Beware on Economy tariffs.

Huskaris

Having been looking into my energy recently I have been looking at my meter more and more to find out when my peak and off peak hours are (I am on economy 9 with EDF, they don't allow new customers on but I'm on it still)

I was told my hours for off peak, these were slightly wrong but I called again and they gave me the correct ones (or so they insist)

I then went to check when I hear my boiler going, and it was in the off peak section, my digital meter was flashing rapidly in the off peak rate section, but then I kept noticing that it was also flashing, albeit a lot slower on the peak section.

I got in touch with EDF and they told me that it is common with meters like this to be hooked up purely to the heating whilst everything else is hooked up to the peak tariff, no cheap appliance usage at all!!! I was shocked and felt stupid because I had been deliberately timing appliance usage to be in the off peak period for ages!!!

Beware!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

As the EDF person said it was very common(particularly in Scotland) for new Properties with Economy 7, Economy 10, and variations of those tariffs(heat wise etc) to be wired so that only storage heating and Immersion heaters used off peak electricity; all other electrics were on peak rates 24/7.

Now it is usual practice for all electrics to switch to off-peak for the seven hours.

Huskaris

So does that basically mean that those that were unlucky enough to be wired before this change are paying more purely due to the time that the wiring was put in? Nice... Is there anything that can be done? Because I would certainly like 9 hours off peak all round and I think it isn't really fair to punish someone by the date their property was wired (2005, London)

jalexa

Huskaris wrote: »

Because I would certainly like 9 hours off peak all round and I think it isn't really fair to punish someone by the date their property was wired (2005, London)

First of all are you the owner or a tenant? If you are the owner it is no big deal in the overall scheme of things to (if necessary) pay for a E7 meter and any minor wiring mods involved.

Modern storage heaters are fine with E7. The issue is how much storage capacity you have (not whether the tariff is 7 or 9 hours). Perhaps you'll be saying next its unfair that the heaters are getting old:).

The first step in addressing this is to establish your *exact* costs for your Economy 9, your night and day usage, and using a comparison website, what your E7 costs would be. (You cannot compare or switch Economy 9, an obvious disadvantage).

If E7 offers a big saving consider the change, if not what's the problem?

Cardew

Huskaris wrote: »

So does that basically mean that those that were unlucky enough to be wired before this change are paying more purely due to the time that the wiring was put in? Nice... Is there anything that can be done? Because I would certainly like 9 hours off peak all round and I think it isn't really fair to punish someone by the date their property was wired (2005, London)

I am not aware of any hard and fast regulation about the wiring.

However I believe in the past that Utility companies would only allow the E10 type tariffs if the house was wired so only heating/hot water would use off-peak electricity.

I am surprised that such a tariff was available in London in 2005. Was that original wiring at that date - or rewiring?

Huskaris

Cardew wrote: »

I am not aware of any hard and fast regulation about the wiring.

However I believe in the past that Utility companies would only allow the E10 type tariffs if the house was wired so only heating/hot water would use off-peak electricity.

I am surprised that such a tariff was available in London in 2005. Was that original wiring at that date - or rewiring?

It was built in 05, so it must have been built in :-)