Official MSE Economy 7 Guide discussion

HappyMJ

loose*moose wrote: »

I have E7 and storage heaters. I have lived in my house for 12 years and as the years have gone by the storage heaters have come on earlier and earlier, at the moment they are 9.50pm BST and 8.50pm GMT. This suits me very well as I can get some use out of the heaters and cheap electricity in the evening!

I always assumed that all was well and I was still paying the cheap rate until I read the Moneysavingexpert email this evening which said make sure your timer is correct or you could be out of sync with the cheap 7 hours. I have looked online and can't find any satisfactory answer to this! I am pretty sure that the E7 in my house is not governed by a radio controlled switch, I think it is mechanical. I get a big clunk sound when the E7 comes on and the storage heater lights come on at the wall, as does the hot water. I can't turn them on any other time. I always assumed that this switch over then fed the meter the new (cheaper) rate which has nothing to do with the time set by the energy companies (12pm - 7am for example) as how would my meter know when the cheap rate was?!

If anyone can help with this I will be very grateful! I did ask the electric company years ago when I first noticed it, and they just said lucky me or words to that effect!! Thanks.

Lucky you....what help do you want? You've done your bit by notifying the electricity company now it's up to them to action it. You don't need to chase them. You will have a timeswitch that is a few hours out. Meter readers are supposed to look at it when reading your meter but many don't. It'll be fixed when they next exchange your meter.

Richie-from-the-Boro

glocal wrote: »

Thanks @Richie-from-the-Boro. I have no intention of interfering with the internals of the timeswitch but the point remains that as it is, it switches on at 2:15am and off at 9:30am. If that is a teleswitch, what does it tele-sync with? Because clearly it doesn't do what it is supposed to with significant cost implications. As far as I see, all I can do is convince the timeswitch it's 2:15am when in fact it is 00:30. Better ideas are welcome.

- that give or take almost nothing is 7 hours
- the actual point at which the cheap stuff kicks in [and stops] is the orange 'off peak' light - not the clock
- it is irrelevant anyway, all storage [water & space] will be charged long before the switch off point'
- so even if it was on, it would be drawing almost zero electricity .. .. !

ka55a62

Hi i am single living alone in a tiny 2 bed flat and have economy 7 which runs my 3 extremely old storage heaters and i am paying £116 per month for electricity and my flat is freezing. I have no hot water tank, just an equally ancient gas boiler and its costing me more to heat this house( even though it never gets warm) than my daughters 3 bed house. I have been offered a halogen heater but with it came the warning that its very expensive to use??/ does anyone have any experience of these??? Almost persuaded my landlady to install gas central heating because i thought i qualified for the free boiler offer but as usual, theres no common sense and i do not qualify! and unless i contribute the boiler i get no central heating. Any advice or tips would be great

Richie-from-the-Boro

ka55a62 wrote: »

Hi i am single living alone in a tiny 2 bed flat and have economy 7 which runs my 3 extremely old storage heaters and i am paying £116 per month for electricity and my flat is freezing. I have no hot water tank, just an equally ancient gas boiler and its costing me more to heat this house( even though it never gets warm) than my daughters 3 bed house. I have been offered a halogen heater but with it came the warning that its very expensive to use??/ does anyone have any experience of these??? Almost persuaded my landlady to install gas central heating because i thought i qualified for the free boiler offer but as usual, theres no common sense and i do not qualify! and unless i contribute the boiler i get no central heating. Any advice or tips would be great

- electricity tariff type ?

glocal

@loose*moose, what matters is that your heavier consumption occurs when the meter records at off-peak rate. In my experience, without teleswitches, the off-peak times suppliers advertise, when meters switch to off-peak, and when timers turn on off-peak consumption are three very different things. In my previous flat the meter was off by several hours and the heater timer was off again by several hours. The result was almost random and most tenants in that block had that arrangement for years without anyone noticing! You will have to monitor meter and timeswitch and see what they actually do and whether they are in sync. If they are and you are happy with the times, you don't need to do anything about it. You even notified the supplier.

loose*moose

Thanks for the replies! I was very happy with my arrangement until I read Martin's email which said "Always check exactly when your off-peak period begins and ends. The cheap periods on Economy 7 can vary between each supplier and by region. Off-peak usually starts at midnight and ends at 7am.

But even if you're on those hours, off-peak might start at slightly different times each day. For example, one night it might start at 12.05am, but another night it may begin at 12.15am. It should only vary by a few minutes though.
This happens because companies don't want all customers to turn appliances on at the same time, as it could overload the network, so they change the times.

Get your supplier to tell you when your meter switches from the pricey rate to the cheap, then confirm exactly when this happens by checking the meter" then he goes on to say to beware when the clocks change because the meter might be out of sync, so I had a sudden panic that although the electricity company had (unofficially) said it was OK that mine came on earlier than midnight, perhaps it was just because I was using lots of energy BEFORE the Economy 7 hours due to a dodgy timer, therefore paying more than I should which would suit them rather than me! Hope this all makes sense! I do think though that all is well and because I don't have a radio switch, my meter is controlling it all using the mechanical timer.

ka55a62

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

- electricity tariff type ?

economy 7, sorry

John_Pierpoint

ka55a62 wrote: »

Hi i am single living alone in a tiny 2 bed flat and have economy 7 which runs my 3 extremely old storage heaters and i am paying £116 per month for electricity and my flat is freezing. I have no hot water tank, just an equally ancient gas boiler and its costing me more to heat this house( even though it never gets warm) than my daughters 3 bed house. I have been offered a halogen heater but with it came the warning that its very expensive to use??/ does anyone have any experience of these??? Almost persuaded my landlady to install gas central heating because i thought i qualified for the free boiler offer but as usual, theres no common sense and i do not qualify! and unless i contribute the boiler i get no central heating. Any advice or tips would be great

When did you move into this rented property.

There have been changes relatively recently that mean tenants should be given proof of the security of their deposit and an Energy Performance Certificate so that the power bills are not too much of a shock.

Some case law suggests that when you assured short-hold tenancy comes to an end and becomes a monthly tenancy, then this should trigger the deposit and EPC legislation.

Perhaps your landlord does not realise the nasty shock that will be coming his way soon?

http://www.oldmillgroup.co.uk/pages/articles/view/new-legislation-affecting-all-landlords-from-2016/

Brallaqueen

I'm on Economy seven, but I have Gas Central Heating and as I live in a flat I do not use appliances overnight (dishwasher, washing machine). I do charge laptop mobile and kindle overnight and my night useage is higher than day useage but not sure this is enough to warrant staying in E7. I'm fixed until next year with Npower so will incur a charge.

not sure what to do!

HappyMJ

Brallaqueen wrote: »

I'm on Economy seven, but I have Gas Central Heating and as I live in a flat I do not use appliances overnight (dishwasher, washing machine). I do charge laptop mobile and kindle overnight and my night useage is higher than day useage but not sure this is enough to warrant staying in E7. I'm fixed until next year with Npower so will incur a charge.

not sure what to do!

Tell us (or figure it out for yourself) what your day usage is and what your night usage is...and what region you are in. Then enter the sum of the 2 figures on a comparison website. Does the figure presented differ much from the amount that it will cost you on E7. If it's less than 10% more it's not usually worth switching. You can time your boiler to heat the hot water during the E7 hours. That will save a little as electricity is used to pump the water from the boiler to the cylinder. (if you have a cylinder)...

However, you say your night usage is higher than your day usage. That's easily much cheaper than standard rate electricity....I'm not sure if what you typed is correct...it's normally the other way around if you have GCH.