Can I escape Economy 7? Is it worth it?

Pleaseadvise

I have a large family and I'm spending a lot on electricity, even though the heating and hot water are on gas.
According to Southern Electric, last year we used

5369.94 kWh at the day rate and only
930.16 kWh at the night rate.

Yesterday I used energyhelpline.com, who say I could save £200 a year by switching to Co-operative Energy. But I'll still be on Economy 7, and I can't run any appliances at night because I have a horrible neighbour with insomnia who complained to the council.

How much does it cost to get a new meter? Would it be worth it?

toolmaker54

Have you checked with your current supplier do you need to have a new meter fitted, I am with british gas and like yourself was on E7 I told british gas I no longer needed E7 and all they do is combine the night and day readings, and bill me for one rate.

Wywth

Pleaseadvise wrote: »

I have a large family and I'm spending a lot on electricity, even though the heating and hot water are on gas.
According to Southern Electric, last year we used

5369.94 kWh at the day rate and only
930.16 kWh at the night rate.

Yesterday I used energyhelpline.com, who say I could save £200 a year by switching to Co-operative Energy. But I'll still be on Economy 7, and I can't run any appliances at night because I have a horrible neighbour with insomnia who complained to the council.

How much does it cost to get a new meter? Would it be worth it?

Contact your supplier. They will help you.

Some will simply put you on a single rate tariff if that is what you prefer, whilst others may need you to have a new meter.
Some will do this for free, or others may charge about £50.

I must say over 6000kWh of electric per year is a lot as you have gas - it's about twice the annual average. Cutting down your consumption will save you much more than any minor fiddling with tariffs. Talk to your supplier over how you could reduce consumption when you call them


Edit: you can use a comparison site to compare E7 and non E7 tariffs
e.g. for your usage in the Midlands supply region, electricity on a single rate would cost you £781 from the co-op (or even less from nPower) or £803 on E7.

Pleaseadvise

Thank you. I'll see if I can change tariff while leaving the same meter in, then.

It's the tumble drier that is really driving the usage up, I think. In the last year I haven't been able to dry outside much, and with 7 people there is a lot of washing. It's snowing heavily now, so no hanging outside today! I used to use the radiators for drying but I began to be worried about encouraging mould growth with condensation.

macman

14% night usage is never going to pay on E7. But a simple comp site check using that stat will tell you exactly what you will save anually by switching to a singe rate tariff. A meter change is not always required, but if it is and they won't do it free (just threaten to leave if they do), it's usually around £60.
As above, you need to address a consumption figure that's about 80% above the UK average. If the TD is the culprit and has to be used intensively, then a gas one is the way to go (White Knight).

Wywth

macman wrote: »

14% night usage is never going to pay on E7....A meter change is not always required, but if it is and they won't do it free (just threaten to leave if they do), ...

In the example I have already shown, it results in about £20 difference on a £800 bill (2.5%). Moving supplier could easily incur you in a higher cost than that.

Johannac

Have you thought about different ways of drying your washing? The old fashioned pulley maids are brilliant for getting things dry as heat rises, they are also tucked out of the way up on the ceiling.

Otherwise as people have mentioned you need to go on Uswitch and enter all your info and compare your cost for e7 or standard rate with different suppliers.

I had an E7 meter changed to a standard meter for free by Npower because I didn't have storage heaters and my electric bill was huge. I aske them to just combine the units on the meter and charge the standard rate, they refused, so I refused to pay for a new meter, they removed for free.

Rikki

You don't need a new meter. The two readings are just added together and taken as one for generating a bill.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Wywth wrote: »

In the example I have already shown, it results in about £20 difference on a £800 bill (2.5%). Moving supplier could easily incur you in a higher cost than that.

- using a timer on the dryer after midnight in the wet cold period would offset that figure
- using a timer on the dryer after midnight all 12 months would offset that figure and make E7 worthwhile
- 6000kWh pa suggests most of the use is on supplementary electric use or megga-excessive use of a tumble dryer

fed_up_and_stressed

Rikki wrote: »

You don't need a new meter. The two readings are just added together and taken as one for generating a bill.

Depends some suppliers will insist on a single rate meter. My friend had this situation e other week and a new meter was installed .Didn't cost her anything and to be honest she prefers it as there is less chance of wrong reads being taken.

Although you are correct culmative reads are added together i worked in energy billing for a utility company for a long time and did see mess ups from reads where just one read was given and incorrect bills generated.

macman

Wywth wrote: »

In the example I have already shown, it results in about £20 difference on a £800 bill (2.5%). Moving supplier could easily incur you in a higher cost than that.

A meter change would be £60 maximum. And may not be required anyway. So the worst case is that it would pay for itself in 3 years. And that assumes that the OP is on a competitive E7 tariff, which may not be so.