Economy 7 - any advice to save money?

Davim-se_2

I have just realised we are on an economy 7 is our new house, does anyone know how to make the most an economy 7 meter?

VanillaDelia

If you have a washer with a timer on it, set it to come on during the night so you get your washing done at your cheaper rate. Work out how much water you need each day, if you can you may get away with only putting the boiler on every other day. Also in winter keep doors closed throughout the house so heat doesn't escape into rooms your not needing to heat, close curtains as soon as it starts to get dark to keep drafts out and heat in.

Hope this helps a little!

macman

Davim-se wrote: »

I have just realised we are on an economy 7 is our new house, does anyone know how to make the most an economy 7 meter?

Use your night storage heaters. Any heating (or indeed any other electrical consumption at all) outside E7 hours is charged at a premium rate.
Also make sure that you are heating your hot water on the E7 cycle, and try not to use the boost too much outside these hours.
You need to be using a minimum of around 30% of your total consumption on cheap rate to make E7 pay.

rogerblack

macman wrote: »

Use your night storage heaters. Any heating (or indeed any other electrical consumption at all) outside E7 hours is charged at a premium rate.

In some cases, your freezer may be able to be used on E7 too.
You will need to check that it can be turned up to -26 or so, and also that it is not getting too warm during the day.
A timeswitch, with a manual '1h' button can work well (for when you open it)

Haarlem

Davim-se wrote: »

I have just realised we are on an economy 7 is our new house, does anyone know how to make the most an economy 7 meter?

Find out the exact times you are charged at the low rate, and make use of it to fit in with your lifestyle if you can

Time switches can be used to operate your washer and drier.

I am lucky as I get the lower rate until 8.00am all year round, so as I am an early riser I can make vey good use of the lower rate. I have gas central heating and achieve well over 35% at the lower rate.

Smart meters will mean more time of day tariffs, so planning to use them now will prepare you for what is to come.

grahamc2003

When it's not too cold and you have the storage heaters on low, condider turning them off over night, then on again before the e7 period ends (if you're up in time). Our night rate is till 08:30 after the spring clock change, so I turn ours on about 7 when I get up, and it loads up with a small, but sufficient, amount of heat. It saves you heating your house in trhe middle of the night when it's not useful.

Similiar with your immersion heater - set the timer to come on an hour or so before the e7 nighyt period ends, rather than when it begins - saves heat loss through the tank through the nighttime.

For a few times, I tried using a breamaker set to finish a loaf around 7 when I get up - but the smell of baking bread (which up until that point I really liked) we found pretty nausiating to wake up to for some reason.

Also, watch what appliances you buy - we bought a new tumble drier which we assumed could be worked via a timer. But it couldn't - strangley you had to be there to physically press 'start' after the power came on. So we then had to go out and buy another with a built in timer, which works well. (In fact, the first was from Tescos, online, and since we didn't discover it wasn't suitable for a few weeks, Tescos refused to exchange it. I tried arguing that these days I'd expect such appliances to work off timers (as indeed the old one did), so it wasn't fit for purpose, but they didn't budge - my first experience of crap customer service from Tescos).

Foggster

Personally I put my immersion heater on when I moved to this property and have only ever switched it off when we have gone away on holiday. This means that there is always hot water available and it is not heating up from cold all the time. However, in a previous house we did have a dual switch for the hot water which meant it came on only at night with a booster switch for day time use.

E7 works well for those families who arent at home all day and therefore using all the stored up heat and water i.e. doors opening, running off hot water for washing etc. We also have the storage heaters on a higher input than to output which means they are still warm in the evenings.

Like others have said both our tumble drier, washing machine and dishwasher have built in delay timers which means we can set them before going to bed and they will come on when E7 kicks in.

Wickedkitten

macman wrote: »

Use your night storage heaters. Any heating (or indeed any other electrical consumption at all) outside E7 hours is charged at a premium rate.

I'm going to have to disagree with that one slightly. We actually took all of our storage heaters out but total they were over 13kw per hour to run which is going to be more running at 4.7p than a 1.6kw halogen heater is going to cost in the evenings running at 10.2p


As far as the immersion heater goes, ours is lagged to death and comes on for a half hour during the e7 rates which is enough that it stays hot all day.

Raksha

Make sure your meter is set to the correct bands.

macman

Wickedkitten wrote: »

I'm going to have to disagree with that one slightly. We actually took all of our storage heaters out but total they were over 13kw per hour to run which is going to be more running at 4.7p than a 1.6kw halogen heater is going to cost in the evenings running at 10.2p


As far as the immersion heater goes, ours is lagged to death and comes on for a half hour during the e7 rates which is enough that it stays hot all day.

But your 13kW storage heaters are going to provide rather more heat than a 1.6kw halogen heater! About 8 times as much in fact. Hardly a valid comparison.

2010

Foggster wrote: »

Personally I put my immersion heater on when I moved to this property and have only ever switched it off when we have gone away on holiday.

An immersion heater only needs to be on for an hour in winter and a half hour in summer.

Try it.