British Gas electricity Off Peak times

Shadow68

British Gas tell me that they have an off peak cheaper rate for electricity between 2200 and 0830 hours ie 10.5 hours. However, the maximum usage period is 7 hours. Try as might they can't tell me when the 7 hours starts and ends. Can anybody shed any light on this 

BarelySentientAI

Shadow68 said:

British Gas tell me that they have an off peak cheaper rate for electricity between 2200 and 0830 hours ie 10.5 hours. However, the maximum usage period is 7 hours. Try as might they can't tell me when the 7 hours starts and ends. Can anybody shed any light on this 

Depends on where you are in the country, your supplier, and some other bits.

They should be telling you on the tariff quote.

mmmmikey

Shadow68 said:

British Gas tell me that they have an off peak cheaper rate for electricity between 2200 and 0830 hours ie 10.5 hours. However, the maximum usage period is 7 hours. Try as might they can't tell me when the 7 hours starts and ends. Can anybody shed any light on this 

Hi - that sounds like Economy 7 which most of the suppliers offer. You pay less for 7 hours overnight but this is offiset by paying more during the day. The overnight times are different in different parts of the country and also can vary from customer to customer - i.e. your hours could be different from your next door neighbour's. If you Google something like "how does Economy 7 work" you'll find lots of information on this. Hope this helps.

coffeehound

What sort of meter do you have?  If it has dual rate, there should be an indicator to show which rate is in effect. The only sure way to know your times is to watch when the indicator changes.  A photo of your meter might help identify 

Scot_39

7 hrs is the default for economy 7 - but their are variants on the multirate theme. 
(Ofgem for instance include a iirc old SP variant with 8.5 hrs off peak in the definition)

Do you have 1 meter or 2 ?
Old, more modern digital non smart or smart ?
Do you have a seperate time clock - if so preset or rts ?
Do you have restricted circuits e.g. hw immersion, night storage heaters only active for those 7 hours - if so you might have led indicators telling you power on ?

Analogue meter time switches can drift hours over time / even oringinal digital the meters can be offset slightly by drift or sure read in past set slightly offset (upto 15 mins ?).

My old digital was just under c5m from regional timing code but it switched tariffs and off peak devices itself at those times. 

The meter time code is part of your mpan as is your region code.  It will be printed on every bill / statement - but EOn next no longer show it split by grid  lines exactly as this wiki shows - older EOn bills did iirc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_Point_Administration_Number

Searching on google for the mtc code or region could help give you the expected time for more common timings.

But some regions support 2+5 and 7 hr single time blocks for off peak on economy 7.

But the safest route is to check when your actual meter or timeswitch switches exactly.

From its display if digital, an ihd if smart normally countsdown to switch, or a status led on any restricted circuit devices or a non contact live pen on its wiring.