British Gas E7 electricity

bisobella

PAYG E7 electricity vs single tariff.

property only supplied by electricity and currently on E7 with British Gas, trying to change suppliers but also unsure if we should switch to single tariff?

thank you

Robin9

About £80 a month is par for the course for your flat.

Give us your meter readings night and day from when you moved in please and we'll do a few sums.

Robin9

we do equally have fairly lengthy showers 

If you are both having 15 min (edit 16.15) showers every day then that's a good chunk of your bill -  £1 a day 

and use the storage rad not the oil filled

Talldave

Friends with knowledge are not always beneficial. The 30% figure was true in the 1990s. Last year I was on E7 with a break even point of 15% night time consumption so it's worth shopping around to see what's available.  If you used storage heaters you would use a larger chunk of night time consumption off peak over the year and the E7 economics would work out. Using heaters at peak rate is a bad idea. Being with British Gas is probably a bad idea as I bet both their peak and off peak rates exceed a cheaper supplier's single rate. Being on PAYG is probably a bad idea too.

Robin9

bisobella said:

I haven’t got any records for night and day since we moved, talking to other people in identical flats in the building they all say they don’t pay above £60 including using their storage heaters. Next door uses £1.10 per day and has his storage heater on all year round (he’s on boost) whilst I don’t expect it to be that low, it seems like it’s very high in comparison to neighbours etc. I spoke to a friend who was an auditor at eon and she said it works out you have to use more than 30% of your energy during these cheaper tariff times. We cook, shower, watch TV and do the washing outside of these times every day, so there’s no way we use 30% of our energy by having the fridge and WiFi plugged in and our phones on charge (which is all we use at night, everything else is off at the switch on the wall)

Where is your first bill then ? that has details  and you can read the meter today. If you don't have this info what did you give to OFM ?


PS Have a look at your online account - the info is all there.

Gerry1

Whatever makes you think you need to change the meter?? 

That would be a very bad move.  Many suppliers will happily just bill each register at the same single rate.

Consider being on single rate in the summer and changing to Economy 7 and using the storage heaters in the winter, then you could have the best of both worlds. Read the meter at least weekly, do the sums yourself and work out which is cheaper, noting that the day rate for E7 is usually a bit higher.  Ignore all projections and claims about savings.

E7 would also give you cheaper hot water, just make sure that the immersion heater only comes on during the cheap rate periods (dail 105 to check the times) and leave the daytime boost switch always off.  Switch to a credit meter, then start with Neon Reef (not shown on the CEC) and see whether you can beat their quotation.

Forget the duff info from your friends, and stop thinking in ££, start thinking in kWh from actual meter readings.  Knowledge is power.

Gerry1

bisobella said:

Gerry1 said:

Whatever makes you think you need to change the meter?? 

BG told us they have to switch the meter from a dual rate to a single rate meter for us to be on one tariff rather than E7?

They may be utterly clueless and / or trying to force you to get a smart meter.  Or perhaps BG are particularly backward and / or unhelpful and refuse to bill at single rate.  Escalate it until you find someone who knows.  It may help if you switch to a credit meter first, or perhaps switch supplier first, whatever it takes.  But basically once you've escaped from BG but kept an E7 meter, many suppliers will happily bill at single rate.

I've had an E7 credit meter for umpteen years; sometimes I have single rate, sometimes I have E7, it just depends which happens to be cheaper at the time.  My night use is only 22% but E7 can sometimes be cheaper and I wouldn't want to lose that flexibility although I have gas CH not storage heaters.  It would be madness to change the meter to E7, you could never use your storage heaters again.

And by guessing your consumption you're making every mistake in the book I'm afraid !  You have been taking meter readings, haven't you?

Get the facts, cut through the fog.

Robin9

bisobella said:

 If you don't have this info what did you give to OFM?

I used the “medium use” prediction which they say is for a 3 bed house with 3-5 occupants some being home during the day. 

Bad idea -  how on earth can you compare your situation with 2 people in a one bed flat with 3-5 people in a 3 bed !

There is no substitute for actual figures 

Richie-from-the-Boro

bisobella,

Budget:
Chuck the crystal ball of misinformation and others invented facts and get your own real personal facts from your own online account.  You get control by knowing how many kWh you use in a year divide the annual cost by 12, pay the same amount every month by DD and you have an annual budget that you understand.
Method;
I'm E7 credit meter, use 8500kWh per year. I self supply my own meter reads every 6 weeks, they try to put it up each winter time and down each summer time, I refuse and keep paying 1/12th annual cost per month. I use 70% on cheap night tariff and 30% on expensive day rate. I've done this for decades, never been in arrears and live in 21C winter comfort with 150 litres of leigionella safe bubbling hot water per day in a super well insulated PartL spec standard water cylinder. In 5 decades I've never used the (convection=bad=only warms ceilings) boost on the radiator and use only (radiated=good human) heat.

Get control, take charge, stop guessing, find yourfyour own real facts. Tell the good people on this sub forum what you need to know and they will help you. Kind regards.