Single rate vs Economy7

deanleighton

I've had an email in from my current supplier (BG) stating that I could save money by swapping my meter to a single rate meter over our current economy7 one, anyone else made savings by swapping over?

MattMattMattUK

deanleighton said:

I've had an email in from my current supplier (BG) stating that I could save money by swapping my meter to a single rate meter over our current economy7 one, anyone else made savings by swapping over?

Lots of people have made savings, others have cost themselves money, what other people have done is not relevant, what is, is what works best for you. You can save significant amounts on E7 by moving to different suppliers depending on your split of usage, you could also save by moving to single rate, but it depends on your usage. 

How much do you use on day and night in kWh, what is your current tariff and what region are you in? How do you heat your home, panel heaters, storage heaters?

deanleighton

Day: 5100 kWh, Night: 1100 kWh ish, currently on BG standard variable (45.031p day, 16.308p night, 43.755p SC) in Suffolk, heating is by gas, cooking & showering by electric

EssexHebridean

If you heat and your hot water aside from the shower is via a gas boiler, then it's highly unlikely that E7 will save you money. That said though - that is some chunky electricity use - what is it that makes you such a high user, and is that anything you can load-shift to overnight? Presumably you're already running appliances overnight and showering on the off peak rate too, at this time of year?

Is your shower over a bath? If so then it might well be worth considering the cost to get the taps changed to one that has a shower attachment too. 

markin

You seem to be paying close to £420 more than single rate.

Great they sent the Email, poor they couldn't do the sums for you.

matelodave

You do seem to be using a lot of leccy for someone who has gas heating and hot water- we use just a bit more but are all electric, heating, hot water, cooking etc.

5100kwh day at 45.031p/kwh = £2296.58 plus 1100kwh at 16.308p/kwh = £176.341 total = £2472.92 whereas 6200kwh at 35p/kwh (the current average single rate) = £2170, saving around £300.

I suggest you do an energy audit and find out what is using it all, but based on your figures you could probably save £300 by going onto a single rate tariff.

There are probably quite a few saving to be made when you know where its all going. An electric shower costs you three times as much as using gas to heat your hot water, so that would be a good start

Gerry1

You don't need to change the meter to be billed at single rate.  BG will bill at single rate on request, as will many other suppliers.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

You don't need to change the meter to be billed at single rate.  BG will bill at single rate on request, as will many other suppliers.

Presumably the meter can be changed remotely (mine is a SMETS2) to go the other way? - i.e .go from single rate to dual-rate on the meter?

Gerry1

[Deleted User] said:

Gerry1 said:

You don't need to change the meter to be billed at single rate.  BG will bill at single rate on request, as will many other suppliers.

Presumably the meter can be changed remotely (mine is a SMETS2) to go the other way? - i.e .go from single rate to dual-rate on the meter?

Almost certainly I would think.  I have a two-rate non-smart meter and I changed to single rate a few weeks ago because E7 was no longer competitive.

dealyboy

... agree with all of these comments. I think the break even point at the moment, under EPG, is 42% off-peak, so anything under that as in the case of the OP will be better under single variable tariff rate, or 'two readings one rate'. Some contributors have mentioned that they switch between E7 and SVT according to the time of year.

Edit: I think you would be in the Eastern region. You should be aware of the fact that EDF offer very competitive night rates (but of course you need the usage to make it worthwhile).

dunstonh

Edit: I think you would be in the Eastern region. You should be aware of the fact that EDF offer very competitive night rates (but of course you need the usage to make it worthwhile).

8p off peak this quarter.  Lovely Jubbly.   However, my off-peak use is around 70%.