Economy 7 uses

Kernel_Sanders

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't leave them on for disturbing as well.

Excuse me??

Torry_Quine

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Excuse me??

The noise is disturbing.;)

Ben84

teapackets wrote: »

Hello,

We have Economy 7 and currently use it do do all our washing, tumble drying and dishwasher(ing). I occasionally put the bread machine on overnight too.

I just wondered what other people use it for? (other than storage heating, we don't have that)

Thanks

Without storage heating, I'm doubtful that economy seven is likely to save you money? These tariffs do normally have a higher rate than the standard all day tariffs during the day, so you have to shift a large percentage of your electric use to the cheaper hours just to break even, let alone save money.

A._Badger

Ben84 wrote: »

Without storage heating, I'm doubtful that economy seven is likely to save you money? These tariffs do normally have a higher rate than the standard all day tariffs during the day, so you have to shift a large percentage of your electric use to the cheaper hours just to break even, let alone save money.

We have no storage heating and yet manage to be substantially ahead using E7.

I do tend to keep badger hours but the washing machine and dishwasher are both on in the less expensive (let's not call it 'cheap'!) period, as are the greenhouse fan heater etc.

I've checked the figures carefully and, believe me, its very doable.

grahamc2003

teapackets wrote: »

In the summer ours goes off at 8am, so whoever gets up first by 7am moves the washing across, and in the winter when it goes off at 7am, if no-one gets up in time it just waits and goes in the drier the next night, the wet washing doesn't smell at all nasty if left when the weather is cooler.

We actually use more electricity overnight than during the day!

We - well the wife - does the same. If there's time, the washing done overnight which finishes about 06:00 is put straight into the drier. No probs atm when our e7 ends at 08:30 (winter 07:30). If we, well she, misses the final e7 hours with not enough time to dry, then it simply stays in the drier which is set for the next night. One function our (newish) drier has is that it rotates the drum and blasts a bit of fresh air in for about 20 seconds every 2 hours when 'delay' is set, which must help to keep the wet wash fresh (although it isn't a problem anyhow). If the forecast is for sunny weather, then it gets dried outside.

I've measured the energy our drier uses, and was really surprised that it's only about 1kWh for well spun clothes - older ones I thought used much more. Ours is condensing, and since it's inside, all the energy is recovered as heat anyhow - we also run a dehumidifier when the drier is on, which also does two jobs - gets some water out the air while heating the room.

YoYoY

A._Badger wrote: »

We have no storage heating and yet manage to be substantially ahead using E7.

I do tend to keep badger hours but the washing machine and dishwasher are both on in the less expensive (let's not call it 'cheap'!) period, as are the greenhouse fan heater etc.

I've checked the figures carefully and, believe me, its very doable.

Yep, our house was built with gas central heating, but also came with an E7 meter.

I've kept a constant check over the years to ensure I'm getting the best deal on E7 and despite not taking any particular measures to maximise low rate usage, we have consistently never lost out by being on E7
(but I do think our switching clock is a few hours out which probably helps - we told the supplier but they were not interested)

Think about it, almost 1/3 of the day being supplied electricity at up to 70% off :beer:

It's not too hard to achieve a saving

It's quite a common and incorrect opinion posted on the gas & electric board that E7 is only beneficial for those who use a large percentage of their electricity overnight, but it's interesting to note that the majority of those who think this have no evidence to support such a claim.
Those of us who have actually bothered to compare the cost based on our own consumption have the evidence to prove savings are attained with E7 :j

Ben84

YoYoY wrote: »

Yep, our house was built with gas central heating, but also came with an E7 meter.

I've kept a constant check over the years to ensure I'm getting the best deal on E7 and despite not taking any particular measures to maximise low rate usage, we have consistently never lost out by being on E7
(but I do think our switching clock is a few hours out which probably helps - we told the supplier but they were not interested)

Think about it, almost 1/3 of the day being supplied electricity at up to 70% off :beer:

It's not too hard to achieve a saving

While the discount is significant, the problem is the time. I'm typically asleep for that entire time and even if I do stay up late for a bit, I won't ever be using the high wattage devices like a cooker, shower, iron, vacuum cleaner or washing machine at that time. Possibly a few table lamps and the TV at most. In fact, the only appliance I purposefully switch on at night is the electric blanket, which uses about as much as a light bulb. I'm not unusual either, the grid has an excess of energy during these hours as demand slumps greatly - which is why companies sell it cheaply on economy 7 tariffs to encourage people to use it.

YoYoY wrote: »

It's quite a common and incorrect opinion posted on the gas & electric board that E7 is only beneficial for those who use a large percentage of their electricity overnight, but it's interesting to note that the majority of those who think this have no evidence to support such a claim.
Those of us who have actually bothered to compare the cost based on our own consumption have the evidence to prove savings are attained with E7 :j

I have had economy 7 before. Tariffs vary, but I'm not just speculating, I did the maths and discovered you typically need to use about 30-40% of your electric demand in the cheaper hours to break even. Keep in mind this isn't just you have to use a fair bit of energy at night, it's actually all about the weighting of the day kWh to the night time kWh - so if you use energy intensive appliances at all during the day on the higher rate you're pushing the balance away from favourable. Personally, even with storage heaters and an immersion heater, my savings were borderline over a whole year as I do use quite a bit of electricity during the day. There are also quite a few months without needing heating, during which the immersion heater was the only notable energy user in our house during the low cost hours.

Anyway, I'm glad you're saving money with it and would like to know how, but my experience is that it's not that easy to save money with it.

Kernel_Sanders

grahamc2003 wrote: »

One function our (newish) drier has is that it rotates the drum and blasts a bit of fresh air in for about 20 seconds every 2 hours when 'delay' is set,

Do you have a plug-in meter to tell you the consumption during the idle periods? Probably recovered as heat, but this might be a bit of a waste during the non-heating season.

sophlowe45

I got rid of economy 7 and found my account went from debit to credit by quite a bit as they backdated it. So I am happy to be rid of it.

only thing on at night is the fridge freezer.

gill5blue

Hi,
I have E7, and found I do save. I run at night/early morning (using delay timers)
dishwasher
washing machine
tumble dryer
chargers for laptops
chargers for mobile phones

also to add
I now have renta roof solar panel, so my daytime use of electricity is either free or reduced.
I don't have E7 heating-it wasn't in the house when I bought it, I have a condensing boiler (just fyi)
My gas and electric bills I' m very happy with
Cheers