Single rate meter vs Economy 7

lollol

Just had a visit from an inspector from Southern Electric checking my gas and electric meters.
He told me I am paying a lot more having economy 7 rates and I should call up and ask for a single rate meter.
Anyone have any knowledge about this.
TIA

lstar337

If you don't have economy 7 water heating or storage heaters, then E7 is probably not economical for you.

To tell you for sure, we would need your annual consumption figures for both peak and normal registers. (these should be on your annual statement from your supplier)

wavelets

lollol wrote: »

Just had a visit from an inspector from Southern Electric checking my gas and electric meters.
He told me I am paying a lot more having economy 7 rates and I should call up and ask for a single rate meter.
Anyone have any knowledge about this.
TIA

Use a comparison site to find the best deal for you.

Try to make more use of the half price or less electricity you currently have access to (without increasing overall consumption)

zomac

If you use less than 35-40% of your electricity at night, change to an unrestricted tariff. Using less than the 40% at night means your daytime usage will cost more and not financially viable to have the cheap (E7) rate.

Biscuit_Tin

zomac wrote: »

If you use less than 35-40% of your electricity at night, change to an unrestricted tariff. Using less than the 40% at night means your daytime usage will cost more and not financially viable to have the cheap (E7) rate.

Incorrect.

With so many variables you cannot make such a sweeping generalisation.

You have to, as previous posters indicate, calculate the specific answer using all the appropriate data. Use of a comparison site will make things simpler.

Cardew

zomac wrote: »

If you use less than 35-40% of your electricity at night, change to an unrestricted tariff. Using less than the 40% at night means your daytime usage will cost more and not financially viable to have the cheap (E7) rate.

I agree with the post above in that you cannot make such a sweeping statement. There is no 'one size fits all' answer.


Like the OP I have gas and Economy 7 electricity. I use about 25% electricity on cheap rate. At that level of consumption I am very slightly better off than with a single rate electricity tariff.


The situation is further complicated by the fact that some companies will not offer a single rate tariff if you have an E7 meter - other companies will aggregate the totals on each meter and treat as a single rate tariff.

macman

Agree with the last two posters.
To do a comp site search, once with single rate and once with E7 with your annual percentage kWh split, takes about two minutes and will reveal all. The viability depends wholly on region and annual usage.

lstar337

Also remember that if you find (via comp site) that E7 isn't working for you right now, it may be possible to make it work for you with a little extra effort.

Shifting usage to overnight will help make E7 worthwhile.

[Deleted User]

Also, if your eco 7 meter has an incorrectly set analogue timer switch you could be getting the cheap night rate in the middle of the evening. The suppliers have only just started taking any notice of these since "Which " magazine did a story on them

yangptangkipperbang

zomac wrote: »

If you use less than 35-40% of your electricity at night, change to an unrestricted tariff.

Rubbish ! The break even point on my tariff is about 20 %

iammumtoone

Good point raised by sacsquacco, first thing to do is check your meter to see when you are actually getting the cheap rate.

I am on E7 (unfortunately my meter timing is correct )I use as much electric at night as I can, washing machine, all phones etc get charged at night.