Economy 7 when you work from home

mamboboy

Just looking for some advice really. I live by myself in a really well insulated (energy efficiency rating of A) top floor 1 bedroom apartment. Electricity, no gas.

I work from home so am almost always here, apart from going out to stretch my legs a few times a week for an hour.

I've not long lived here, and am finding my bills a bit of a surprise, as I use next to no heating (perhaps 1-2 hours a week). Pretty much just use a laptop or PC through the day and then a TV a few hours in the evening. SSE have me at £60 a month, which may seem low to some , but for me, it sounds a lot given a previous flat I lived in - with terrible insulation where I'd need the heating on, was less in terms of bills. 

Now, I've noticed my day/night usage seem to be a 55/45 split. Would I be better off seeing if I can switch to a single rate tariff?

Has anyone else they works from home found another method that works well?

Gerry1

Why not just do the sums yourself?

Better still, just bung the annual kWh figures into Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' and get both single rate and E7 quotations?

Robin9

@mamboboy  £60 is probably low for an all electric flat.
Are they billing you on actual readings ?   Read your own meters and do some sums.

mamboboy

Yep, actual readings. I think it's too high personally given I don't put the heating on. Everyone below warms this apartment up for me. Currently 20c... so just right ha.

I'm just querying whether I should be paying a higher day time rate when I'm actually here all day now. It wasn't an issue before when I was out til gone 8pm.

I'm currently paying 19.121p per kWh in the day with SSE (and 12.737p per kWh at night)

I imagine it would just even out if I went to a standard tariff non-economy 7 though? Given the 55/45 day/night split....?

Gerry1

What's so hard about doing the sums? 

Robin9

As @Gerry1 said put those figures into a comparison site - using 100% on a single tariff and see if its cheaper. 

Do you have a full years consumption  - that 55/45 in winter will fall over a year to say 25 (night) /75 (day)

mamboboy

Gerry1 said:

What's so hard about doing the sums? 

 I'm probably just a bit lazy! I'll look at my last bill now see if it would be worth it to swap.

Also, from what I've read it can be tricky to go a standard non-economy tariff once you're on Economy 7 ?

Wish I'd never gone to SSE to be honest, I've tried calling them for advice but their customer support is mainly offshore and they don't seem to understand what I'm asking 😑

Gerry1

mamboboy said:

Gerry1 said:

What's so hard about doing the sums? 

Also, from what I've read it can be tricky to go a standard non-economy tariff once you're on Economy 7 ?

Many suppliers will happily bill you at single rate with E7 meters, but Bulb is one of the awkwards ones that won't.  However, they're unlikely to be the cheapest so it doesn't matter.

I trust that the immersion heater is only in use during the cheap rate period?

Robin9

@mamboboy Very roughly your average cost for this winter  month which is nearly a 50/50 split is 19.121p/ 2 and 12.737p/2 = 16.5.
Come summer with a 80/20 split is 19.121p/4*5 and 12.737p/5 = 18p.   Getting a single rate of about 14p should be no problem.

But the comparison sites will do that for you with a little bit of work on your behalf. Just make sure you use actual annual figures (not just one month) and take into account any exit charges.