economy 7 check your times

palman

Well after getting a hefty bill from Scottish power i did a bit of research and after many years with SP i moved onto Shell Energy. Only to find out this morning that after being told initially that the off peak hours were the same in my case with SP 1-8am all year round, i then find out its 12.15- 7.15am, so much for having a late shower. The washer and dryer are all on timers. But hers the kicker, during the winter months when its darker and you stay in bed longer, the hours are 11.15pm - 6.15am. Talk about giving with one hand and taking with another. I just i'd post this up to share with everyone so you can check your economy 7 times. I was thinking of moving to Bulb but theres is 12-7am but i dunno yet if thats all year round. The problem is their standing charges are on par with what i was paying at SP

Neil_Jones

On a lot of meters the off-peak timer does drift, particularly the older mechanical ones, so your 7hrs off-peak could be literally anywhere during the day and not rock solid fixed at midnight-7am. However in most cases it will be around that time.

palman

indeed but mine is a new digital one, just seems to be a give with one hand and take with another on the part of Shell, ok have it 12.15 to 7.15 but keep it at that, when its winter everything is on more anyway. hence my comment

Carrot007

palman wrote: »

indeed but mine is a new digital one, just seems to be a give with one hand and take with another on the part of Shell, ok have it 12.15 to 7.15 but keep it at that, when its winter everything is on more anyway. hence my comment

The meters (all timeswitched ones) stay at the same time. We however change the clocks.


Only the old teleswitched ones they are trying to get rid of changed.


Since smart meters are essentially a computer there is no reason they could not change like your compuiter does. But AFAIK this was not even considered.

Flt._Lt._Biggles

palman wrote: »

Well after getting a hefty bill from Scottish power i did a bit of research and after many years with SP i moved onto Shell Energy. Only to find out this morning that after being told initially that the off peak hours were the same in my case with SP 1-8am all year round, i then find out its 1.15- 7.15am, so much for having a late shower. The washer and dryer are all on timers. But hers the kicker, during the winter months when its darker and you stay in bed longer, the hours are 11.15pm - 6.15am. Talk about giving with one hand and taking with another. I just i'd post this up to share with everyone so you can check your economy 7 times. I was thinking of moving to Bulb but theres is 12-7am but i dunno yet if thats all year round. The problem is their standing charges are on par with what i was paying at SP

You've just found out its 1.15- 7.15am?
That would make it Economy 6. Don't know any supplier that offers that.

Btw, when you change supplier, it doesn't change the times of off peak hours - that's controlled by the meter

IainRae

Having today sent my meter readings to E-on. Somehow I wondered when my "Economy 7" hours were - About a million years ago when I first got Economy 7 I seem to remember being told that the switching time was controlled by a radio signal - anyway I have spent about 1/2 an hour on the 'phone to E-on and was told my hours are now BST 01:30 -08:30 and that the hours are set in the meter.


But is this correct? I was not convinced so I went to the internet where maybe, maybe I should have started. Of course I am now even more confused. The internet seems to suggest that different suppliers have different hours - but surely this would be impossible with the hours set in the actual meter? My meter along with my neighbours was probably originally installed by Seeboard but now we buy electricity from many different suppliers so do we all have the same hours for Economy 7?


Or was the radio signal story true? Certainly the guy at E-on did not believe my radio signal story, so maybe that was just my fantasy.


The internet suggested the hours could be on the meter itself - No sign when I checked but curiously I noticed that the time on the meter was about 2 hours and 10 minutes behind BST so this must mean that MY Economy7 hours are something like 02:40 - 09:40. Would they come and adjust the clock?

coffeehound

From posts on here, apparently some dual-rate systems do keep the same switching times despite the DST changes. But most do effectively shift an hour as you suggest.

The first thing to do with a dual rate meter is to actually watch when the rate changes occur (for both GMT and BST). Never trust the energy co to tell you; they simply don’t know.

palman

don't worry i will be doing that in the morning

Carrot007

IainRae wrote: »

The internet seems to suggest that different suppliers have different hours

Nope. It's all on the area you live in.


Also areas can have many(many many) different times.


E7 can also be provided with split times (and hour or two on peak in the midele of the night) (this is legacy and not given to new customers I believe).



Scotland get 8.5 Hours (or a supposedly a preset ammount depending on the weather on teleswitched).

Gloomendoom

Ours has remained at 1-8 am for 20 years despite several changes of supplier over the years including E-on. Radio switch.

There is a loud click when it changes.

Flt._Lt._Biggles

Carrot007 wrote: »

Nope. It's all on the area you live in.


Also areas can have many(many many) different times.


E7 can also be provided with split times (and hour or two on peak in the midele of the night) (this is legacy and not given to new customers I believe).

There is one region that has the 7 hours of cheap rate split into two (a 2 hour and a 5 hour). IIirc, that's one of the two Scottish regions
I wasn't aware that it had changed for new customers, but you may be right on that.

Carrot007 wrote: »

Scotland get 8.5 Hours (or a supposedly a preset ammount depending on the weather on teleswitched).

That's not Economy 7
Economy 7 allows for 7 hours of low rate electricity per day, as the name implies.