How easy is it to switch between single rate and E7?

Jami74

We're on E7 (two storage heaters) with EDF and now paying very low night rate (6.79p) and high day rate (54.97p). Soon, our storage heaters will go off and stay off until for months. Are there any potential problems of switching to single rate once the heaters go off in a few weeks and then switch back to E7 next November for the winter? 

Mobtr

Depends on the type of meter you have but I don’t think they will change it twice a year for you. How do your heat your water? 

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

Some suppliers offer a E7 Flat Rate tariff. This is when you still give the two readings, the night and day one, but all units are charged at the same price. You could ask if your supplier does one like this.

macman

With a smart meter installed, this becomes absurdly easy: you can then simply switch between E7 and single rate every 6 months, or whenever the heating season starts and finishes.

Alnat1

I know Octopus let you change rates every 30 days, don't know about other suppliers.

Gerry1

macman said:

With a smart meter installed, this becomes absurdly easy: you can then simply switch between E7 and single rate every 6 months, or whenever the heating season starts and finishes.

It's irrelevant whether you have a smart meter or a spinning disc, charging single rate is simply a billing routine.  It just depends on whether your electricity supplier is customer friendly or not.

dunstonh

We have done this in the past.  At that time were with Eon and switched beetween them before and after Summer.  However, we stopped doing it after 2018 as we found it was just 2-4 months of the year where the single rate was better but the monetary difference wasn't worth the effort.

For us,in 2019, one month was better on single rate (in cost terms £3.22 per day vs £3.36) and in 2020, three months were better at £2.99 vs £3.18, £3.12 vs £3.31 and £3.30 vs £3.38). 

No months were in 2021 or 2022.   However, our meter timer went wrong in 2021 and our night rate now occurs between 8.50am and 3.50pm.

There are other E7 threads running that remark how some suppliers have tariffs that only need around 10%+ at night rate to be better whilst others need around 30%+      So, what is right for one person will vary for another depending on their supplier and their ratio of day/night use.

macman

Gerry1 said:

macman said:

With a smart meter installed, this becomes absurdly easy: you can then simply switch between E7 and single rate every 6 months, or whenever the heating season starts and finishes.

It's irrelevant whether you have a smart meter or a spinning disc, charging single rate is simply a billing routine.  It just depends on whether your electricity supplier is customer friendly or not.

But not all suppliers will totalise the 2 registers from an E7 dumb meter. Which makes it impractical to switch to and fro.

Jami74

Mobtr said:
 How do your heat your water? 

Hot water tank, now the night rate is so cheap it's on all night, in the summer it was going on for a couple of hours 2-3 times a week. Also have an electric shower which we try to use first thing before day rate starts but does sometimes get used during the day (teenager isn't an early riser).

macman said:

With a smart meter installed, this becomes absurdly easy: you can then simply switch between E7 and single rate every 6 months, or whenever the heating season starts and finishes.

We have a smart meter. Wonder if EDF would let us do this, potentially we'd end up paying them less over the year which they might not like.

dunstonh said:

the single rate was better but the monetary difference wasn't worth the effort.

This last December with the storage heaters on we've used average 70% of our usage at night. Looking at some random days last June we used average 11% of our usage at night. If we were paying single rate during December our cost would have been doubled, last June (at todays prices) we'd have paid about a £1 a day more. It looks like switching to single rate once the heaters are off could potentially save over £200 over the year, but if we got stuck on single rate we'd be in financial trouble next winter.