Ovo Economy 7 tariff. Off peak seems high?

calse1

Hello there, hope this is the right place to post this (sorry I'm new here).

I moved into a new place in April where the letting agent told me Ovo was the supplier, so I told them I'd moved in and was put on a fixed two year deal.

This is the first Economy 7 property I've lived in (no gas, electric water heater, storage heaters on a night time/off-peak circuit for heating). It's only now that we're coming into winter that it's occurred to me that the off-peak rate from Ovo seems quite steep compared to other providers, and I wonder if when I put the heating on I'm going to have a bit of a problem.



28.81p per kWh for the night rate seems quite high? And am I wrong to think this is above the new price cap?

If so, am I an idiot for having accepted these rates when I signed up with Ovo? Although I do see that 31.50p as a standing charge seems fairly low.

Can anyone with Economy 7 give me any advice? (Sorry if these are stupid questions)

[Deleted User]

First thing to know, there is no price cap on fixed tariffs.  There is a discount offered to eligible fixed tariffs from 1 Oct (part of the new cap scheme) that should last until April 2023 based on what we know at the moment.

You work out if your tariff is eligible for a discount using a weighted average of the two rates.  I calculate yours to have a weighted average of 34.95p per kWh - which seems high to me and should make you eligible.  Perhaps these rates do not include the discount.

I wouldn't expect the discount to make your night rate very cheap though, as your day rate is not very high.  Other suppliers have chosen to have much bigger differences between day and night than Octopus have.

You could always choose to move to the variable (capped) tariff, which might be cheaper for you - but of course this would lose the protection that your fix is giving until April 2024.

silvercar

Price cap is now 35.05p/ kwH, it may vary slightly by area. You need to work out if you lose or gain by being on an economy 7 tariff. If it doesn't work for you because you can't shift enough of your usage to off peak, then ask OVO to move to their standard variable rate.

Slinky

Edf is about 46p day rate and 12p night rate at the moment.

QrizB

silvercar said:

Price cap is now 35.05p/ kwH, it may vary slightly by area.

The average E7 price cap under the current Energy Price Guarantee is 31.2p/kWh, and nowhere is it higher than 32.85p/kWh.

calse1 said:

28.81p per kWh for the night rate seems quite high? And am I wrong to think this is above the new price cap?

Welcome to the forum.

The E7 price cap is a cap on the weighted average of the two rates, 42% of the night rate plus 58% of the day rate.

For your tariff, 28.81p/kWh night and 39.4p/kWh day, the weighted average is 34.95p/kWh. This is above the EPG cap in all areas. I would expect OVO to be giving you a discount of 2-3p/kWh on your fixed tariff to bring it into the range of the EPG.

Have you had any communications from OVO since the EPG was announced? What tariffs are showing on your on-line account?

pochase

Please keep in mind that while you might be able to save some money if you go on the the EPG SVT, we don't know what is going to happen in April. Prices might be go up a lot.

EssexHebridean

I’m guessing that the issue you have is that not having been in the property over a winter yet, you’re unable to gauge what your usage overnight through colder weather is likely to be. From what you say I assume you have storage heating though - and I have to say that I certainly wouldn’t want to be on those rates for charging up the heaters overnight!

Possibly your best bet might be to give it a couple of weeks after turning the heaters on before taking a view - then you’ll be able to get  at least a slightly clearer idea of your day/night split and that might then inform whether you stick or shift. 

If it helps at all, Octopus over in the Eastern Region where I am also have a decent day/night balance on the rates for heavier night rate users - I’m paying a shade under 15p a kWh overnight, and a little over 44p during the day. When I switched to them recently they were quite astonishingly quick to get it all through as well without taking well under 48 hours from me calling to instigate the switch. If calling them ask around friends and family to see if anyone else is with them as there is a £50 incentive for referrals - that gives a £50 account credit to you and the referrer. Also do your homework first as they are reluctant take on new customers at the moment unless it’s clear that those customers will save money. 

calse1

Thank you SO much everyone that is all very very helpful.

I think I need to:

• see how a few months of storage heater use go, to work out my proportion of night time energy use (before I can decide if a supplier with a bigger night/day gap would even benefit me)
• speak to Ovo immediately about reduction of fixed tariff (they've not sent anything and that screenshot of my prices is from my Ovo online account today)
• hold off on asking to go on variable tariff based on the uncertainty after April 2023

I had no idea about the fixed tariff reduction situation, so this has been excellent. Thank you!

pochase

I doubt that there will be much of a reduction.

The cost for the 4200KWh based on above rates is £1461 at the 42/58 split, that should below the cap.