Cheapest electricity rates and Storage heaters

Energy28

Hi
My tariff for economy 10 is going up to 13.5p cheap rate and 21.5p day rate. 
I have looked a little online, but just wondered how much the cheapest standard rate is? I'm wondering if its anywhere near 13.5p? 
This may not be possible, but with a cheaper 1 rate standard rate, I am thinking could it be possible to have my water and storage heaters on timers and benefit from the cheaper standard rate?
TIA for any pointers.

Gerry1

You should be able to find a single rate tariff that's close to your E10 cheap rate; start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.  However, it's still going to be expensive.

You'd probably be better off changing to E7 and upgrading your NSH capacity if necessary, although it all depends on whether you own or rent the property, how long you expect to stay there and whether you're at home all day.

coffeehound

Gerry1 said:

You'd probably be better off changing to E7 and upgrading your NSH capacity if necessary

Re changing from E10 to E7:  one way to go might be to retain the existing NSHs and supplement with one or more of the modern high heat retention heaters.  Then when the old NSHs begin to run out out heat in the afternoon or evening, the HHR heater(s) could automatically take over for the evening shift when they detect the temperature drop.  The old and new technologies should complement each other well in that respect.  Would avoid needing to replace all the existing NSHs or having to use peak-rate fill-in heating in the evening.  As always the numbers would need to be checked to see if the investment was worthwhile.

Energy28

Gerry1 and coffehound, we are going to upgrade our really old (25 year old) storage heaters for HHR ones.
On E7,will the heat last until the evening, and as our water is also heated on E10, if we switched to E7, is there a better water heater I should consider? I dont currently have  a boost feature.
Thanks

Gerry1

TL;DR: How long is a piece of string?  Size matters, if in doubt, get a bigger one.

The heat will last until the evening IF the heaters are correctly dimensioned.  The correct size will depend on the size of the room, the insulation, whether you are in Shetland or the Isles of Scilly, whether you like it temperate or torrid etc.

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Many HHR heaters have a built in convector that can be used if it gets too cold in the evenings but obviously this should be used very sparingly.

There's no point in changing the tank or immersion heater except in the unlikely event that the heater is so under powered that it will need more than seven hours to get a full tank,

You can check that by manually limiting it to seven hours on your existing E10 supply.  Just make sure that the heater is switched by the meter and also has a 24h supply with a local time limiter so that you can top it up at expensive day rates if you have been away or had a football team taking long showers.

You can also limit your existing NSHs to get an idea how they would behave with seven hours.  You might even find they would still work quite happily and don't need to be changed !

matelodave

An average tank of 150 litres with a 3kw immersion heater  will take around 3hours to heat from 10 to 60 degrees so an E7 tariff should be OK assuming that you aren't profligate with your hot water consumption. If you heat overnight and wake up with a tankful of nice hot water it should last you all day.

If you get up before 7am  then you can ablute during the off peak period and save even more.

Just don't fill big deep baths or stand in the shower for ages (get a flow restrictor or Eco shower head and limit your time to five minutes). Dont let hot water run down the sink and rinse stuff in cold water rather than hot. If needs be get a timer/boost switch but try to use what you've got rather than squandering it.

Bacman

Green Energy are worth a look:

ann_droid

Hi

Dunno.

E10  vs  E7

Both are two-rate meters, with peak and off-peak readings, but:

• Economy 7 gives you 7 hours off-peak electricity in a single block overnight.
• Economy 10 gives you 10 hours off-peak electricity in three blocks throughout the day and night.   This is useful if you want a boost in the afternoon or evening.

If you have storage heaters on E7 they tend to get too hot in the morning, and too cold at night.  Using E10 would keep them ‘topped up’ through the day.

The typical times for Economy 10 are:

Scotland:               04:30 – 07:30   (3hrs)    13:30 – 16:30   (3hrs)   20:30 – 00:30   (4hrs)

England & Wales:  00:00 – 05:00   (5hrs)   13:00 – 16:00   (3hrs)  20:00 – 22:00   (2hrs)

Swings and Roundabouts methinks. 

But to put washing machines and dishwashers etc on timers to work on off peak times is tempting.

So your lifestyle means you are probably best suited to make any choice necessary.

Gerry1

IIRC E10 is a legacy tariff that's being phased out; I'm nor sure whether it's even available for new supply.  Most suppliers don't offer it, it won't be competitive and you won't find it on comparison sites

E10 dates back to the 1970s when electricity was cheap as chips, and local authorities installed underfloor heating because it cost very little and tenants couldn't dent it.

It's really not worth bothering with E10, it's like trying to buy leaded petrol or a 405 line TV.  It's best forgotten.