Economy 7 - is it worth it?

[Deleted User]

Everyone with an eco 7 meter needs to establish the exact switchover times of their meters. Only radio telemeters can be relied on to be accurate. most of the analogue timerswitches are well out of time and many of the meters with built in timer clocks ( ampy meters ) even they have drifted out an hour or two

2010

We use econ7 and our hours are between 1am and 8am.
We use the immersion heater, washing machine,electric fire before 8am (8 months of the year) plus the fridge and freezer running through these hours.

I would say 25% is probably the break even for most people but will give notbritishgas idea of comparing econ7/normal rate a try.

Certain companies will allow you to lump the two usage figures together at normal rate if you don`t want econ7 but not all.

HappyMJ

gph73 wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

I should have said that our water and c/h is gas.

In the last 12 months we used 4835 Kwh. 27% at the cheap rate.

Currently on EDF Blue + September 2013, E7.

That is a very high figure for a house with gas c/h and water...Your base load is around 600W/hour....even during the day rate. What do you have that is running during the day? Have you changed everything to be as economic as possible such as changing the lights to fluorescents or LED's. Do you have an electric shower? What's your gas consumption?

gyromain

It is not only analogue timeswitches that can be wrong. I have a radio telemeter that is 2 hours 10 minutes slow. My MIL has a radio telemeter where the 'night' period is between 08:45-15:45. It is important to check the actual time the meter switches.

Cardew

gph73 wrote: »

.

I should have said that our water and c/h is gas.

In the last 12 months we used 4835 Kwh. 27% at the cheap rate.

.

That is a very high figure for a house with gas c/h and water...Your base load is around 600W/hour....even during the day rate. What do you have that is running during the day? Have you changed everything to be as economic as possible such as changing the lights to fluorescents or LED's. Do you have an electric shower? What's your gas consumption?

People haven't mentioned on this thread that during BST Economy 7 finishes an hour later - 08:30 in my area.(I have a mechanical clock) so it is easy to put on washing, dryer etc in the morning.

On my tariff with Scottish Power the 'break even' point is around 20% and last year I used 24.4% without really trying.

gyromain

It is not only analogue timeswitches that can be wrong. I have a radio telemeter that is 2 hours 10 minutes slow. My MIL has a radio telemeter where the 'night' period is between 08:45-15:45. It is important to check the actual time the meter switches.

HappyMJ

gyromain wrote: »

It is not only analogue timeswitches that can be wrong. I have a radio telemeter that is 2 hours 10 minutes slow. My MIL has a radio telemeter where the 'night' period is between 08:45-15:45. It is important to check the actual time the meter switches.

How can a radio teleswitch be wrong? The switching times are set over the radio. Are you sure it's not a mechanical timeswitch.

Cardew

The correct switch time for my area is 00:30 to 07:30 GMT and 01:30 to 08:30 BST.

My clock is a little slow so it changes between 15 and 30 minutes later than those times.

notbritishgas

gph73 wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

I should have said that our water and c/h is gas.

In the last 12 months we used 4835 Kwh. 27% at the cheap rate.

Currently on EDF Blue + September 2013, E7.

Well I have put your figures into energyhelpline using my area (eastmidlands) and EDF blue Sep13.
Result is Normal tariff £695 per year.

E7 £705 per year, but for this I had to put in 25% night usage (you do not put in a figure just a % from a dropdown list.

So I would say that with the true 27% you are just better off on E7, but it is a close run thing.

But to echo what another has said, 4835 kwh per year is on the high side, average would be about 3200kwh.

2010

I`ve just put my figures into energyhelpline and even using 25% night rate, I`m still better off on Econ7.