Economy 7 electricity - a bad choice?

Don_Smith

For over 30 years until recentlyI have had economy 7 electricity. I naively thought that the day rate was the same as the single tariff rate . My use was roughly two thirds day and one third night. I discovered that the single tariff rate was cheaper than the econ 7 day rate and my use of one third at night was not making my bill less than single tariff. It only pays to have econ 7 if you have a really heavy night use such as night storage heaters. What's really annoying is that the companies (BG dual fuel in my case) can see that a customer is on the wrong tariff but don't offer advice to correct the situation. In my case a BG contact pointed it out when we were discussing an unrelated problem - 30 years too late!! Cheers Don Smith

Cardew

The 'break even' point for E7(i.e. the percentage used on night cheap rate) varies by Company, their tariff, area of UK, and total amount you use; and has also varied over the years.
It has generally varied between 20% and 30%

I would have thought that if you do you sums you won't find using 33% on cheap rate will be much more expensive; in fact I would be surprised if it wasn't marginally cheaper to be on E7.

I was on E7 with BG and changed to a 'normal' tariff some years ago as the break even point was then 30%. Last time I looked this had dropped to 25% for my level of consumption.

Terrylw1

It's a good point highlighted here.

There is nothing stopping Suppliers adding such a function to their systems to produce reports to show customers that could be "looked after better" by a switch in tariff. Suppliers have always left it to the consumer to notice, however they do train their staff to understand when to advise a switch is best.

However, like any other business - until a competitor or the regulator forces the issue, they will continue to coin it on those that are less diligent with checking their consumption.

Some Suppliers have now improved their systems effectively to do this for other reasons, not for the customer and some always had this capability.

Now, remember even Energywatch highlightes Ofgem as being one of the reasons for poor Supplier billing. So, it hardly seems a well regulated industry even from the outside.

Someone should campaign for this to be mandatory. I have noticed posts where people have said they had been contacted by their Supplier for this reason so some may be trying to be pro-active.

The Government keep bleating on about "smart metering" to improve peoples understanding of their consumption but no-one seems to even give a thought to a quick consumption comparison that could be added to a Suppliers system to try to save money.

They have this built in to assess if your DD's pay for your consumption afterall...

But then, less money for the Suppliers...