Been offered a smart meter , on economy 7

Ildhund

Delightfully ambiguous! I'm guessing Caithness, but it could be Shetland or (Heaven forbid!) Northumberland & Durham. Please clarify ...

Rosie1001

South Tyneside . Although why you need specifics I don’t know 

the tariff are based on area , ie north east 

Qyburn

Do you think a one hour afternoon boost would be enough? That's what Octopus Snug offers.

Rosie1001

I get two hours now , I’d prefer the same , but no one can offer it at the minute 

Rosie1001

Edf have offered me economy 10 ,but I want clarification of times etc before I accept , as last week they told me I couldn’t have that tariff 

EssexHebridean

Rosie1001 said:

South Tyneside . Although why you need specifics I don’t know 

the tariff are based on area , ie north east 

You said "North East of the UK" Rosie, which is technically a big chunk of Scotland, so a completely different region to North East England, which is your region. That was the reason for the request for the specific area that was (very politely) made. It's not about being pedantic, it's about getting the right information to help you. 

You will get an additional hour of charge overnight which might help offset one hour less in the afternoon.

Why do you think it will cost you to move to Snug? It would probably work out cheaper, but if it didn't, you just wouldn't make the move - nobody will force you to change tariffs at that point so you'd just stick on whatever worked out best for you. . 

Rosie1001

My apologies , I meant England 

costing works out good for snug  and the other tariff octopus offered me 

I have asked EDF for their pricing and times on ECONOMY 10 which they offered me late yesterday, I’m waiting on reply so I can compare 

it’s an absolute minefield , and my heart goes out to those who aren’t savvy , maybe not so good computer wise , they could be but on tariffs unsuitable for their needs 

EDF told me last week I could only have ECONOMY 7 , changed their mind when I took it further and complained , 

customers are given wrong information regularly because these companies closed their expert teams down just when they are most needed … 

Rosie1001

I’m not sure if I need the extra hour overnight , I’m presuming the storage heater only takes so much charge 

I definitely need a boost in afternoon 

Ildhund

Thanks for clarifying my tongue-in-cheek remark about North East UK. There are an awful lot of people north of the border who would take umbrage at this ...

As regards storage heaters and how much charge they take: it varies widely, of course. But a fairly typical 1500 W Dimplex QM150 like I've got is designed for Economy 7. It's rated at (IIRC) 3.3 kW, so if it charges all night, it stores 7 x 3.3 = 23 kWh. This is allegedly enough to produce 14 hours of heating at 1500 W, which they say is enough to heat up a 15 m² room all day. None of the energy goes to waste, but the heat delivered probably won't work just as designed - there will be some leakage during the charge period and in periods when you might have it not actively delivering heat, but you get the idea. 

You can divide this up, so 5 hours of charge (like E10 might give you) would store 5 x 3.3 = 16.5 kWh, nominally enough for 11 hours' heating. If the heaters were set to start delivering at 6am, they'd probably be thirsty for the 3-hour boost E10 could give them between 1pm and 4pm. 

I just checked OVO's prices for NEEB region 15. If my arithmetic's* correct, both E7 and E10 are equally economical: use more than about 31% of your total usage during offpeak hours, and you'd be saving compared with the standard variable single-rate tariff. Anyone with electrical storage heating should exceed this figure with ease. EDF's tariffs may be totally different.
  

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*  The break-even point as a percentage when comparing single-rate with peak/offpeak plans (ignoring standing charges) is 
100 x (peak rate – single rate) ÷ (peak rate – offpeak rate).

Rosie1001

I only have old style heaters , dimplex 3.4 kw