Economy 7 tips & tricks

Dannii75

I'm going to try to max out my eco7 usage. 
I generally wake up around 6:30 & in the summertime my eco7 finishes at 08:30 so I have 2hrs to get everything I can done before the day rate kicks in. 
Things I've thought of doing before 08:30 ...
- washing clothes
- showering
- charging electronics (dyson cordless, phone, laptop etc). 
- cook a hot breakfast

Please add to this thread if you have useful, even if slightly bonkers, ideas! 

I work at home so I'm wondering if I should charge a powerbank to run my laptop from during the day rather than using the day rate?! 

QrizB

Dannii75 said:

I'm going to try to max out my eco7 usage. 
I generally wake up around 6:30 & in the summertime my eco7 finishes at 08:30 so I have 2hrs to get everything I can done before the day rate kicks in. 
Things I've thought of doing before 08:30 ...
- washing clothes
- showering
- charging electronics (dyson cordless, phone, laptop etc). 
- cook a hot breakfast

Please add to this thread if you have useful, even if slightly bonkers, ideas! 

I work at home so I'm wondering if I should charge a powerbank to run my laptop from during the day rather than using the day rate?! 

Those are all good ideas, although cooking an early hot breakfast is only a saving if you were going to do it anyway; a bowl of cereal will use less electricity!

Charging a power bank for your laptop is a good idea if you already own the power bank; you're unlikely to save enough money to pay back the cost of buying one specifically for this reason.

Section62

Dannii75 said:

Things I've thought of doing before 08:30 ...

Run the dishwasher.  (No dishwasher? Think about getting one from a site like Freecycle/Freegle)

[Deleted User]

Dont have your immersion heater on all night on economy 7, put it on when you get up in the mornings ( thats if you are an early bird like me) I put mine on for 1-2 hours every morning and theres enough hot water in the tank to last all day. I was going to get a timer fitted but it was far too expensive @ £100!!!!!  

Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you need.
Turn off everything that has a standby light.

Change light bulbs to led.

Keep curtains closed during cold weather to keep the heat in.

Turn heating down a notch.

Only do a full load in washing machine, on a lower heat setting. Do a quick wash 20 or 30 mins, longer washes are not needed, you wouldnt stand at a sink washing clothes for 1-2 hours so why use a machine for that length of time.

If you have to use a dryer add a dry towel into the damp clothes as it helps dry the clothes quicker.

Dannii75

QrizB said:

Dannii75 said:

I'm going to try to max out my eco7 usage. 
I generally wake up around 6:30 & in the summertime my eco7 finishes at 08:30 so I have 2hrs to get everything I can done before the day rate kicks in. 
Things I've thought of doing before 08:30 ...
- washing clothes
- showering
- charging electronics (dyson cordless, phone, laptop etc). 
- cook a hot breakfast

Please add to this thread if you have useful, even if slightly bonkers, ideas! 

I work at home so I'm wondering if I should charge a powerbank to run my laptop from during the day rather than using the day rate?! 

Those are all good ideas, although cooking an early hot breakfast is only a saving if you were going to do it anyway; a bowl of cereal will use less electricity!

Charging a power bank for your laptop is a good idea if you already own the power bank; you're unlikely to save enough money to pay back the cost of buying one specifically for this reason.

True! No worries, I'll only be having my porridge on cold weather days!  
I have a couple of power banks for camping so I'll give that a go!

Dannii75

Deleted_User said:

Dont have your immersion heater on all night on economy 7, put it on when you get up in the mornings ( thats if you are an early bird like me) I put mine on for 1-2 hours every morning and theres enough hot water in the tank to last all day. I was going to get a timer fitted but it was far too expensive @ £100!!!!!  

Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you need.
Turn off everything that has a standby light.

Change light bulbs to led.

Keep curtains closed during cold weather to keep the heat in.

Turn heating down a notch.

Only do a full load in washing machine, on a lower heat setting. Do a quick wash 20 or 30 mins, longer washes are not needed, you wouldnt stand at a sink washing clothes for 1-2 hours so why use a machine for that length of time.

If you have to use a dryer add a dry towel into the damp clothes as it helps dry the clothes quicker.

My boiler is decades old, not the most efficient, but there's no options to turn it on/ off. At this rate I'll never be able to save enough £ to replace the old system either but that's a whole other issue! 

The heating in the house is with night storage heaters, again, very old but they work so I'm OK with that.

Now, the washing machine, I put it on the 'quick wash' this morning at 30C, it took an hour, that's madness! I assumed it would be a 30min wash! I might experiment with other settings to find the quickest wash! 
(no dryer here, too expensive & it's only me so I can deal with outdoor drying etc).

Cheers! 

