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

Garf

I had E10 in my flat I rent. I changed to Single Rate Meter. Purely so I have a MUCH wider range of tarrifs to switch to (Duel Fuel).

EDF did it for free. I then switched to British Gas a day later!

Skools_Out

Garf wrote: »

I had E10 in my flat I rent. I changed to Single Rate Meter. Purely so I have a MUCH wider range of tarrifs to switch to (Duel Fuel).

EDF did it for free. I then switched to British Gas a day later!

Hello Garf, thank you for your post, I'm sure it will be of help to some

However, on the other hand, it does raise all sorts of questions.

e.g.

1. Why, when you have dual fuel, were you still on a legacy tariff?
(Sounds like a bit of a dodgy landlord you have there who only did half a job)

2. Presumably as you have dual fuel, you don't have the appliances to make best use of the old, legacy tariff anyway.

3. Even so, how does a tariff that charges the similar high rate 24/7 save you any money compared to one that offers 10 hours per day of really cheap electricity?

4. I see from an earlier post of yours, there has been dual fuel in your current property for at least 32 years!

5. Actually, how come as a tenant, you were left to sort out a replacement boiler when the old one died???
(Did I mention it sounds like you have a dodgy landlord?)

6. Bearing in mind you only rent the property, I trust you got the permission of the landlord (who sounds right dodgy anyway) in writing before changing the meter.

catalina66

Garf wrote: »

I had E10 in my flat I rent. I changed to Single Rate Meter. Purely so I have a MUCH wider range of tarrifs to switch to (Duel Fuel).

EDF did it for free. I then switched to British Gas a day later!

Glad you got a good deal. Me changing first to an E7 (away from the old dual meter/2 standing charges system) meant I was then free to move supplier, to Ovo, which is brilliant. With just having electricity, I'm finding the E10 hours really helpful, plus with being used to working with those hours already, it's easier to negotiate. Still first month's readings to take a look at, but will be posting back with month's usage.

catalina66

Skools_Out wrote: »

Hello Garf, thank you for your post, I'm sure it will be of help to some

Yes, definitely I'd agree that switching meter can open a lot of very positive doors. The old dual meter system was a bit of a rip off too, with the 2 standing charges. Personally, great to now have E10 rates and just one standing charge, plus a decent supplier in Ovo.

matelodave

You are concentrating on your tariff that's being used with the heating system that you've got at the moment - which is storage heaters and off peak hot water. They exclusively use off peak leccy.

An EcoDan is a heat pump which is completely different and you really do need to learn how to use it to optimise your comfort & consumption. I don't know how your system will be configured but my heatpump runs all day and turns down a bit at night so you might find that a dual rate tariff does not work everso well with it. We certainly would be a lot worse off with an off-peak tariff.

For optimum efficiency a heat pump runs at low temperature, increasing the flow temp or hot water temp will dramatically increase your running costs so they work best delivering background heat all the time - they are not good for a quick heat up in the mornings & evenings.

You really need to be monitoring your kwh usage (split into peak & off peak consumption) to see what happens when you get your new system installed as you'll probably find that your consumption at peak rates increases. just looking at cost wont give you a full picture.

I would recommend that you set up a spreadsheet and read your meters weekly recording both peak & off peak readings to get a better idea of when you use your electricity, it will help you determine which is the best tariff to be on.

You wont notice it much in the summer as you'll only be heating hot water and you can time it to heat during the off peak period. However in the winter you'll find a dramatic increase in your daytime use, especially if you are at home all day.

A lot of people have trouble with heat-pump systems because they don't learn how to use them properly and they end up with high energy costs and not getting the comfort they expect. Generally they have the radiator flow and hot water temperatures too high and expect it to work like a conventional boiler.

It took us a couple of winters before I got mine right and I helped with the design of my system.

My total energy consumption in summer is around 250-300kwh a month whereas it jumps to well over 1000kwh a month in Jan & Feb (it got up to 1500kwh in Jan 2013 when it was everso cold) - we average around 6500-7000kwh a year

peat

I had an wet electric heating system on economy 10 using about 16500 kwh per year at a ratio of about 85% off peak and 15% peak rate. I put in an ASHP and the annual consumption reduced to about 10,500kwh but because of the way ASHP's work the ratio of peak to off-peak changed to more or less 50%:50% which made any financial saving negligible - an expensive mistake!
I have since changed to a pellet boiler system which I am very happy with.

catalina66

matelodave wrote: »

An EcoDan is a heat pump which is completely different and you really do need to learn how to use it to optimise your comfort & consumption. I don't know how your system will be configured but my heatpump runs all day and turns down a bit at night so you might find that a dual rate tariff does not work everso well with it.

... in the winter you'll find a dramatic increase in your daytime use, especially if you are at home all day.

A lot of people have trouble with heat-pump systems because they don't learn how to use them properly and they end up with high energy costs and not getting the comfort they expect. Generally they have the radiator flow and hot water temperatures too high and expect it to work like a conventional boiler.

It took us a couple of winters before I got mine right and I helped with the design of my system.

My total energy consumption in summer is around 250-300kwh a month whereas it jumps to well over 1000kwh a month in Jan & Feb (it got up to 1500kwh in Jan 2013 when it was everso cold) - we average around 6500-7000kwh a year

Thanks matelodave. Am about to do readings, and look at the first feedback. Will post that. Appreciated your advice. I'm trying to run as few radiators as possible, and asked them to set it up to only heat hot water for 2 hours per day, during off-peak hours [rented (council) property]. I am in all the time (ill health), and have the remote with me to turn it down as much as pos, while waiting to see how cost pans out. Will just go and do the readings.

catalina66

peat wrote: »

I had an wet electric heating system on economy 10 using about 16500 kwh per year at a ratio of about 85% off peak and 15% peak rate. I put in an ASHP and the annual consumption reduced to about 10,500kwh but because of the way ASHP's work the ratio of peak to off-peak changed to more or less 50%:50% which made any financial saving negligible - an expensive mistake!
I have since changed to a pellet boiler system which I am very happy with.

sorry I'm not getting my head around this well (ill health) but I'm understanding you're saying E10 didn't balance out as well generally. I think the readings I've just done are possibly showing this to be the case. About to post.

matelodave

If your system is set up correctly with low temperature radiators then you'll probably find that it takes ages to warm the place, that's why they are better left idling gently.

If we turn ours down too low overnight then the house won't warm up until quite late in the afternoon. The first winter we had our unit we turned it right down whilst we went away in December and it took two days to get the house back up to temperature again.

Our thermoststats have a holiday function which allows us to turn the system down when we are away but I need to make sure that it turns back on an least 24 hours before we return home to make sure that the place is warm enough.

We also only have our hot water on for two hours but the temperature is fixed to 45 degrees which gives us more than sufficient hot water for the two of us but of course isn't as hot as most people are used to - we don't need to mix much cold water with it, even in the shower

catalina66

Hi, I've just taken the readings. I'm using one main radiator, kitchen/bathroom on very low. Everything else switched off, excepting that the boiler heats up water if necessary 2 hours a day. I'd asked them to not set it up to heat for 4 hours a day. tbh, I had the hot water switched off all the time when I had storage heaters, to save money, so even having the 2 hours feels odd, plus I worry it's costly.

Double the day cost, a third of the night cost. Would welcome any advice, as it looks to me like it's working out slightly more expensive at this point?