Electric Storage Heaters - Best Economy 7 tariff?

kellyt86

Dear All,

I am currrently buying a house which only has electric... no gas connection.

It has electric storage heaters so I need econmy 7, right?

Any recommendations? Currently the vendor is with British Gas.

Cardew

Certainly for some while Scottish power has had the cheapest Economy 7 tariffs - but the situation can change

All you need to do is estimate consumption for your property and use a comparison website.

It is very easy to change the total kWh used and the percentage on off-peak. If you use permutations a pattern will emerge; say 15,000kWh with 50% off-peak - then 60% - 40% etc etc.

Then do the same with, say, 17,000kWh

MillicentBystander

Try and choose the cheapest one without exit fees (in the case of npower that would be an exit fee AND an annual discount payable in arrears!) so you can switch freely should your initial estimations on consumption prove incorrect.

kellyt86

Thank you both! Very helpful! :-)

Richie-from-the-Boro

kellyt86 wrote: »

Dear All,

I am currently buying a house which only has electric... no gas connection.

It has electric storage heaters so I need economy 7, right?

Any recommendations? Currently the vendor is with British Gas.

- cheapest is likely to be SP
- its unlikely to be BG

You are on a 'deemed tariff' when you move in - meaning BG is already legally your supplier. You need to record you meter readings, make immediate contact with BG and confirm [and check] your readings. And then change or not change your existing legal 'deemed supplier'

rogerblack

On a related matter - '4 tarrifs per fuel' - is economy 7/10 a 'fuel' - or does this mean for providers with economy 7 and economy 10, as well as normal electricity that they only have 4 tariffs to spread over3 lines?

Richie-from-the-Boro

rogerblack wrote: »

On a related matter - '4 tarrifs per fuel' - is economy 7/10 a 'fuel' - or does this mean for providers with economy 7 and economy 10, as well as normal electricity that they only have 4 tariffs to spread over3 lines?

My understanding is that Ofgem proposes an absolute maximum limit of four core tariffs for each fuel, ie, :

- 8 options on a menu
- 4 for gas
- 4 for leccy

Other parts of the meal for example (1) dual fuel a + discount and (2) early leavers a - penalty payment method, online account management, and dual fuel – with these choices (and the associated discounts or surcharges) presented in a standard, easy-to-compare way.

For myself I fail to see how an absolute maximum limit of one single core tariff can't be used. For example a kW of gas or one of leccy delivered to your postcode. The needs of E7 & the known by many names E10 tariff can be accommodated after the single core tariff is selected, ditto the delivery of gas. I'd like t see the big six forced to display a flat single kW delivery core price.



Consumers, 90% of whom just want the cheapest kW delivered to their door would be able to see at a glance which has the cheapest, and click on it.

Roger, the domestic, and separately the non-domestic

Annual domestic data sets here

Their proposed new look billing will look something like this for example :

Wywth

kellyt86 wrote: »

Dear All,

I am currrently buying a house which only has electric... no gas connection.

It has electric storage heaters so I need econmy 7, right?

Any recommendations? Currently the vendor is with British Gas.

You'l need to first register with the existing supplier to the property.

Then use a comparison site to find the best deal for you
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

matelodave

As said above, you can start doing some comparisons before you move in making your own estimations of what you think you might use and juggling your day/night percentages. You can then see what tariff BG put you on when you move in and yoiu'll be in a fairly good position to start the switch as soon as you are ready.

You should also read the meter(s) (once a week is ideal) so you can see how much you are using at each rate to see what you can do to move as much of your usage onto the overnight tariff (ie heat your water and do your washing/drying overnight) using timers if necessary.

It's also worth making sure that you've got two rate meter that allows other stuff to use the night rates (some installations only have the storage heaters on the night tariff) otherwise you ca'nt optimise your useage onto the cheapest rate

We are all electric (heating, cooking hot water etc). When we moved in we had a pre-payment meter with night storage heating and we had to get it changed for a two rate credit meter with the existing supplier - took a week, we then got it reprogrammed as a single rate meter - took another week or so then we changed supplier (about 5 weeks), we stripped out the storage heaters and put in a heat pump - it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Our usage doesn't lend it'self to economy 7 as the heat pump runs almost continuously in the winter and slows down overnight when leccy is cheap - our total electric consumption is appprox 8500kw a year