Revealed! Is Economy 7 right for you? New MSE guide

lstar337

mannie wrote: »

How do you check what times economy 7 works ?

Your best bet is to find out from your supplier what they think it should be, then check that against your meter.

Checking with the supplier first will save you standing staring at the meter for 24 hours. :D

Cardew

mannie wrote: »

How do you check what times economy 7 works ?

The times were set by the original electricity supplier, and remain the same regardless of who is supply electricity now.

Those customers with clocks for switching can find them slow or fast by several hours in some cases

The Economy 7 cheaper rate period will be 7 hours falling somewhere between the hours of 10pm and 8.30am. The time period in which your 7 hours will fall, varies between different areas of the country, the type of meter you have, and
may change at different times of the year; for example when the clocks change to British Summer Time (BST) and back in the autumn.

The best way to find out your exact Economy 7 hours is to look at your meter around the times shown on this map. As a supplier we do not have access to your exact off peak times.

[Deleted User]

mannie wrote: »

How do you check what times economy 7 works ?

you have to visably check yourself at the meter, do not rely on any supplier or distributor, they have no idea. On the old analogue meters there is a pointer at he bottom of the timer clock pointing to what time on the 24 hour clock it thinks it is. There is also a small window on the meter face which also indicates when low/normal is in operation.You can then observe the units advancing, and what time they start and stop. digital meters show a blinking curser/ or default to show the rate in progress / show the number 1 or 2, or maybe "rate now "is displayed. some digital meters dont give any indications so you will have to observe when one set of numbers start to advance

Jeeves

I'm in the West Minds and signed up to EDF's Eco 20:20 tariff a few years ago. It offers their standard tariff for most of the time except that all weekend and for 10 hours overnight (2100-0700 GMT or 2200-0800 BST) there's a 20% discount.

We maximize our use during these times with dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, oil-filled heaters etc. to minimize our use of LPG. Hot water is heated overnight and used for any washing machine cycles during the day as we're fortunate in having a machine that still allows a hot fill.

Even our robot lawnmower is prioritised to cut grass (or at least recharge) during off-peak hours and is supplemented by a conventional lawnmower powered by Li-ion batteries.

2/3 of our usage is off-peak so I think we're doing as well as we can, although I'm still unsure of the merits of heating water off-peak versus using LPG to do it.

I don't know if the tariff remains available but it "feels" like it works for us. Unfortunately there's no easy comparison as the tariff is unique (although vaguely similar to Economy 10), and no way of fixing to insure against short-term price rises.

Buzby

A pretty map - but nonsensical in my area - you are guaranteed with E7/White Meter a minimum of 7 hours OP. I receive 8.5hrs nightly - the map shows 10.5hrs - I wish!

Only the time clock will give you the clue with the meter confirming which register increments.