Economy 7 or Economy 10

vandy404

Okay, so here's the deal. My flatmate and I are moving into a year old flat that has underfloor heating, an immersion tank and an Economy 10 meter provided by Southern. However, what we're trying to work out is whether we might be better off on Economy 7, since we're at work during the day.

So, questions:

1 - Can you get E7 on an E10 meter system? If not, the whole argument is obviously moot!
2 - If it is supported, is it worth switching to E7? Bearing in mind we will be around at the weekends more often than not and are both probably moderately heavy users - i.e. both have PCs and other bits and bobs.
3 - How much more expensive might E10 be compared to E7, is it even cheaper depending on usage?

Apologies for all the questions and thanks in advance for any help.

In fact I did have a few other technical questions, but they can wait a little while first.

Plushchris

I believe there are only three other providers that offer E10 (Npower, Eon and Scottish Power I think) I dont think you will be able to get E7 rates if its an E10 meter. It may be worth you ringing the other companies to see what their prices per unit are, I dont believe any of the comparison sites will be able to help as they do not have E10 information.

HTH

vandy404

Cool, well that saves one issue since I rather suspected that was the case. I have had a quick look at the various tariffs for E10 and tbh it's all a much of a muchness, each has slight benefits over each - i.e. lower service charges vs lower rates etc. Will probably stick with Southern for the time being, might try and get on a price fix till end of the year and skip the price hikes.

Onto some other issues about how the system actually works. Obviously it's automatic, but I have noticed a disparity on the times on the control box and the meter, is this likely to be problem presuming it's supposed to be all automatic.

Also, with the immersion tank, there are two switches. Am I right in thinking that the bottom is the auto controlled E10 system and the top one is like a boost for instant heating?

dave_dph

vandy404 wrote: »

Also, with the immersion tank, there are two switches. Am I right in thinking that the bottom is the auto controlled E10 system and the top one is like a boost for instant heating?

I am on Economy 7 and also have two immersions fitted to the tank. The bottom one is wired to the night circuit and the top one is the day time boost. I have never used the boost in14 years!

Cardew

What type of underfloor heating? e.g. has it a thermal store that can be heated during the E10 periods - like storage heaters?

If not, with you being out all day, it might even be an option to consider a 'normal' daytime tariff. When you get some data on your consumption you will be able to do the arithmetic.

Terrylw1

Hi,

Yes, there are Economy 7 E10 meters out there but they are not in every region. If you know what old board region you are in (or the first 2 digits of your MPAN) I can tell you.

E10 and every tariff is available with every Supplier however types of meter are restricted by region. Since Suppliers are not regional anymore, they can bill any type of meter.

Sadly, they can register anything but when it comes to billing you - it all goes wrong. So, some Suppliers try to get you to change to E7 (not Economy 7 E10 which is a different type of meter)

I can definately confirm to you that Npower has no available tariff in their new billing systems to bill some types of E10 and Heatwise.

space_rider

The E10 is actually for the heating and hot water. It won`t make any difference to your general appliance. By coming off E10 and having E7 you won`t be as warm as you would be with E10. You would be getting 3 hours less heat. The 10 off peak hours are divided between 3 hours in the early morning, 3 hours in the early afternoon and 4 hours in the evening.

Cardew

space_rider wrote: »

The E10 is actually for the heating and hot water. It won`t make any difference to your general appliance. By coming off E10 and having E7 you won`t be as warm as you would be with E10. You would be getting 3 hours less heat. The 10 off peak hours are divided between 3 hours in the early morning, 3 hours in the early afternoon and 4 hours in the evening.

I am not sure to whom you are directing your comments in the above post.

The prices on E10 are not particularly attractive. However it obviously has advantages if you are in all day.

The OP is out all day, and E7 is considerably cheaper than E10. So the savings on E7 may more than compensate for using some electricity at daytime rates.

The OP has also not stated that his underfloor heating has any storage facilities(a thermal store) - it could be just 'normal' electrical heating* In that case it may be worth considering a 'normal' 24/7 tariff.

*In some new flats(the OP's flat is a year old) the builders cut costs in every way and a thermal store for underfloor heating is a considerable expense!

samtheman1k

Plushchris wrote: »

I believe there are only three other providers that offer E10 (Npower, Eon and Scottish Power I think) I dont think you will be able to get E7 rates if its an E10 meter.

Southern Electric do E10 too.

vandy404

Thanks for all the comments guys - think I'm just about getting my head around all this stuff now. Only problem that remains is that the clock on the control box/timer and the one of the meter are out of sync by an hour, so I can't leave it to run automatically and it not come on during the peak rate. Call me stupid but I've yet to find out a way to change the bloody time on the timer, which is just doing my head in.

That said, I don't think we're going to need the heating too often since our flat seems nicely warm throughout the days regardless - the block is only a year old so I'm presuming the combination of decent insulation and ambient heat from other flats is keeping things toasty.

riad_2

I'm wondering do I have E10? I'm in an all electric newish build flat with 2 storage heaters and one immersion heater. immersion heater is set to be on off peak, and the 2storage heaters are wired to the wall. they both turn themselves on at 10:30pm every night (at which time if u go to the cupboard where all the elec meters for the building are kept... u can hear a series of "clonk" noises at 10:30pm... presumeably all the meters switching to off peak!)... the heaters then turn themselves off at 7:30am each morning!

This is thus 10 hours of off peak leccy! Is there something wrong with our meters whereby we are getting more off peak than usual? Or are we on E10? Bear in mind the meters for the whole building are identical, and they only have 2 meter readings, a low and a normal.