Gerry1

Dannii75 said:

Deleted_User said:

Dont have your immersion heater on all night on economy 7, put it on when you get up in the mornings ( thats if you are an early bird like me) I put mine on for 1-2 hours every morning and theres enough hot water in the tank to last all day. I was going to get a timer fitted but it was far too expensive @ £100!!!!!  

Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you need.
Turn off everything that has a standby light.

Change light bulbs to led.

Keep curtains closed during cold weather to keep the heat in.

Turn heating down a notch.

Only do a full load in washing machine, on a lower heat setting. Do a quick wash 20 or 30 mins, longer washes are not needed, you wouldnt stand at a sink washing clothes for 1-2 hours so why use a machine for that length of time.

If you have to use a dryer add a dry towel into the damp clothes as it helps dry the clothes quicker.

My boiler is decades old, not the most efficient, but there's no options to turn it on/ off. At this rate I'll never be able to save enough £ to replace the old system either but that's a whole other issue! 

The heating in the house is with night storage heaters, again, very old but they work so I'm OK with that.

Now, the washing machine, I put it on the 'quick wash' this morning at 30C, it took an hour, that's madness! I assumed it would be a 30min wash! I might experiment with other settings to find the quickest wash! 
(no dryer here, too expensive & it's only me so I can deal with outdoor drying etc).

Cheers! 

It must be always be possible to turn the boiler off, if only for safety reasons.

Assuming the boiler is gas or oil, why are you using using storage heaters?  They will certainly be more expensive than gas central heating.  If you don't have radiators, they would be worth considering assuming the boiler is large enough.

Slinky

I make OH a flask of black coffee, and fill another flask with boiled water which I will then reheat to boiling, per cupfull, for my tea throughout the day.

Our boiler heats hot water and radiators at the same time, it doesn't do radiators only, so we have plenty of hot water. I fill the washing machine with 10 litres of gas heated water via the powder drawer before switching it on to save on some of the costs of the machine heating the water. I've also turned the temperature down to 30degrees. We get cheap rate until 8.34am in the summer.

The mention of power banks has made me remember we have a solar powered powerbank somewhere, I'll see if I can dig that out.

Slinky

Deleted_User said:

Keep curtains closed during cold weather to keep the heat in.

On sunny days, drag those curtains wide open and feel the solar gain through the windows.

Dannii75

Gerry1 said:

Dannii75 said:

Deleted_User said:

Dont have your immersion heater on all night on economy 7, put it on when you get up in the mornings ( thats if you are an early bird like me) I put mine on for 1-2 hours every morning and theres enough hot water in the tank to last all day. I was going to get a timer fitted but it was far too expensive @ £100!!!!!  

Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you need.
Turn off everything that has a standby light.

Change light bulbs to led.

Keep curtains closed during cold weather to keep the heat in.

Turn heating down a notch.

Only do a full load in washing machine, on a lower heat setting. Do a quick wash 20 or 30 mins, longer washes are not needed, you wouldnt stand at a sink washing clothes for 1-2 hours so why use a machine for that length of time.

If you have to use a dryer add a dry towel into the damp clothes as it helps dry the clothes quicker.

My boiler is decades old, not the most efficient, but there's no options to turn it on/ off. At this rate I'll never be able to save enough £ to replace the old system either but that's a whole other issue! 

The heating in the house is with night storage heaters, again, very old but they work so I'm OK with that.

Now, the washing machine, I put it on the 'quick wash' this morning at 30C, it took an hour, that's madness! I assumed it would be a 30min wash! I might experiment with other settings to find the quickest wash! 
(no dryer here, too expensive & it's only me so I can deal with outdoor drying etc).

Cheers! 

It must be always be possible to turn the boiler off, if only for safety reasons.

Assuming the boiler is gas or oil, why are you using using storage heaters?  They will certainly be more expensive than gas central heating.  If you don't have radiators, they would be worth considering assuming the boiler is large enough.

oh yes, there's an on/ off switch sorry, it's like a light switch on the wall just outside the room with the boiler in it. 
there's no gas supply in the house so everything's electric. 

Dannii75

Slinky said:

I make OH a flask of black coffee, and fill another flask with boiled water which I will then reheat to boiling, per cupfull, for my tea throughout the day.

Our boiler heats hot water and radiators at the same time, it doesn't do radiators only, so we have plenty of hot water. I fill the washing machine with 10 litres of gas heated water via the powder drawer before switching it on to save on some of the costs of the machine heating the water. I've also turned the temperature down to 30degrees. We get cheap rate until 8.34am in the summer.

The mention of power banks has made me remember we have a solar powered powerbank somewhere, I'll see if I can dig that out.

Ah, I like the idea of making more than one cup! I'll do that next time I make drinks! thanks for the top tip!