Economy 7 - is it worth it?

Buzby

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.

Your Radio Switch is faulty. It is reset each night by syncing with BBC's LW transmissions. Get your supplier to correct it. Ours has been accurate to the millisecond for 23 years!

Broadwood

Cardew wrote: »

People haven't mentioned on this thread that during BST Economy 7 finishes an hour later - 08:30 in my area.

As I said in #5, my night rate is midnight til 7am GMT. That automatically becomes 1am til 8am BST during the summer months. I leave my immersion heater mechanical time switch on GMT all year and consequently don't change the on/off tabs either. Water comes on at 4am and goes off at 7am (all GMT). Same applies to the 3 panel heaters except we only plug them in when the weather is cold and even then they all have variable thermostats.

Does anyone know if these hybrid electric cars have chargers with timers to make use of cheap rate electricity only? Or can they be rigged up with a plug-in timer? Not sure how much current they draw. Maybe they are hard-wired into the mains with their own MCB.

HappyMJ

Broadwood wrote: »

As I said in #5, my night rate is midnight til 7am GMT. That automatically becomes 1am til 8am BST during the summer months. I leave my immersion heater mechanical time switch on GMT all year and consequently don't change the on/off tabs either. Water comes on at 4am and goes off at 7am (all GMT). Same applies to the 3 panel heaters except we only plug them in when the weather is cold and even then they all have variable thermostats.

Does anyone know if these hybrid electric cars have chargers with timers to make use of cheap rate electricity only? Or can they be rigged up with a plug-in timer? Not sure how much current they draw. Maybe they are hard-wired into the mains with their own MCB.

A plug in timer would not be able to handle the amperage. An electric car charging point is wired for 16 or 32 Amps. British Gas is also introducing a tariff which is suitable for electric cars where 20 hours per day are at a discount rate and the hours between 4pm and 8pm are charged at a premium.

Cardew

notbritishgas wrote: »

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.

.

You cannot just use EDF for comparison purposes.

For the last couple of years Scottish Power have been the best company for my area for an E7 tariff. However that could change tomorrow.


The break even point is around 20% on my tariff. With BG it is around 40%.

I went with SP(fixed price Nov 2014) because it was the overall best dual-fuel tariff at the time. However I agree that there wouldn't be a great deal of difference on that tariff between E7 and a normal 24/7 tariff, but SP do not aggregate readings of two meters.

shegar

marmitepotato wrote: »

I concur with broadwood, I just save loads with my e7 metre. All my washing and dish washing, is done on night rate. All the vacuuming and ironing also on night rate. I make my own bread and that also goes in the oven before 7am. This summer I had 8 kilos of blackcurrants which I turned into jam, all done before the metre clicks over to day rate. I don't have an immersion heater, nor do I have storage heaters. Some quarters my night consumption is about the same as my day comsumption, but about a third of the price. It's about what's right for you in the end OP. I know we would never change to an ordinary meter, it would cost us too much!

I asked my energy supplier if they I would save by having a E7 metre fitted, he asked what I would use at the cheap rate if it were fitted , I said washing machine few times a week, maybe the iron, but he said I wouldnt save on having it fitted ............

I dont think you had much of a saving by making 8 kilos of jam on night rate , but I could be wrong........I would say by having storage heaters would definately be a saving , or maybe a tumble dryer, but really wouldnt have thought there would be a great advantage without those items being used.........

Any case id rather be a sleep of a night , if it cost me a £1 per week more than that so be it..........:)

marmitepotato

A kilo of jam takes an hour at at time. Eight kilos = eight hours with the hot plate on full blast. How could I not make a saving?

HappyMJ

marmitepotato wrote: »

A kilo of jam takes an hour at at time. Eight kilos = eight hours with the hot plate on full blast. How could I not make a saving?

Why don't you use gas? That would cost less than night rate electricity and you could use it at any time.

John_Pierpoint

Your gas boiler won't be giving "condensing boiler" efficiency when only doing hot water in the summer.

Up to now Electricity generation has been a horribly inefficient way of sistributing heat.
Only about 33% of the total has been getting down the wires, the rest has been going up the cooling towers, into the local river and warming the toes of the birds sitting on the wires and transformers.

In the small hours of the morning you are probably using nuclear electricity and though the reactors can be turned down, they cannot be turned off. Originally subsidised as bomb factories, the present subsidy for this power is a very murky outlook.

What ever your choice, you would be well advised to look at your life style and your insulation for savings in consumption.

It really does not change your quality of life to avoid excessive use, or to time some activities to times when power is cheap or "free". The choice is yours.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2955406
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4730814

shegar

marmitepotato wrote: »

A kilo of jam takes an hour at at time. Eight kilos = eight hours with the hot plate on full blast. How could I not make a saving?

I dont know how much a hot plate would cost to run on number 5 for 8 hours electric,? Ive got gas , so tend to forget about electric prices with cookers/ovens......I expect one of our regulars on here will know .......

gph73

HappyMJ wrote: »

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?

Gas was 9100 Kwh last year. Our bills have risen in the last 12 months. During this time we had a baby, so we've been running the washer and dryer a lot more than we had previously, and we had to use an electric radiator during the cold spell - although most of this would have been on the cheap rate.

The shower runs off the gas combi boiler.

Our hob (convection) and oven are both electric, 2 years old and supposedly efficient.

Can't think what we might be using that's chewing up all this electricity. I had assumed it was the washer and dryer, but switching more of their usage to the cheap rate doesnt seem to have had such a big impact.