Economy 7 ?

moonpenny

Can someone tell me if it is cheaper to have economy 7 for both gas and electric or "normal" supply?
1 person in household and work normal 9 to 5 so no need to use gas and electric overnight.

dunstonh

You have to use around 33% of your electricity overnight for E7 to become cheaper (percentage varies with tariff but that is the ballpark average)

Talldave

I don't think there's such a thing as Economy 7 for gas.


For electricity, the break even point is coming down in the range of 20% night time consumption, but if you have "no need to use gas and electric overnight", then Economy 7 would be pointless.

Paenymion

If you switch to E7 you really have to think about how to maximise usage overnight and minimise it in the day. For example, electric storage heaters, and setting hot water to come on in the last hour of the offpeak period so that you can have some cheap hot water for the morning. Can even do washing/drying overnight.


Personally after having E7 I would not want it again and only keep it because my rented flat has storage heaters.

Neil_Jones

moonpenny wrote: »

Can someone tell me if it is cheaper to have economy 7 for both gas and electric or "normal" supply?
1 person in household and work normal 9 to 5 so no need to use gas and electric overnight.

Well strictly speaking you're not not using electricity over night anyway - fridge/freezer, phone charging, clock radio, mains powered smoke alarms/carbon monoxide detectors to name but four.

No such thing as "economy 7" for gas AFAIK but as a general rule if you have gas its significantly cheaper to heat with than Eco 7 can ever be, unless you're on some ridiculous gas tariff.

moonpenny

Thank you!
I have gas central heating and gas cooker so I take it that it is of little benefit to me to be on economy 7.
I am thinking of moving my energy from Scottish Power to BG.
Do you know if they would change the E7 to a normal supply and if so would it be done at the changeover?

cranford

Some electricity companies will add the two readings together on a single tariff so there is no need to change the meter. There was a thread on this 2 years back.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5608072/which-suppliers-allow-single-rate-elec-tariffs-on-dual-reading-economy-7-meter&highlight=economy+single+tariff

Pagett

I feel sure the OP has already seen this much more recent thread,
(as I am sure some of those responding her already have too!)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6002857/suppliers-installing-smart-meters-for-new-customers

But I've just posted on there indicating to someone who claims they have consistantly over the past 30years avoided E7, that they could save over 10% switching from their present provider to an E7 tariff with another provider, and they only use 21% off peak.

(It's actually only a £15 pa saving, about 3%, comparing like with like using the supplier I suggested )

Post#24 in particular of that thread

[Deleted User]

moonpenny wrote: »

Can someone tell me if it is cheaper to have economy 7 for both gas and electric or "normal" supply?
1 person in household and work normal 9 to 5 so no need to use gas and electric overnight.

Visit UKpower/Uswitch comparison site and try entering both Eco 7 and single rate tariffs to compare the two. Use your annual consumption kwhs for day and night and single rate billing and try different percentages of night to day rate usage. Even users who do not have storage heaters will use approx 15 % night rate in the cheap 7 hours. The comp site is the easiest to use, takes no more than 2 mins to run through the options. Note the total annual cost of both to compare.
You may be surprised to see that Eco 7 billing is the cheapest or there is little in it to choose.
Suppliers like Symbio and Yorkshire Energy are offering very good Eco 7 rates which have very close day/night tariffs.
That old maxim of 33% night rate usage required to make it pay is outdated old advice..Search the comp sites for the truth

Talldave

The break even point for my consumption with Yorkshire Energy is 15.5%.

Is there a comparison site that takes day/night readings, crunches the numbers for both E7 & non-E7 and highlights the better option? Even a "single rate would be cheaper" message would be useful.