Which tariff ?

hotTubLad1

We have recently purchased a hot tub and our electric usage has increased considerably .
We are on a fixed tariff at the moment with Octopus.
would we be better off changing to an Economy 7 tariff?

marcia_

hotTubLad1 said:

We have recently purchased a hot tub and our electric usage has increased considerably .
We are on a fixed tariff at the moment with Octopus.
would we be better off changing to an Economy 7 tariff?

 Do you only use your hot tub at night? 

lohr500

Does your hot tub have a regular scheduling timer built in, or an App with a scheduling timer?

Our LayZSpa Toronto does and we heat it up overnight to 40C on Economy 7. 
Even over the past week or so, where the day time temperatures around us never got above 5C, the hot tub was still at 38C in the early evening.

It is one of LayZSpa's newer models with solid foam walls and we also have their thick insulated cover over it when not in use.

Our previous hot tub was an Intex model and it was not possible to control it on a timer.

Total usage in November was 176kWh. Our UW Economy 7 rate is 4.9p, so £8.62 for the month which I don't think is bad when outside temperatures are low.

On a crisp and sunny Autumn/Winter evening it is very pleasant sitting in the hot tub. When we do use it, we leave the heater switched off so we aren't using peak electricity. 

The trouble with Economy 7 though is typically you end up paying a higher rate during the day.

So you would need to consider if you want to run the hot tub through winter and how much other usage you could shift to the Eco 7 off-peak time (washing machine, dishwasher, possibly water heating), to make it worth while.

We are fortunate that we have battery storage to cover 99.5%+ of our peak demand so the peak rate for us is largely irrelevant. 

hotTubLad1

Thank you, our hot tub is the Toronto, I can’t find any deals like that for the economy 7. They all seem to come in at around 20p for the cheapest rate.

Swipe

hotTubLad1 said:

Thank you, our hot tub is the Toronto, I can’t find any deals like that for the economy 7. They all seem to come in at around 20p for the cheapest rate.

Get a quote from Utility warehouse. I pay 5.2p off peak rate.

lohr500

Yes, look at Utility Warehouse. That's who we are with.
But their day time rate is very high, so you need to do the maths and see if it works out as a saving for you.

lohr500

The UW E7 tariff is regional specific and from what I have read it does vary a lot.

Another option might be to look at the Good Energy EV tariff which gives 5 hours off-peak, without a massively hiked daytime rate.

5 hours will be more than enough to keep your hot tub heat topped up if you use one of the LayZSpa thermal covers like we have.

Although it is an EV tariff, there have been lots of posts on the Tomato Energy Facebook page from people who have had it confirmed that you don't need an EV to qualify for the tariff. But I would check this yourself with Good Energy if you go down this route.