Economy 7 to a standard meter

acon1234

Hi

I have just moved into a basement flat which is on economy 7. I have read online that you need to use around 40% of your energy at the off peak hours for E7 to make sense. I don’t believe I will use that much and I dont have a storage heater. The flat doesn’t use gas.

Should I change to a standard meter. If I do, will I need to ask the landlady for her permission? I was going to go with bulb as they were the cheapest on the comparison sites for me. Currently I am on the pervious tenants E-on standard tariff.

Thanks.

Talldave

acon1234 wrote: »

Hi

I have just moved into a basement flat which is on economy 7. I have read online that you need to use around 40% of your energy at the off peak hours for E7 to make sense. I don’t believe I will use that much and I dont have a storage heater. The flat doesn’t use gas.

Should I change to a standard meter. If I do, will I need to ask the landlady for her permission? I was going to go with bulb as they were the cheapest on the comparison sites for me. Currently I am on the pervious tenants E-on standard tariff.

Thanks.

You don't need to be on an E7 tariff just because you have an E7 meter. There are plenty of suppliers who will happily add your two readings together. A quick call to a supplier before trying to switch can confirm this.

The old days of 35/40% are gone. I'm in the middle of switching to Yorkshire Energy where the break even point for me (using 3600kWh per year) is 15.5%, which I meet easily even in a gas heating/hot water/hob home with no changes in consumption behaviour. Electric oven is the only big consumer, but always in daytime hours, as is washing machine. It's only the dishwasher that does some or all of its cycle on "night" units.

[Deleted User]

The 40% night rate usage to make Eco 7 pay may not be correct.
Times change and a couple of suppliers offer good day/night tariffs, aimed at non night storage heater users , which are pretty close to each other in pence per kwh rates..
Yorkshire Energy, Symbio and Bulb are worth checking out on UKpower.co.uk.. Try a few different ratios of night to day usage.
As a long term meter reader for 20 years I have been reading Eco 7 meters for occupiers who have gas heating and their night rate usage ( if the timerswitch is correct ) and its around 15 to 20% night rate use .
Timerswitches which have drifted out of synch with published times, that is the majority of meters , then the cheap rate will increase to a more favourable time. In BST if the timer is correct then the night rate lasts till 8.30 am in my area.
I have seen fairly modern digital Ampy Eco 7 meters switching over in meter rooms at any time from 8.30 to 12.30 pm and the old analogue meters with a 24 circular timeswitch the cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere in the 24 hr cycle.
Take the time to visit a comp site to compare Eco 7 with single rate tariffs first before asking suppliers to total the two