Is E7 worth it for our lifestyle?

ps2mint

Hi all,
We moved into our current house over a year ago and when we moved in it had a E7 meter installed. With our initial provider it was used as a standard meter but when we switched to Scottish power it was reverted back to a E7 meter. At night we sometimes put the dishwasher on and the washing machine but apart from that it's just the fridge and freezer and internet router etc just ticking along. Scottish power say that if we want a standard meter we will have to have one installed (strange that their new billing system does not allow an E7 meter to be used as a standard one.

Just wondering whether it would be worth us dropping E7 and going onto a standard meter in order to reduce costs?

We currently use 1502 KwH in the day a year and 367 kWH in the night
The day rate is currently 14.306p
The night rate is currently 7.589p

I'm hopeless at maths so don't really know how to compare!

Many thanks

House_Martin

Visit UKpower or Uswitch armed with a years usage of day and night kwhs. I think you will be surprised at how cheap the E7 rates are with Iresa Energy. Only a post code is needed for these comparison websites. Excellently laid out to compare the important kwh tariffs and standing charges
In my area, S.yorks, Iresa s Eco 7 tariffs are- day rate - 11.5p/kwh, night rate- 8p/kwh and standing charge is 21p a day.
You will struggle to find a single rate with most suppliers as low as 11.5p. Whatever your night to day percentage is will not make any difference, it will still beat single rate tariff. This is an electricity only tariff
.Some suppliers would need a dual fuel deal to beat their Eco 7 rates on electricity
Try and use the heavy use appliances in the cheap rate (1.30 to 8.30 am in BST ) tumble dryers, showers, ironing , dish washer to make the best use of the night rate to make the overall annual price even better.

[Deleted User]

@ps2mint

What you need to do is to compare prices twice (i would use the Citizens Advice Bureau site as you only put in the bare minimum of data to get a quote)
https://energycompare.citizensadvice.org.uk/

First time tell it you are E7 and input your yearly kWh into the day and night box. And get the results

Second time in a new tab, just tell it you are not on E7 and use Scottish Power standard tariff. Use the combined day and night value (1502+367 kWH) = 1869 kWh.

Now compare the prices in the 2 tabs and see which is cheaper for you.

EachPenny

ps2mint wrote: »

At night we sometimes put the dishwasher on and the washing machine but apart from that it's just the fridge and freezer and internet router etc just ticking along.

Before switching I would look at whether it is possible to move more consumption to night time - as HouseMartin mentions there are other potential 'night' usages (although personally I wouldn't run a tumble dryer if I was asleep). People often overlook their energy consumption close to the start and end of the E7 hours - for example a lot of people will be up having showers and making breakfast before E7 finishes each morning.

If you make it a habit that you (nearly) always run the dishwasher and washing machine overnight rather than daytime that will make a difference to your consumption.

Not everybody is willing to make that kind of lifestyle choice, and if you aren't then you'll need to look closely at the figures to see whether E7 can be made to be the cheapest option just by switching, if not, then you probably need to revert to single rate.

The other thing to check is that the E7 meter is actually working to the correct hours - if you have one with an old timer these can sometimes go out of sync so your cheap 7 hours might be in the daytime when there is nobody home. If that's the case then you need to get your timeclock adjusted, or adjust your energy use to suit the cheap hours

House_Martin

Good advice from EachPenny about checking the timer switch to see if it is anything like accurate.The old analogue ones are most likely to be way out with the 7 hrs cheap rate coming on at any time in the 24 hrs, which is good news.
Only Scottish Power seem to be interested in how accurate timer switches are and will change it if its more than 2 hours adrift
Older digital meters also drift a lot, my record is an Ampy meter time which was 4 hrs adrift and hence night rate was still active all morning to 12 am in BST.
Digital meters usually have a built in clock so you can compare real time to what the meters clock is set at. The more they drift means that the cheap rate will still be on after 9 am and later. Plenty of time to use dryers and washing machines.
Eco 7 meters at the moment seem to be good news with the low rates of some suppliers.
I wish I had one TBH

J_B

ps2mint wrote: »

(strange that their new billing system does not allow an E7 meter to be used as a standard one.

It makes me chuckle - we used to have an E7 meter (digital) which read 'day', 'night' and 'total'
But, when we went off E7 they couldn't take the 'total' reading (way too simple!) so we had to have a new meter ..... which is now one of the 'old fashioned' spinning disk ones!

ps2mint wrote: »

Just wondering whether it would be worth us dropping E7 and going onto a standard meter in order to reduce costs?

In our case it worked out cheaper and also we can now put the D/W, W/M and T/D on whenever we want.

Simples!

Flt._Lt._Biggles

ps2mint wrote: »

...I'm hopeless at maths ...

You don't need mathematics, just primary school artithmetic to work it out.

But even those who suffer the most severe form of Developmental Dyscalculia have no excuse today since the investions of Charles Babbage and his successors.
Who was he and what did he ever contribute to this world, you may wonder???

Flt._Lt._Biggles

11 months on, it appears the OP is still none the wiser...:cool:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5614412