Does economy 7 mean EVERY bit of electric is cheap during off peak?

annoye

Basically the same as the title question... if i have economy 7, will every socket and everything electrical in my house switch on to cheap electricity? I have two fuse boards... one has my heaters and hot water...the rest is all through the main board. So will only my second fuse board get benefit from cheap electric? Or will every electric I use on my main board be on the cheap rate too.

It appears that there is no power delivered to the fuse board that my water tank is connected to until economy 7 kicks in...So does this mean it's only that that will get the cheap rate?

FullForce

annoye wrote: »

Basically the same as the title question... if i have economy 7, will every socket and everything electrical in my house switch on to cheap electricity? I have two fuse boards... one has my heaters and hot water...the rest is all through the main board. So will only my second fuse board get benefit from cheap electric? Or will every electric I use on my main board be on the cheap rate too.

It appears that there is no power delivered to the fuse board that my water tank is connected to until economy 7 kicks in...So does this mean it's only that that will get the cheap rate?

With E7, you get 7 hours of low rate electricity every day. That indeed means all electricity used during the low rate period is charged at that low rate.

annoye

FullForce wrote: »

With E7, you get 7 hours of low rate electricity every day. That indeed means all electricity used during the low rate period is charged at that low rate.

So do you know why my fuse board doesn't recieve power until the night time rate is switched on? I just assumed it's because it had a separate feed in that only fed in when the night time was activated... which meant that feed would be the only one going through the night time rate meter reading.... if that makes sense?

seems a bit pointless having it only deliver power to that board during off peak hours if all electric is switched onto the night rate anyway? Why not just have it constantly fed? Then you can use It during night or day without it having to be wired into the main fuse board

molerat

The off peak fuse board is separately switched so you do not need to turn anything on, all the off peak devices will come on automatically during that period. Having them available during peak times could be very costly if you forgot to switch them off. Quite logical and sensible if you think about it.

Cardew

FullForce wrote: »

With E7, you get 7 hours of low rate electricity every day. That indeed means all electricity used during the low rate period is charged at that low rate.

Sorry, that is not correct for many properties.

Years ago many properties were wired so only storage heaters and the main immersion heater received cheap off-peak electricity for the 7 hours; all other electricity to sockets/lights etc is at peak rate 24/7. Exactly as the OP's property.

Later properties on Economy 7 had off-peak electricity, as you say, wired such that all electricity used during the 7 hours is at off-peak rates. That said we have received some posts stating their new build flats have reverted to the old system of only storage heaters and immersion heaters using off-peak rate electricity for 7 hours.

MeterMan

Annoye, If your electric meter has 4 cables going into it, then its all cheap between the set hours, If there are more than 4 cables, then its not all cheap.

annoye

MeterMan wrote: »

Annoye, If your electric meter has 4 cables going into it, then its all cheap between the set hours, If there are more than 4 cables, then its not all cheap.

This is my electrics....


hopefully the image works.. if not then the link is http://imgur.com/a/ekNhj

Raxiel

One way to find out, boil a kettle during the day and note which number moves. Then boil it again at night and check again (with as much other stuff, especially electric heating off at the same time), if it's the same dial, then only the off peak board is cheap, if the second dial moves your sockets are on the night rate too.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

here's the picture,

PaschalFun

Cardew wrote: »

Sorry, that is not correct for many properties.

Years ago many properties were wired so only storage heaters and the main immersion heater received cheap off-peak electricity for the 7 hours; all other electricity to sockets/lights etc is at peak rate 24/7. Exactly as the OP's property.

Later properties on Economy 7 had off-peak electricity, as you say, wired such that all electricity used during the 7 hours is at off-peak rates. That said we have received some posts stating their new build flats have reverted to the old system of only storage heaters and immersion heaters using off-peak rate electricity for 7 hours.

Sorry, but I do not agree with you at all. The post by FullForce is correct.

E7 is, and always has, supplied 7 hours of cheap electricity everyday, and all electricity used during that cheap rate period is charged at the low rate.

Whilst some properties on E7 have all circuits live at all times, others do indeed have a circuit or 2 that only becomes live during the off peak perid, for the reasons given by molerat.

What you have confusingly described is a legacy tariff. It is not Economy 7. Neither is it available to many properties. Only a relatively few properties actually are supplied on such a legacy tariff.
Only certain regions had such tariffs, and only the legacy supplier for the affected region is required to support the few remaining customers on such a legacy tariff.
(The reason I say 'confusingly', is that there is nothing to suggest the OP has such a legacy tariff, and as I said it is not that common - despite the number of user accounts on this site that claim they do have it that may suggest otherwise. The OP is clear in their thead title that they are asking about Economy 7)

In contrast, Economy 7 is available across the UK, and anyone on Economy 7 is able to choose any supplier they wish.

You can read more information in this useful MSE article on Economy 7
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/economy-7

dogshome

Hmmm - Mother-in Law lived in a bungalow that had old style ECO7

Her meter set-up had a Black standard meter for all power, other than that supplied to S/Rads and the hot water tank



The power for these was by seperate cables from the main supply box, which ran through a time clock, then on to a White meter and fuse box that fed a dedicated circuit for only the S/Rads & water tank

Early in my working career I was the bag carrier for a senior manager of a firm supplying the Eastern Electricity Board.
EB's head office had a large showroom dedicated to ECO7 sales, with a 'Come-on' to developers in that if they installed ECO7 and no Gas in a property, EB would install the Electric supply to the development for FREE.

The whole point was to create a market for Elec that power stations, because they could not simply shut down, were producing overnight and was cheap

EB certainly didn't want customers to have the ability to move their Elec consumption from Expensive Day to Cheap night, so hence the dedicated ECO7 circuits with hard wired outlets for S/Rads & Hot Water tanks