Official MSE Economy 7 Guide discussion

Cardew

New storage heater will be no more efficient than your 1960's model. By that I mean they are both 100% efficient at producing heat from the consumption of xx kWh of electricity.


Where modern storage heaters are better is heat retention and control of the output.


Certainly if gas is available, and the cost of connecting a supply is reasonable, that would be the preferred option of most people, including myself. Rapid heating, huge output, the lowest running costs and will enhance the value of your property.


Renewable energy(I assume you mean solar) is nothing to do with heating - in the period when you need heating solar output could be zero, and of course it produces nothing at night.

jaybell

thank you for this homework. With the figures you noted, which supplier was this?

cagreen13

Thank you Cardew. When I mentioned renewable energy I was thinking of heat pumps. But they sound relatively new technology and I'm not convinced they'd provide the heat I'd need. I wondered if anyone else had replaced storage heaters sleigh heat pumps and had any experiences to share.

I also thought if I kept storage heaters solar panels might reduce the amount I have to pay on my day electric rate.

Benhoss

Evening all, we are with Eon on their economy 10 tariff & looking at switching to economy 7 to save money, we have had our storage heaters & emersion upgraded to the newer Dimplex Quantum ones by our landlord which they say are more efficient & only need 7 hours charge. But getting in a muddle at the mo trying to compare if this is the right thing to do ! Last year we used a total of 15,703kwh, of which 5,703 were day rate @16.9p/kWh & 10,164 were night rate@ 8.6p/kWh totalling £1911.00 . Standing charge is 16.4p/day. We have the newer 2 period meter fitted as opposed to the older 3 period. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. Ben

P.s Eon today quoted £64 to change meter from Eco 10 to 7.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Benhoss

Thought I'd pop on with a bit of information about your current meter and the Economy 7 you're looking at. Economy 10 meters are designed mainly for all electric properties with storage heaters and electric water immersion heaters. They give 10 hours of cheaper off peak electricity in each 24 hour period. This is split into 3 time slots during the afternoon, in the evening and at night.

Sounds like you've a later type of Economy 10 meter with only two registers - peak and off peak. With these types, the full 10 hours at the cheaper off peak rate cover all usage. This is a bit different from the older 3 rate versions where only 5 hours at night were for all usage. The other 5 hours, in the afternoon and evening, were for heating and hot water only.

Economy 7 meters are usually okay for storage heaters and electric water immersion heaters too. Here, though, all 7 hours are at night. There aren't any cheaper top ups in the afternoon and evening. In the past, a common complaint with Economy 7 was the storage heaters tended to leak heat and cool down too early leaving properties cold in the evenings. Economy10 was a way round this as the top ups helped properties stay warm throughout the day. Not up to speed with your new Dimplex Quantum system so unsure if this will be an issue or not. I'm sure some of the other posters with more knowledge of these bits of kit will be able to help more here.

Unlike Economy 7, we've only the one tariff available for Economy 10 customers. Also, Economy 10 isn't featured on our website or the independent comparison sites. You'll need to do a manual comparison but this won't be straightforward as you'll be looking at tariffs with 7 hours off peak at night compared with your current 10 hours split into three times of the day. There are more tariffs available, though, for Economy 7 meters. Both with us and with the other suppliers.

As with most multi-rate meters, to be cost effective, a significant amount of electricity needs to be used during the cheaper off peak hours. The actual amount will depend on the region, prices and usage.

One thing I always recommend to customers thinking of going from a specialist multi-rate meter like Economy 10 to a more conventional meter is to ask a qualified electrician to check over their system. Because of the way Economy 10 meters are wired into the heating/hot water circuits, changing the meter sometimes affects these services. This isn't always the case but it's something I like to make customers aware of just in case.

Can also confirm, changing a two rate Economy 10 to either a two rate Economy 7 or single rate meter currently costs £64.76.

Hope this is of some interest Benhoss. Let me know if you need any more information as happy to help.

Malc

Benhoss

Thanks for that Malc, food for thought. Have a slot booked for change of meter on 4th Dec but could well cancel this yet ! Other problem is EON keep changing our DD payments, they drop it down low after summer but them whack it right up high after winter, I can appreciate the winter bills are lot more but why won't they let us pay same all year round, on our last bill next years forecast spend is £1900.00 which equates to £158 per month but they insist in dropping it to £100 month during winter then over £200 during summer to cover winter bills but this higher figure is unmanageable for us. Would they accept £158 month all year round ??

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Morning Ben

Glad the information about the meter was of interest. With the Direct Debit, we do aim to spread the cost evenly over the year. It's based on current prices and usage over the past 12 months. Apart from the usual seasonal differences, has your usage been a bit inconsistent over the past 12 months? Thought it might help if I give you a bit of information about our Monthly Direct Debits as well as details of an online tool to help you keep on top of things.

The aim of these payment arrangements is to achieve as near as possible to a zero balance by the time of the annual review. To make sure we're on track for this, we review payments every quarter. If necessary, we'll only make changes at the mid-term and annual reviews. At the other times, we'll let you know if payments need to change but leave it up to you to make any adjustments. At the annual review, any credit balance over a fiver is automatically refunded. If there's a debit balance at this time, we'll include it in the new arrangement and spread it up to the next review.

One thing that will help is the 'Direct Debit Manager' on our website. Provided you've registered online, this gives you more control over the payments including being able to change the amount to better suit different circumstances. As long as the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, payments can be changed by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings. Before confirming the new amount, we'll let you know by how much we anticipate the account will be in credit/debit by the time of the annual review if payments are changed but usage doesn't alter as expected.

Hope this helps you take a bit more control over your payments Ben. Let me know if you need any more information or advice. Always happy to help.

Malc

Scrimpers

Please, please can anyone advise what the difference is between Scottish Power's Comfort Plus and Economy 7? I'm all electric in a non-gas supply area, and have got night storage heaters. I changed from a pre-payment meter to a credit meter when I moved into the property, requesting Economy 7 as my tariff but Scottish Power installed Comfort Plus meters. I have now made 3 separate phone calls to Scottish Power and spoken to maybe 7 or 8 customer advisers, NONE of which can explain what the difference is and whether I will be any better off with Comfort Plus or Economy 7. I know that I can't change my tariff from Scottish Power if I have Comfort Plus but is there any benefits whatsoever in having this tarriff. Help please!

Cardew

Patr100 wrote: »

Hi , I admin my mothers account on EOn for her due to illness. Her house has an old style separate low and normal dial for economy 7 which we do not take any advantage of at night.
Will Eon charge to change the meter to move her readings and billing over to a normal single all day rate? Surely even without a meter change , it is possible just to work it out by combining the two readings to get an all day unit reading if E7 is not applicable?

Some firms - including Eon - will aggregate the two meter readings and treat it as one total. e.g. 3,000kWh on peak rate and 1,000kWh on off-peak rate will be treated as 4,000kWh on a 'normal' 24/7 single rate.


So there is no need to change the meter.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Patr100

Looks like you've deleted your post but I can see Cardew's reply so thought I'd pop on to confirm, there's no need to change your mother's meter. As Cardew says, we can add the night and day usage together and charge as a single rate. If the account is registered with our website, you can do this online. If not, please contact us and we'll be happy to make the change for you.

Hope this helps.

Malc