Move from Economy 7?

FrugaiMacDugal

Those are estimated figures, be better if you could find actual usage figures for a year back.

lohr500

It would be better to take actual readings rather than estimates.
Do you have any historic actual readings from your bills? If so, day and night with the date of the readings.
And the actual current readings?

But based on the estimated usage numbers, your current annual electricity cost = (3054 x.2731) + (4448 x .1217) + (365 x .511) = £1562 a year.

What we don't know is what the standard single rate tariff costs are from Octopus or anyone else in your region.
Or a 12 month fixed single tariff.
Without this data, we can't work out what your annual cost would be if you switched to a single rate tariff.

But if the single rate was around 25p per unit and the s/c was similar then your annual cost would be
((3054+4448) x .25) + (365 x .511) = £2062 p.a..

On that basis you are better sticking with ECO7. 

Although you think you are using most of your electricity during the day, the estimated day and night numbers would suggest this isn't the case. The estimates suggest you are using 59% off-peak. No doubt much of this will be on the electric water heating. 

When it comes to ECO 7 not all supplier are the same and they differ greatly in their day and night rates, so it is well worth using a comparison site such as the MSE Energy Club to figure out which ECO 7 supplier works best for your 59% off-peak usage.

As an example my ECO7 night rate is only 4.9p per unit, but I pay a much higher 33.3p for the peak rate. And a higher s/c than you. But because we have battery storage, 99.8% of my usage is off-peak.

QrizB

Ivrytwr3 said:

Is this the info you are after?

Those estimates will do for now.

If they're correct, you're using 3 times as much electricity as the average dual-fuel household does. Which seems quite a lot, even with electric water heating.

The good news though is that you're using almost 60% of your electricity on the cheaper off-peak nighttime tariff, so E7 is saving you money vs a single-rate tariff.

2010

QrizB said:

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.

I had a "smart" meter fitted just before the radio signal was due to be switched off because I had an econ 7 meter.
The week before the SM was due to be fitted I asked Octopus to make sure it was replaced by a single rate meter because my night use was small.
They made a note for the installer to fit a single rate SM.
The day the installer arrived I said I wanted a single rate SM fitted,
He assured me the SM he was going to fit could be set to any rate by Octopus.
He also set up the mobile app so I could monitor my usage live.
(The free standing monitor is not issued anymore because Octopus says they are not as accurate as their app.)
Low and behold the usage came through as a 2 rate reading.
I contacted Octopus who blamed the installer for fitting the wrong SM.
They say the SM can`t be set for single rate and I`m stuck with two rate, although they only charge me the single rate tariff for day and night usage.

Can a SM be set to any tariff?

Why can`t Octopus set my new SM to a single rate? 

dunstonh

Ivrytwr3 said:

Estimated use:

£1,639.97 a year for electricity
£549.65 a year for gas

Electricity Tariff Name Octopus 12M Fixed August 2024 v4 Product Type Fixed 

Unit Rate (Day) 27.31p per kWh
Unit Rate (Night) 12.17p per kWh

Standing Charge 51.10p/day (£186.52/year)
Price Guaranteed Until 16 Oct. 2025
Early Exit Fee None

Estimated Annual Usage:

(Day) 3054.1 kWh
Estimated Annual Usage (Night) 4447.7 kWh

Is this the info you are after?

With that ratio, economy 7 should save you money.

However, based on what you have said,its hard to see where your off peak energy use is.    So, the estimate could be completely wrong.

What is your actual use.    Grab an actual read from a year ago and give us a current read.  Actual is where you get things right.  Estimates are where it all goes wrong.

Swipe

2010 said:

Can a SM be set to any tariff?

Why can`t Octopus set my new SM to a single rate? 

A 5 port smart meter can still be set to single rate. You just need to speak to someone at Octopus who knows what they are talking about. In single rate mode, they normally leave the ALCS as is but set the meter to only write to the daytime register. Your Meter Time-Switch Code on your MPAN should then be updated to 801 (single rate) 

Ivrytwr3

OK, i looked at my Octopus bills from 2024 - 2025; submitted readings:

28 Jan 24:

Day: 54115

Night: 62812

Gas: 16967

20 Jan 25:

Electric

Day: 57113

Night: 66883

Gas: 17579

Sorry, for drip feeding info!

Scot_39

Thats 2998 day / peak units and 4071 units - assuming those are labelled real / user / actual / smart and none are estimes. Ive submitted readings to BG in past, and got estimated bills back - so always double check.

So 4071 / (2998+4071) = 57% off peak.

Not far from the 59% above.

More than enought to make most E7 deals beat single rate (around the 35% at big suppliers in my region anyway - like EOn / EDF when crunched numbers in past )

But it does shift around - as just to make it more complex - Ofgem set a single rate and essenitally a multirate average price (suppliers then balance the off peak and peak rates to match it - over a year - across now 4 cap updates) - and the two can move significantly between caps in some regions - in my region in last few years by as much as 2.3p - which has an impact on the breakeven point).

But anything that can be done to shift your peak vs off peak balance more into off peak - would reduce your bills.

As above use a pricing comparison site - with your actual numbers - and make sure they quote you using them.

2010

Swipe said:

2010 said:

Can a SM be set to any tariff?

Why can`t Octopus set my new SM to a single rate? 

A 5 port smart meter can still be set to single rate. You just need to speak to someone at Octopus who knows what they are talking about. In single rate mode, they normally leave the ALCS as is but set the meter to only write to the daytime register. Your Meter Time-Switch Code on your MPAN should then be updated to 801 (single rate) 

Thanks but.
Shouldn't everyone at Octopus know what they're talking about?
SM are not so smart as we are led to believe.

Swipe

2010 said:

Swipe said:

2010 said:

Can a SM be set to any tariff?

Why can`t Octopus set my new SM to a single rate? 

A 5 port smart meter can still be set to single rate. You just need to speak to someone at Octopus who knows what they are talking about. In single rate mode, they normally leave the ALCS as is but set the meter to only write to the daytime register. Your Meter Time-Switch Code on your MPAN should then be updated to 801 (single rate) 

Thanks but.
Shouldn't everyone at Octopus know what they're talking about?
SM are not so smart as we are led to believe.

I'd wager that only a small minority of energy supplier first line customer service peeps are really knowledgeable about the service they provide. That becomes very obvious once the conversation veers outside of their training scripts of questions and responses. It probably wasn't such a big deal when they were just supporting dumb meters but smart meters have introduced a whole new bunch of variables and things to potentially go wrong.