Economy seven

matty17r

I have been on economy seven for a number of years and have read on here conflicting advice as to how much electric you need to use a night to make it viable. I use my dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, phones and laptops on charge at night and a few other little bits when it goes off at 8 am. in summertime. Well I have just had a letter from Eon and it says that as I have used more than 16per cent of my electric at night it has paid me to be on economy seven. This being the case surely more customers could benefit from it. This seems quite a low useage needed at night to make it pay.

flossy_splodge

I'm on economy 7 too and I always understood it was more of a 50/50 split that justified staying on that tariff.?

matty17r

Mabe you could ring your supplier - surely they should know. How do you manage to use 5o per cent at night, do you have an electric immersion heater or storage heaters?

Cardew

The 'break even' percentage varies by company, tariff and area of UK.

Even then the percentage changes every time prices go up.

The other aspect to be considered is that a low percentage to 'break even' on a particular tariff, doesn't mean it is the cheapest tariff.

e.g. the 16% of xxxxkWh on off-peak to break even with EON quoted by the OP might cost, say £500 pa. However the same xxxxkWh on a normal(non E7) tariff with another company might cost, say, £470.

[Deleted User]

I would urge everyone on economy 7 electric tariffs is to check their type of meter which is measuring their useage.If it is an older type mechanical meter the odds are that the timers are not correct, and to adjust their cheap rate useage to match whatever time the meter is on.Digital meters will be more or less correct

Terrylw1

It always used to be 70/30 but these days it tends to be closer to 76/24 but as Cardew says, its something to calculate for yourself to be sure.

If you monitor your consumption by taking readings over a standard week, you can work it out.

rogerblack

Terrylw1 wrote: »

It always used to be 70/30 but these days it tends to be closer to 76/24 but as Cardew says, its something to calculate for yourself to be sure.

If you monitor your consumption by taking readings over a standard week, you can work it out.

It will vary significantly in cost if you do, or do not take into account winter loads.

I've noted in the past that if you can find a supplier that will accept a standard tarrif without requiring you to change meters, then it may well work out cheaper to switch to an E7 tariff, then back to normal twice a year if you have E7 heating.

Something else to think about.

notbritishgas

matty17r wrote: »

I have been on economy seven for a number of years and have read on here conflicting advice as to how much electric you need to use a night to make it viable. I use my dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, phones and laptops on charge at night and a few other little bits when it goes off at 8 am. in summertime. Well I have just had a letter from Eon and it says that as I have used more than 16per cent of my electric at night it has paid me to be on economy seven. This being the case surely more customers could benefit from it. This seems quite a low useage needed at night to make it pay.

You can check this for yourself, either by using a calculator or more easily by using a comparison site like energyhelpline.

Go on the comparison site and firstly put in your annual kwh usage with your existing tariff as E7 with the 16% night use. This will then bring up the comparison but also give you your existing spend, make a note.

Then do that again but add together you day and night totals and enter the tariff as normal, check the existing spend and see which is cheaper. Make sure that you use equivalent tariff when doing the 2 comparisons.

Or you can post your annual consumption (split) and your tariff and someone will do it for you.

JethroUK

matty17r wrote: »

I have been on economy seven for a number of years and have read on here conflicting advice as to how much electric you need to use a night to make it viable. I use my dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, phones and laptops on charge at night and a few other little bits when it goes off at 8 am. in summertime. Well I have just had a letter from Eon and it says that as I have used more than 16per cent of my electric at night it has paid me to be on economy seven. This being the case surely more customers could benefit from it. This seems quite a low useage needed at night to make it pay.

I've been on E7 for about 30 years - and I do remember doing some sums about that time and deducing that just having the fridge/freezer on every night made it viable - maybe it's time to re-calculate but like you use all those gadgets at night (washer & dishwasher all on timer) + I have 8 lights on (6 outside & 2 inside) alllllllllll night every night

rogerblack

JethroUK wrote: »

just having the fridge/freezer on every night made it viable - maybe it's time to re-calculate but like you use all those gadgets at night (washer & dishwasher all on timer) + I have 8 lights on (6 outside & 2 inside) alllllllllll night every night

Modern fridges and freezers - if 'a' rated - may use very little power.
My (very large) chest freezer, and fridge together use 0.5kWh/day.

This is perhaps .2kWh at night - a pretty negligible amount.

I would suggest also you consider energy saving lights outside, and possibly in.
Even with quite expensive energy saving lights, these will pay off quite fast indeed if you're using them all night.

Cardew

To illustrate the complexity.

Take someone using 10,000kWh in an all electric house(Midlands)

The cheapest normal tariff(single rate) is with NPower @ £1,054

Next are Scottish Power @ £1,110

The 'break even' point using E7 for Scottish power is below 10% as using just 10% overnight costs £1,097 - a saving of £13. However still not as cheap as NPower on a normal single rate tariff.

Use just 10% on a NPower E7 tariff and the cost is £1,328 so £274 more than their single rate tariff.

You need to use 45% on cheap rate with NPower to break even.

So less than 10% with Scottish power to break even, 45% with NPower.

That is just for a specific consumption in the Midlands on today's date - appropriately April Fool's day!

Of course if you do have gas, it requires another set of calculations because the dual fuel discounts vary.

No 'one size fits all solution'!