Move from Economy 7?

Ivrytwr3

Hi all,

I am looking at getting Octopus to install a smart meter and was querying if it would be worth moving from E7 to a regular tariff. 4 bed detached property.

We have had many years on E7 - £173 per month with Octopus. We have a hot water cylinder tank which is programmed to heat up during the night - the tank powers hot water only and we have a boiler for the central heating.

As wifey is WFH, 2x teenagers at home on their devices etc and the majority of our electric and gas is used during the day, when the smart meter is installed is worth asking to come off E7?

We sometimes schedule the washing machine and dishwasher to come on at night, but when the kids are home they are going all day! So only thing powered at night is the hot water and fridge freezer.

david29dpo

Why doest the boiler heat the hot water tank? seems odd. I assume its gas.
Check the units you use during the day and during the night.
Work out the saving (if any) between E7 and not.

Qyburn

What proportion of your actual consumption is off peak?  You'll have to do the calculation using your actual consumption figures, and the actual rates on offer. Or put the figures here and someone might work it out for you.

Ivrytwr3

Nope, it's an electric water tank.

I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days

QrizB

Ivrytwr3 said:
I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days

As a starting point, there should be an Estimated Annual Consumption figure quoted on every bill.

Ivrytwr3 said:

I am looking at getting Octopus to install a smart meter and was querying if it would be worth moving from E7 to a regular tariff. 4 bed detached property.

Getting a smart meter should let you switch easily between single rate, E7, and a whole host of smart time-of-use tariffs.

lohr500

Ivrytwr3 said:

Nope, it's an electric water tank.

I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days

So just to clarify, the hot water tank is only heated by electricity? It is not plumbed into the boiler?
It would be unusual for a gas based central heating system not to have the ability to heat the hot water as well.

Scot_39

lohr500 said:

Ivrytwr3 said:

Nope, it's an electric water tank.

I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days

So just to clarify, the hot water tank is only heated by electricity? It is not plumbed into the boiler?
It would be unusual for a gas based central heating system not to have the ability to heat the hot water as well.

Unusual but definitely not unheard of - and "regular" boilers the term used by WB here in their little guide - who also say thats aka conventional, heat only etc etc - 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/explained

Ivrytwr3

lohr500 said:

Ivrytwr3 said:

Nope, it's an electric water tank.

I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days

So just to clarify, the hot water tank is only heated by electricity? It is not plumbed into the boiler?
It would be unusual for a gas based central heating system not to have the ability to heat the hot water as well.

Correct.

Hot water tank cylinder = hot water and heated overnight.

Gas boiler = central heating.

That's the way it was set up when we bought the property. There is an option to have the cylinder plumbed to the boiler, but obvs that comes with an expense and something we haven't yet done. The whole estate was set up like this

lohr500

Thanks for clarifying. 

As Qyburn suggests above, please can you share the actual peak and off-peak usage over the past 12 months along with the peak and off-peak unit costs. And the daily standing charge for electricity.

Also, can you get the standard variable single rate tariff cost and standing charge from Octopus for your region. 

From the above, we can have a go at calculating what the cost difference would be if you moved to a single rate tariff from Octopus in your region.

But as Qrizb mentions, once you have a smart meter you can access a range of different Time of Use tariffs which opens up other possibilities to save.


The cost to change the system over to heating the tank with the boiler will depend on many factors : 

Boiler type.
Boiler controls.
Boiler location relative to the cylinder and the ease of running the additional pipework.
Existing hot water cylinder design. (Does it already have the internal heat transfer coil for a boiler fitted, or is a new cylinder going to be needed).
Option to do away with the cylinder if the boiler happens to be a combi boiler.

Worth getting a few quotes to change the system so at least you can look at the payback period vs heating the water electrically.

dunstonh

I'll have a look at the figures over the next couple of days 

Easy to do.  Just look at your use over a year for both peak and off peak.   That will allow you to see what the ratio is.

Historically, there were tariffs where 25% off-peak could still be viable with E7.  However, nowadays, many require you to have more than that off-peak.