cheaper to stay with E10 hours/plan with new heating system?

catalina66

Hi :-)

Having a new ecodan central heating system installed by the housing association [replaced storage heating system]. Am with Ovo (who are brilliant); had the previous £7 meter changed to an E10 last February. On Better Energy Fixed (all online), down to £49 a month now, which is great, plus I like that I can alter the DD amount/online features etc. A quick glance at standard tariffs seems to show a set payment far higher than I now pay. My usage is low.

Has anyone stayed on their E10 meter tariff while changing to a similar heating system, and found that's been the cheaper option? Before calling Ovo, I'd just like to have a better idea about things. Totally new to both the heating system and knowing which tariff would be cheapest, so would much appreciate any advice.

Thanks, Cat

lstar337

Heat pump systems usually like to be on for longer as the heat output is lower. I would think that a cheap single rate tariff would be better suited from a money saving point of view, but It completely depends on the rates you get.

I think you are going to need to post more information, and even then it will be hard for anybody here to say.

You may need to have a bit of a testing period to see how it works out. It should be easy to compare against single rate once to have your E10 usage figures.

macman

The major problem with E10 is that very few suppliers support it, just 2 of the Big 6, SSE and E.On I think. So E10 does not feature on any comp sites and your choice is limited.
I was certainly not aware that OVO did?

HappyMJ

catalina66 wrote: »

Hi :-)

Having a new ecodan central heating system installed by the housing association [replaced storage heating system]. Am with Ovo (who are brilliant); had the previous £7 meter changed to an E10 last February. On Better Energy Fixed (all online), down to £49 a month now, which is great, plus I like that I can alter the DD amount/online features etc. A quick glance at standard tariffs seems to show a set payment far higher than I now pay. My usage is low.

Has anyone stayed on their E10 meter tariff while changing to a similar heating system, and found that's been the cheaper option? Before calling Ovo, I'd just like to have a better idea about things. Totally new to both the heating system and knowing which tariff would be cheapest, so would much appreciate any advice.

Thanks, Cat

How low is low? My electricity bill is much lower and I'm not a low user.

E10 do not have any competitive tariffs.

You will just about always be better off on a standard tariff.

Put your usage details into a comparison site using the total of all the meter readings as your usage and do not select E7 and see what it comes back with.

Ovo has a 27.3p/day standing charge which is £8.30 per month. You say you're paying £49 per month which might get you 4,400kWh per year if my calculations and estimates are correct.

Putting that into a comparison site for my area and you can pay £40/month with the cheapest supplier with the same usage but on a standard tariff.

edit: ignore the savings figure as it will be wrong. You need to look at the monthly cost and manually compare.

macman

By coincidence there is a brief article in the April edn of Which? concerning E10. It lists the only suppliers of E10 as EDF, E.On,Good Energy, Green Energy UK, and SSE. This is based on a list compiled in January 2016.
As these tariffs do not appear on comp sites you would have to do a manual comparison against E7 or a single rate tariff.

catalina66

Thank you so much for all your responses.

I bit the bullet and thought I'd best ask Ovo what the cheapest standard rate is (10.92), and he then asked if usage is mostly at off-peak hours (yes). With it being a new and very economical system, spring coming, and my usage mostly off-peak, and having read your posts also, I think it is best to have a testing period first. Also, there'd be a charge for changing the meter, which I can't afford, so it's best to keep things as they are for now.

Yes, quite a coincidence about the article, and I was surprised to find that Ovo did E10. I called up really hoping I'd be lucky, as the E7 hours were meaning I was cold (but changing to the E7 meter had been the only way I could swap energy company, which I was desperate to do at that time). If I recall, they said that not many people requested it, but that they could provide it if requested, which was brilliant news.

I've just been able to reduce DD to £43 [no gas/property all electric], probably partly due to being very much in credit. My brain goes to mush when it's about kw/usage figures, but in my online Ovo details it shows usage for Feb was £3.11 a day [definitely at winter level!]. Really want to stay with Ovo, but need to see usage with the new heating system, and if I can get my head round the kw facts and figures, regarding the tariff.

Thank you again.

davietich

Hi, I had E10 with under floor heating , my supplier charged me around 12 pence per kWh (unit) on low rate electricity while the premium rate for the remaining 14 hours per day was over 18 pence per kWh. I had my meter replaced (free) by my supplier to a standard single rate and changed supplier through MSE and I now am paying 10 pence per unit 24/7.
Basically check your tariff prices for both and if like me you are paying in excess of 10 pence per kWh on low tariff then you will be massively better of on a standard meter. How much is your supplier quoting you for the meter change?

catalina66

davietich wrote: »

Hi, I had E10 with under floor heating , my supplier charged me around 12 pence per kWh (unit) on low rate electricity while the premium rate for the remaining 14 hours per day was over 18 pence per kWh. I had my meter replaced (free) by my supplier to a standard single rate and changed supplier through MSE and I now am paying 10 pence per unit 24/7.
Basically check your tariff prices for both and if like me you are paying in excess of 10 pence per kWh on low tariff then you will be massively better of on a standard meter. How much is your supplier quoting you for the meter change?

Hi davietich, thank you for your post, and those first rates your old energy supplier did were far too high! ... Ovo E10 is 12.32 kw peak, 6.83 off-peak. Glad you got your meter replaced free, and changed supplier. It was £57 something I've been quoted for the new meter, but he did offer that I could have a free smart meter instead and change the tariff via that (just remembered that, or I'd have posted it earlier; oops). I really don't have a head for maths, but am wondering if the lower Ovo E10 rates possibly average out similarly to a constant standard tariff rate of around 10?

davietich

That seems excellent rates from Ovo, I am sorry I never changed supplier a long time ago! I think at these rates I would persevere with the E10 and also try to do as much washing, tumble drying etc during the cheap rate times to take full advantage. My supplier in North Scotland last charged 7 pence per kWh about 15 years ago, we tend to get ripped off up north here!! Good luck and remember to submit readings regularly as you have a new heating system and it is a step into the unknown re. usage, don't want left with a nasty shock at year end. Regards Davie

lstar337

Those are very good E10 rates catalina, what is your standard charge though?

Are you 100% that you are on E10 and not E7? I don't mean to question you, but I have never heard OVO offer E10 and those rates are exceptional.

catalina66

lstar337 wrote: »

Those are very good E10 rates catalina, what is your standard charge though?

Are you 100% that you are on E10 and not E7? I don't mean to question you, but I have never heard OVO offer E10 and those rates are exceptional.

Hi Istar and thanks for your post. The standard charge is 27.40p/day. I'm not sure if that's good or not; might just balance out the very good day/night rates. Had to change from old double-meter system to E7 with horrible Eon, in order to then be able to swap to Ovo. Once with Ovo, I requested if they did E10, which they said they did; new meter fitted last Feb 19th, and got my 10 hours back. Here's a link where Ovo reference E10: https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/economy-10.html