economy 7

hesth

Can anyone help? I'm struggling to work out if I should get rid of economy 7. I'm coming to the end of my fixed tariff with Scottish power. They have said they won't charge to change to single tariff. My usage over last 12 months was 1044 for night, and 3067 for day. I don't have storage heaters or anything like that. All I use my economy 7 for is the dishwasher and washing machine (and tumble if desperate). It seems that I just don't use enough night electricity to make it worthwhile. Am I right in thinking this?
Thanks

Richie-from-the-Boro

hesth wrote: »

Can anyone help? I'm struggling to work out if I should get rid of economy 7. I'm coming to the end of my fixed tariff with Scottish power. They have said they won't charge to change to single tariff. My usage over last 12 months was 1044 for night, and 3067 for day. I don't have storage heaters or anything like that. All I use my economy 7 for is the dishwasher and washing machine (and tumble if desperate). It seems that I just don't use enough night electricity to make it worthwhile. Am I right in thinking this?
Thanks

- not strictly true is it
- your very major contribution from E7
- is a 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water

Generally you are correct, but have not taken into account the cost of replacing a 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water. If you were to use the same 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water at the core rate your costs would rise considerably.

Scrounger

hesth wrote: »

My usage over last 12 months was 1044 for night, and 3067 for day.

This works out at 25.4% E7 units so could be a borderline situation.

Run two quotes on a comparison site eg http://www.energyhelpline.com/:-

1. Select E7 with 25% night usage.

2. Select Standard

Enter your Annual consumption (which is 4111 kWH in both cases).

Compare the results.

Scrounger

HappyMJ

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

- not strictly true is it
- your very major contribution from E7
- is a 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water

Generally you are correct, but have not taken into account the cost of replacing a 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water. If you were to use the same 365 day endless supply of well insulated boiling water at the core rate your costs would rise considerably.

I'm assuming the OP has gas for hot water. There is no way 1,044kWh will give a years supply of hot water. It's normally a lot more without a gas boiler. It's probably the developer that installed the E7 meter. My house was built with a gas boiler, gas heater, gas cooking and gas heated hot water and an E7 meter was installed. Strange....

hesth

I really appreciate the responses. I hadn't thought about hot water. We don't have gas available, but we're on oil fired combi boiler so I don't think that affects the electricity too much.

I shall check the energy helpline.
Thanks again

macman

Run the 2 comp site checks as suggested in post 3-that will give you the answer in under a minute. 25% is borderline as already advised.
Bear in mind that coming off E7 may require a meter change, which if chargeable will cost you around £60.

dogshome

With an oil fired combi boiler there is no simple answer.
Oil fired boilers have a powerful Elec. pump to feed atomised oil into the boiler, so do use electricity and have a heat loss between the flame and the tap

An ECO7 Immersion heater heats the water directly, and a well insulated hot water tank of sufficient size can hold sufficient hot water for a days use.

Best to look at how much oil has been used over Summer when no heating was required, and compare it's cost to running an Immersion heater overnight, for say 5 hours

Bark01

Your supplier now has an obligation to tell you if you can save money by swapping from an EC7 tariff to a standard tariff. This form parts of the supplier cheapest deal message shown on the front page of your bill and annual statement. This only covers changes with the same supplier but if you would be better off on a standard meter with the same supplier you'll probably be better off on a standard meter with someone else.

In terms of cost you don't necessarily have to have a meter exchange to receive standard prices. Some suppliers utilise something called a 'totaliser' this just adds up the EC7 consumption and bills the whole lot at a standard rate. Its all handled at the suppliers end so you don't have to have anyone come to your house to set it up.

If you need a meter exchange its worth factoring the cost into a switch, for instance EDF don't charge for an EC7 to standard meter swap unless its hard to work on.