The myth of "Typical Usage" - the Green penalty

Spoonie_Turtle

Has nobody mentioned that there is a cap for "typical use" (median) on E7?  That's based on 4200kWh/yr with a 48%/52% split … I can never remember which way round that is though, whether the night usage is the 48 or the 52.  The weighted national average unit rate for E7 according to Octopus is 31.20p/kWh, lower than the single rate average of 34.04p.

[And for context, we're all-electric on a single rate tariff with a heat pump, using ~10,000kWh annually (hopefully less next year) so it's not as if I'm coming from a place of not understanding being a bit miffed at the price difference between gas and electric!]

Edit: Err … actually can someone confirm / refute that please?  Unless I'm doing something drastically wrong, using the national averages given by Octopus at 4200kWh + 365 days of standing charge, I get an annual total of £1,473.92 … surely not?

[Deleted User]

58% day, 4200kWh is the cap calculation value iirc.

That doesn’t mean that a typical user consumes 4200kWh of electricity and nothing else though.

pochase

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Has nobody mentioned that there is a cap for "typical use" (median) on E7?  That's based on 4200kWh/yr with a 48%/52% split … I can never remember which way round that is though, whether the night usage is the 48 or the 52.  The weighted national average unit rate for E7 according to Octopus is 31.20p/kWh, lower than the single rate average of 34.04p.

[And for context, we're all-electric on a single rate tariff with a heat pump, using ~10,000kWh annually (hopefully less next year) so it's not as if I'm coming from a place of not understanding being a bit miffed at the price difference between gas and electric!]

Edit: Err … actually can someone confirm / refute that please?  Unless I'm doing something drastically wrong, using the national averages given by Octopus at 4200kWh + 365 days of standing charge, I get an annual total of £1,473.92 … surely not?

Sounds about right, I just calculated it for another thread as £1453 excluding standing charge.

The 4200KWh is just a number to calculate the rates and is even further from reality than the cap.

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

58% day, 4200kWh is the cap calculation value iirc.

That doesn’t mean that a typical user consumes 4200kWh of electricity and nothing else though.

Thanks for the correction! 

I thought the purpose of Economy 7 was supposed to be for all-electric, to relieve some of the extra cost of space and water heating using electricity rather thsn gas?

pochase

Even with a ASHP with you will need 4000Kwh to get around the same heating output. So you would need to calculate based on 6900KWh to compare cost.

As said above the 4200 is just a number to calculate the unit rates and has nothing to do with reality.

[Deleted User]

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

58% day, 4200kWh is the cap calculation value iirc.

That doesn’t mean that a typical user consumes 4200kWh of electricity and nothing else though.

Thanks for the correction! 

I thought the purpose of Economy 7 was supposed to be for all-electric, to relieve some of the extra cost of space and water heating using electricity rather thsn gas?

I think it’s partially because the 4200 isn’t E7 in its source. It’s the median of all class 2(?) meters and just used as a mathematical construct for cap.

Spoonie_Turtle

pochase said:

Even with a ASHP with you will need 4000Kwh to get around the same heating output. So you would need to calculate based on 6900KWh to compare cost.

As said above the 4200 is just a number to calculate the unit rates and has nothing to do with reality.

Oh I see.  Interesting.  I'd assumed it was the median, like the dual fuel TDCVs - although in light of your comment, that would raise questions about how the median could be so low.


Edit: just seen SparkyGrad's post, now I understand a bit more.

matelodave

I've never got my head around the 4200/2900 for electricity - that implies that an all electric house only uses 7100kwh compared with a gas heated place which requires 12,000 + 2900 = 14900kwh.

Whys does an electrically heated house only require 30% of the energy than a gas heated house. Answers on a postcard please.

pochase

Worse, the 4200KWh includes the 2900KWh. So it would be just 1300KWh for heating if it would be a real average.

QrizB

matelodave said:

I've never got my head around the 4200 for electricity

It's all those studio flats