Economy7 night storage heaters v Gas central heating

EachPenny

House_Martin wrote: »

You have a very good low period , that is good to make good use of the cheap period.At some time in the very near future your old analogue meter and its timerswitch , will be exchanged for a digital meter, smart or dumb, it does nt matter which.. Then the cheap rate will revert back to the dead of night, say 12.30am to 7.30 am as it is in my area.

House Martin makes a really good point there baroley.Although your shifts mean the exact hours you get cheap rate doesn't matter too much, having cheap rate until 10am is a positive advantage on the days you aren't working.

Assuming you don't already have a smart meter I'd suggest if you do get offered one you should politely decline - they aren't compulsory yet and as House Martin says, any meter swap is likely to give you less convenient cheap hours.

System

Op , even though you have the right to refuse a smart meter when your old analogue meter reaches it end they have the right to install another dumb meter..If you want to hang onto your old meter as long as possible just don t be in when a meter fitter comes knocking..They will then put yours on the back burner for 6 months and try again..You can last many years before they get really serious..

baroley

Ha! Thanks for the tips House Martin and EachPenny! I realise I am incredibly lucky with the low period and I was very surprised. If I keep the NS heating long term, I would certainly do all I could to keep it. I don't have a smart meter but some sort of mechanical dial contraption, which is easy to access, read and monitor.

I need to do more research on the Air conditioning and heat pump systems as I know nothing about them, thanks for the suggestions matelodave and Tiexen.

EachPenny

baroley wrote: »

I don't have a smart meter but some sort of mechanical dial contraption, which is easy to access, read and monitor.

I need to do more research on the Air conditioning and heat pump systems as I know nothing about them, thanks for the suggestions matelodave and Tiexen.

Just keep an eye on the meter and timeclock from time to time to make sure the cheap times haven't changed, sometimes the clocks go wrong.

As for the heat pump idea, some of the things you will need to look at include whether you are restricted on what you can install by your lease (or equivalent) - for example if the extenal unit has to be sited in a communal garden, or mounted on an external wall which you don't have the necessary rights to. Furthermore, there will be some noise associated with the heat pump and if you live in close proximity to neighbours (kind of assumed as it is a flat) then they may object to the noise. You should make sure they are happy before spending money, as their rights to peace and quiet may trump yours, even after you've had the system installed.

Hope it all works out well for you and you enjoy living in your warm cosy flat

scones

If you do end up suffering from the age-old Economy 7 problem of running out of heat by early evening, it's worth digging through your local electricity company's tariff information to see if they still offer alternative off-peak tariffs.

For example, in the old 'Manweb' area covering North Wales and Merseyside, the very useful "Twin Heat" tariff is still available from Scottish Power (as listed on their webpage here). That offers four hours of off-peak electricity night and three hours in the afternoon and results in a much more balanced and useful charging cycle for storage heaters.

I guess the other big suppliers may still have similar tariffs too, although they're probably only available from the traditional 'local' supplier in each area. You may have to dig through tariff information and be persistent to actually get switched to such a tariff as they're not actively promoted. (In my most recent communications with Scottish Power, it was an uphill battle to get them to believe anything other than a standard Economy 7 tariff existed - even though we'd been on Twin Heat for 20 years!)