economy 7

petez3

Im currently on economy 7 and considering buying efficient electric radiators to replace old storage heaters. I have a number of questions.
How do I get rid of economy 7? does this require a new electric meter? Will I be able to get any change done free of charge?
My current electric supplier iScottish Power and my contract is up in July they have quoted £54 to change meter - would I be better waiting for my contract to end or better to change now?

Has anyone chosen new electric radiators is it worth changing from storage heaters?

Look forward to any advice thanks

macman

It's only worth it if you're happy to pay £250-300% more for your heating and hot water on standard rate tariff.
Some suppliers require a meter change to a single rate meter, others will total the two registers on an E7 meter . £50-60 is typical if they charge.
All electric heaters are 100% efficient, none are any more or any less efficient, old or new.

rogerblack

macman wrote: »

All electric heaters are 100% efficient, none are any more or any less efficient, old or new.

I will note that at the prices charged for some of these panel heaters, you can get a 2-500% efficient 'heater' (well, air-air heat-pump) or two.

One like this, for example. will provide 5.5kW of heat with 1.5kW of electrical input, and an air temperature of 7C, at a cost of around 4p/unit, which compares favorably with gas. (15p/unit electricity)

It costs £1000 or so, and per unit of heat output is considerably cheaper than even economy 7 in many cases.

However, this is a false comparison in many ways, as the proper price comparison is between wall-mounted panel heaters costing £80 or so per.

Richie-from-the-Boro

petez3 wrote: »

Im currently on economy 7 and considering buying efficient electric radiators to replace old storage heaters. I have a number of questions.
How do I get rid of economy 7? does this require a new electric meter? Will I be able to get any change done free of charge?
My current electric supplier iScottish Power and my contract is up in July they have quoted £54 to change meter - would I be better waiting for my contract to end or better to change now?

Has anyone chosen new electric radiators is it worth changing from storage heaters?

Look forward to any advice thanks

- what is / are "efficient electric radiators" ?, how do you define "efficient" ?
- are you in fact referring to German / Italian type infrared panel heaters ?

petez3

well im thinking about aluminium radiators with accurate thermostat and twin elements which I am led to believe provide 80% radiated heat.
Economy radiators promise great things but I guess they will only do that in sales literature.
Although I do get the promise of instant controlability as opposed to storage and they say storage on 7 hours per night but reckon radiators only using about 4 hours per day.

lstar337

petez3 wrote: »

well im thinking about aluminium radiators with accurate thermostat and twin elements which I am led to believe provide 80% radiated heat.
Economy radiators promise great things but I guess they will only do that in sales literature.
Although I do get the promise of instant controlability as opposed to storage and they say storage on 7 hours per night but reckon radiators only using about 4 hours per day.

To maintain the same level of heating, it will cost you more.

All you will get is greater control, but you will be paying for it.

You might want to look at Dimplex DuoHeat. They may offer the extra control you are after without moving away from storage/Eco7.

I think you will be much worse off if you go to a flat rate with panel heaters.

BTW, ignore panel heater efficiency claims. A £10 panel heater will do the same as a £1000 panel heater, except make you broke.

macman

petez3 wrote: »

well im thinking about aluminium radiators with accurate thermostat and twin elements which I am led to believe provide 80% radiated heat.
Economy radiators promise great things but I guess they will only do that in sales literature.
Although I do get the promise of instant controlability as opposed to storage and they say storage on 7 hours per night but reckon radiators only using about 4 hours per day.

You need to understand that, per kWh, all these heaters costs exactly the same to run for the same rated output, whether made of aluminium, steel, kryptonite, or filled with oil, water, or custard. They are all 100% efficient, regardless of age, materials, or construction. The rest is just marketing spiel, with no scientific basis whatsoever.
If you switch to standard rate you will pay about 12p per kWh as opposed to about 4p per kW on E7 cheap rate.
So you can run a storage heater for 7 hours (full on) for the same price as a convector for 2 hrs 20 mins.

Wywth

petez3 wrote: »

well im thinking about aluminium radiators with accurate thermostat and twin elements which I am led to believe provide 80% radiated heat.
Economy radiators promise great things but I guess they will only do that in sales literature.
Although I do get the promise of instant controlability as opposed to storage and they say storage on 7 hours per night but reckon radiators only using about 4 hours per day.

1kW of heat is 1 kW of heat

The only difference is on E7 1kWh costs about 50%-70% less during the low rate period than the equivilent single rate.

Get yourself some new dimplex storage heaters if the old ones need replacing at all.