the boiler from 3am for the girlfriends shower before work
currently our quarterly bill from british gas tends to be about £120 (which covers me and the girlfriends usage)


so my question is this - Is it worth paying a higher day rate for economy 7 when I dont use the heaters and only heat the water tank over night?

penrhyn

Probably not, if I recall you would need to be using at least 25% of your electricity at the cheap rate to make it worthwhile.
The figure varies from area to area.

Are you using heaters during the day atm?

I'd stick an extra jacket on the hot water tank and or get an electric shower.

Tr1pp

no, was only using the oil heater for a short period for on demand heat, gunna look through some past bills to see what the usage ratio is.

might just go to a single rate tariff, i can always change it back to economy 7 if i feel its a bit high.

Cardew

By 'boiler' it appears you mean the Hot Water tank. A boiler(usually gas or oil) provides the hot water for central heating radiators and domestic hot water.

I suspect also by 'oil heater' you mean an electrically heated oil filled radiator???

Generally, if you are not using the storage heaters, it is not worth having Economy 7 as the extra you pay for the 17 hours use is more than you save on the 7 hours cheap rate.

It is easy enough to work it out. Just work out what your TOTAL current annual consumption(cheap rate + daytime rate.) would be at a normal 24/7 tariff rate and compare.

Pincher

Don't change the meter, otherwise the next tenant will have to change it back again. Just make sure your supplier will add the two readings together, otherwise switch.

You don't have to charge up the storage heaters every night.
Sunday night and Monday night only? I would also keep an eye on the weather report.

Switch in the spring, not now.

If you go for a one year tie-in deal, beware of the bonus cash back that you only get at the end. If you move house before, you don't get it.