Getting Economy 7 meter changed?

marc.faulkner

Morning,

I've just, finally, moved into my new house (last night) and am in the process of getting everything sorted.

I've just discovered that the property has an economy 7 meter fitted



Now the house has gas central heating, so the economy 7 is not likely to be of much use to me I don't think - although you may know otherwise.

I'm a single guy, out of the house between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday, so won't be using anything other than background electricity (fridge, freezer) during these times. I'll likely use lights, television, computer etc. during the evening.

So, the question is, will I benefit from an economy7 tarriff? And if not, how do I go about having the meter changed?

Current supplier is E.ON I believe.

Many thanks for your opinions.

jmcdyre

Hi

Just last week I called npower to ask if we could go on single rate electricity - they're fitting a new meter free of charge next week. Just call Eon and they should sort you out, otherwise go to npower, get it free, then go back to Eon lol!

jmcdyre

oh and we worked out that we'd be paying slightly less than economy 7 during summer months, and a lot less during winter.
We had started trying to take advantage of e7 by doing laundry and dishwashing through the night, but doing it any time on single rate still worked out cheaper for us.

You could monitor you usage for a couple of weeks and compare current cost to expected single rate cost.

wornoutmumoftwo

I have economy 7, hate the heating part of it as it isn't instant heat and need 24 hours notice of weather conditions but it's great for using the washing machine and tumble dryer overnight in the winter months, and the immersion heater. (Saves me a fortune - everything set up on timers)

Then again I've never had gas heating!

I would do as the previous poster suggested and monitor costs to find out what will be the best for you.

Stardelta

If you are not going to use it for storage heating and you are not get it changed you are with E,CON the day rate is very expensive, as is most E7 rates. Find the cheapest suppler of day only rate electricity. Of my 12500 units a year 82% are night units so that rate is important for me. If I could justify the cost of gas central heating I would change to day rate.

Elle00

Hi there, I've just moved into a housing association property and had economy 7 forced on me which they won't change it (it's built in). I think you have to decide what's more important to you - money or convenience.

If you have economy 7, you can do all your washing, drying etc late at night for around a third of the day rate cost (if you can sleep through it that is). The storage heaters mean your house would be warm when you got in from work as well as when you got up in the morning so if you want heating, you might want to use economy 7 for that.

BUT. I personally don't use heating, that's what jumpers are for. And when it's really cold, I just blast the super expensive heaters for an hour then switch them off - which costs about the same as running the storage heaters for 7hrs or whatever over night and I do it less often. I also have this strange fantasy whereby it would be nice to turn on a hot tap and have hot water come out of it (maybe that's just me?). I mean, if you don't bathe in the mornings etc then why bother heating the tank up at night just to have it gone cold by the time you actually want some hot water at 8pm? Sure you can fiddle around with the boost setting, but it's all a bit inconvenient for my liking.

So I think you have to decide between cost and convenience really. I personally was happier paying £45 a month leccy to get hot water on demand than I am paying £25 a month for this economy 7 lark.

Word to the wise though, the housing association chappies inform me that the economy 7 clock is built into the premises and NOT monitored by the power companies. So in theory, they claim, you can choose which 7hrs of cheap rate you have each day. I'm a bit too scared to try this out so if anyone knows what the situation here is - it could really help both the OP and myself too!

marc.faulkner

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I don't actually have any electric heating at all (whether storage heaters or otherwise), and I wouldn't say that I use excessive amounts of electricity through the night. I'll try to gvie a rough idea...

Morning - Radio (30 mins), kettle, toaster
Daytime - Fridge, freezer, alarm clock on standby
Evening - Lights (lounge, office area), fan over (no more than 30 mins), television, computer, washing machine (twice per week), tumble drier (twice per week).

That's a very rough guess, but I don't use a huge amount more than that.

I'm thinking I'd probably be better off on a single rate. Will call E.on this evening to register an account and give current readings. Will speak to them about a single rate (I've used a few comparison sites and they come out cheaper for both E7 and std, so I'll probably stick with them).

mute_posting

marc.faulkner wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I don't actually have any electric heating at all (whether storage heaters or otherwise), and I wouldn't say that I use excessive amounts of electricity through the night. I'll try to gvie a rough idea...

Morning - Radio (30 mins), kettle, toaster
Daytime - Fridge, freezer, alarm clock on standby
Evening - Lights (lounge, office area), fan over (no more than 30 mins), television, computer, washing machine (twice per week), tumble drier (twice per week).

That's a very rough guess, but I don't use a huge amount more than that.

I'm thinking I'd probably be better off on a single rate. Will call E.on this evening to register an account and give current readings. Will speak to them about a single rate (I've used a few comparison sites and they come out cheaper for both E7 and std, so I'll probably stick with them).

I'm pretty sure given your usage you will be better off on the suppliers single rate tarrif.

If you know the unit rates for both tarrifs (inc standing charges) you can estimate the break even point for avarage usage (and if you know actual usage even the actual break even point)

MP