Air Source Heat Pump - Best Electricty plan

wytco0

We are just about to move into a new house which is heated by an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP).

Does anyone with ASHP have any recommendations as to which electricity plan I shoudl select? Our Electricity is with EON and we in Norfolk.

rogerblack

An air-source heatpump is just a really-efficient fan-heater.

(300-500% hopefully, 200% if terrible).

It will only heat when on, and does not store heat at all.
Economy 7 tariffs are essentially useless, unless you're mainly up at night, and tariffs which give a couple of hours electricity at cheap-rate during the day again aren't much good - unless the house can go 8 hours with no heating.

You simply are looking for the cheapest 'normal' tariff, for what is probably going to be high usage.

wytco0

rogerblack wrote: »

....

It will only heat when on, and does not store heat at all.
Economy 7 tariffs are essentially useless, unless you're mainly up at night, and tariffs which give a couple of hours electricity at cheap-rate during the day again aren't much good - unless the house can go 8 hours with no heating.

You simply are looking for the cheapest 'normal' tariff, for what is probably going to be high usage.

Yes indeed, however I am trying to find out real world experince. Our house is very highly insulated and we could probably only heat at night in which case E7 would be useful, however heating at night could be more expensive if the air temperature is much lower.

Andy_WSM

wytco0 wrote: »

Yes indeed, however I am trying to find out real world experince. Our house is very highly insulated and we could probably only heat at night in which case E7 would be useful, however heating at night could be more expensive if the air temperature is much lower.

I have a heat pump and from experience it's better to leave it ticking over 24/7 as they are not good at heating the house from cold.

Mine heats the whole house & all the hot water for approx 25-26kWh per day, costing me just over £3.00 with E.ON (even in this cold weather).

Cardew

With a heat pump your whole approach to heating must change.

Essentially they are fairly low output, but hopefully very efficient. So as Andy states above you need to have them running all the time. They are NOT switch off and On again when you want more heat.

So for a tariff just get the cheapest single rate tariff.

rogerblack

It can sometimes make sense to run heat pumps on E7.
But to do this, you need to oversize the heatpump by a factor of 3 and run it into a thermal store.
This is hard to make economically viable.

If the heatpump can heep the house warm on economy 7, and was not specified so, it's an extremely badly specified installation, as it's at least 4 times too large, and will have been at least twice as expensive.

Most homes will not have enough thermal mass that it's practical to do this anyway - if you heat them from (say) 18-25 overnight, they will have dropped back to 18 well before midnight!

wytco0

A bit more information
We have a smart meter fitted and are currently on the EON Energy Plan which is priced as follows:

Night units
6.185 pence per kWh
Day units up to 900 kWhs per year
27.972 pence
Day units
15.414 pence per kWh

This seems to be OK to me and having spent an hour or so looking at their other price plans I don't see anything much better.

Incidentally the house is very VERY highly insulated, and so far seems to be very easy to keep warm, that's without anyone living in it and with no other heat producing things like TVs computers etc in the house.

Hopefully I can use the smart meter to try and work out how we are using energy and then adjust the plan as required.

Cardew

wytco0 wrote: »

A bit more information
We have a smart meter fitted and are currently on the EON Energy Plan which is priced as follows:

Night units
6.185 pence per kWh
Day units up to 900 kWhs per year
27.972 pence
Day units
15.414 pence per kWh

This seems to be OK to me and having spent an hour or so looking at their other price plans I don't see anything much better.

Incidentally the house is very VERY highly insulated, and so far seems to be very easy to keep warm, that's without anyone living in it and with no other heat producing things like TVs computers etc in the house.

Hopefully I can use the smart meter to try and work out how we are using energy and then adjust the plan as required.

You can get a 24/7 single rate tariff for about 10p/kWh.

IMO for an ASHP that single rate tariff must be a better proposition - not to mention all the daytime consumption - cooker, fridge, etc etc which at the moment is costing you over 50% more than you could be paying.

wytco0

Cardew wrote: »

You can get a 24/7 single rate tariff for about 10p/kWh.

IMO for an ASHP that single rate tariff must be a better proposition - not to mention all the daytime consumption - cooker, fridge, etc etc which at the moment is costing you over 50% more than you could be paying.

Thanks Cardew. Yes that's much cheaper, I cant find any Eon tariffs like that and I understand I can't easily change from Eon because I have a smart meter.

If there is an Eon single rate low cost tariff could someone let me know what it is called. Its hard to find on other Eon tariffs on their web site as they only show the plans that they claim I can switch to.

Cardew

wytco0 wrote: »

Thanks Cardew. Yes that's much cheaper, I cant find any Eon tariffs like that and I understand I can't easily change from Eon because I have a smart meter.

If there is an Eon single rate low cost tariff could someone let me know what it is called. Its hard to find on other Eon tariffs on their web site as they only show the plans that they claim I can switch to.

Why does a smart meter tie you to E.on?

Prices vary in different parts of the country, but for my area(midlands) the cheapest is OVO with Tier 1 at 9.51p/kWh

The cheapest E.on tariff is 11.96p/kWh but you get an 8.33% discount(a month free) after a year. so approx 11p

wytco0

Cardew wrote: »

Why does a smart meter tie you to E.on?

Not sure but the guy who installed the meter said its more difficult to change?

Cardew wrote: »

The cheapest E.on tariff is 11.96p/kWh but you get an 8.33% discount(a month free) after a year. so approx 11p

Do you know what that EON tarrif is called I can then give them a call.