Economy 7 - Price Cap Questions

IC1

Hi, I was wondering if anybody could offer an insight into what (if any) are the Day / Night price caps (if you are on a E7 tariff).  
I understand that the Price Cap (standard Tariff) will be circa 48p/kWh.  
I was put on EON NextFlex after my previous energy supplier fell by the wayside.  
I am currently paying 23.78p/kWh (Day) and 12.55p/kWh (Night) and 23.85p/day (Standing Charge); this will change to 32.55p/kWh (Day) and 17.181p/kWh (Night) and 44.836p/day (Standing Charge).  
To equate to the price cap (48p/kWh), I can only assume that the assumption is that I will use 50% of the energy during the night, would this be correct ?
As I nominally use around 33% energy during the night, can I change to a non-E7 rate without losing the price cap protection ?
Thanks.
Ian

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

The price cap for E7 is based on the average price per kWh paid by Ofgem's "typical" customer. As a result it's not possible to quote exact numbers; a supplier might set a higher day rate and a lower night rate, or the two might be closer together.

There's an illustration with more details in this post.

33% at the night rate is a bit low, but still usually sufficient that it's worth being on E7.

IC1 said:

I understand that the Price Cap (standard Tariff) will be circa 48p/kWh. 

More like 28p/kWh, but it varies by region; see this post.

MWT

The cap for a multi-rate tariff assumes 58% day, 42% night rate.

Most suppliers will allow you to change to a single rate tariff, and yes that would still be capped if you are on the standard variable rate. 

Do check the calculations using you split of day/night use as it may still be cheaper for you to remain on E7 even if you are not using 42% at night...

QrizB

IC1 said:

I am currently paying 23.78p/kWh (Day) and 12.55p/kWh (Night) and 23.85p/day (Standing Charge); this will change to 32.55p/kWh (Day) and 17.181p/kWh (Night) and 44.836p/day (Standing Charge). 

If using 33% at night, your effective price per kWh is currently 20.07p/kWh and it will be changing to 27.48p/kWh; still cheaper than the single-rate cap.

EssexHebridean

Is there any of your usual usage you can make on the night rate instead, perhaps, which will in turn make better use of your current E7 rate? 

suspiciousbrain

Just adding my figures in here if anyone finds it useful. I'm considering moving to a single meter - assume I'd only have one standing charge to pay? We're all electric, can't get gas where we are. Storage heaters, electric showers, etc.
Use 12,000 kwh per year - average about 33% during the Econ7 hours. And still normally cold as we hardly use heating.
Standard: 19.42p x kwh, 23.76 SC
Economy 7: 17.666 x kwh, 23.77 SC
Bill is expected to go up £1000 per annum from next month.

QrizB

suspiciousbrain said:

Just adding my figures in here if anyone finds it useful. I'm considering moving to a single meter - assume I'd only have one standing charge to pay? Use 12,000 kwh per year - average about 33% during the Econ7 hours.

Economy 7 should only have one standing charge.

If you're using 33% on the cheap night rate you're probably better off staying on E7.

EssexHebridean

suspiciousbrain said:

Just adding my figures in here if anyone finds it useful. I'm considering moving to a single meter - assume I'd only have one standing charge to pay? We're all electric, can't get gas where we are. Storage heaters, electric showers, etc.
Use 12,000 kwh per year - average about 33% during the Econ7 hours. And still normally cold as we hardly use heating.
Standard: 19.42p x kwh, 23.76 SC
Economy 7: 17.666 x kwh, 23.77 SC
Bill is expected to go up £1000 per annum from next month.

This bit stands out to me - you're using roughly twice our annual consumption, but we DO use the heating (storage heaters, like you). Have you looked into how you're using so much allowing for not using the heating? it really does seem rather high. (A small amount of the difference would be taken up by you using electricity for cooking, where we use gas, but this is not going to account for more than a small proportion). 

suspiciousbrain

QrizB said:

suspiciousbrain said:

Just adding my figures in here if anyone finds it useful. I'm considering moving to a single meter - assume I'd only have one standing charge to pay? Use 12,000 kwh per year - average about 33% during the Econ7 hours.

Economy 7 should only have one standing charge.

If you're using 33% on the cheap night rate you're probably better off staying on E7.

Thanks folks. Our electric has always been high. It's a 2.5bed top floor flat in the eaves so I think we lose a lot through the roof (it is insulated but not that well). I think I'm just struggling with Scottish Power billing layout. I do not find them great. Put the meter readings in online, promptly tells me I owe them 100s and that they're halving my DD! I'll have another go at their 'help'line.

Gerry1

Check that the day and night rates are not transposed on the bill, there's no standard that Rate 1 = Day and Rate 2 = night, it could just as easily be other other way round.

EssexHebridean

Scottish Power have form for mis-billing E7 - they transposed our readings years ago and I had a devil of a job getting them to understand what had gone wrong. They eventually sorted it out after I provided timed photographs of the meter.