Economy Seven

A question about : Economy Seven

Hi Folks,

A recent Martin programme alerted me to the fact that I have Economy 7 and am probably paying more for electricity than if I went back to a standard tariff. (I'm not using enough at night). So I contacted my (new) supplier (COOP) who could not find out who I need to contact to get the meter swapped from Economy 7 to a single meter.

Who should I get in touch with and what is their number? (I'm in Essex).

Many thanks.

Richard

Best answers:

• Your supplier usually
• Whooaaa there!
  Hold your horses! It may not be that simple! It may also end up costing you more depending your current set-up.
  You say you probably do not use enough at night:
  Is your property electric only?
  Do you have night storage heaters?
  Do they just have input and output knobs?
  How do you heat hot water?
  Do you know your annual usage in KWH? In Day and Night use?
  Have you compared tariffs using your annual KWH readings?
• Hi,
  We've had Economy 7 for quite a while and used to put the dishwasher and washing machine on at night so it made a bit of sense then. The rest of the house is gas central heating and fairly modern. Then the wife saw a programme about a dishwasher catching fire and that was it for night time electricity use! So we now (still) use gas central heating to warm the house (no storage heaters) and don't really put anything on at night, so I reckon now we would be better off without Economy 7. We've just switched supplier to COOP following on from one of Martin's programmes and when I spoke to them on the phone the lady could not find the details of who t get in touch with! Good eh?
  Hence the call for help from here!
  Help! Cheers.
• Still do a comparison based on your KWH to get accurate results.
  First Utility for example have an E7 tariff that is better than nearly all single rate tariffs. The day rate is around the same (if not cheaper) as most single rates and the night rate is around 7.5p with only a 14p per day standing charge. Even with a 20% or even a 0% night use, it can be much cheaper than a single rate tariff.
  So it is not as simple as it first appears. Hence the reason to do a good comparison. www.energyhelpline.com is a site I use.
  If you want help working out your annual usage, just post the past years worth of confirmed day/night meter reading (ignore estimated ones). Try to find two confirmed readings which are around one year apart. Might as well include your gas too if you like!
  In additon, many suppliers do not require a meter change (even though it is usually free). The larger companies can often combine the two meter readings into a single one without issue.
• Hi there,
  I'm with E-on and have an E7 meter - I was thinking of changing a while back and E-on told me that there was no need to change the meter - all they had to do was switch me to the single rate tariff of my choice and add the two meter reads together each time. Apparently British Gas and quite a few other companies are happy to do this.
  Do follow CashStrapped's advice first though, just in case - I kept E7 in the end as, on investigation, I discovered it was still cheaper for me even though my heating/water was on gas.
  Find your total yearly usage in kWh and how many of them/what percentage are on night rate, and use those figures to investigate both E7 and single rate tariffs on comparison sites. I am classed as a very low user but I still save Ј50/60 a year by being on E7.
• yes I was chastened today by both Cardew and Cashstrapped by an examination of the latest eco 7 rates, so much that I m seriously considering getting rid of my single rate meter and switching to a an eco 7 meter and buying a few second hand night storage heaters. I have a gas supply but have nt yet installed gas central heating
  Sainsburys Energy have come in with such a good night rate its got me thinking..eg day 12.29 kwhr and night at only 3.82 kwhr (26 p a day ) Also F. U. rates are also very good. I ve seen a least half a dozen old eco7 set ups today and 5 of them had their timer switches so out of kilter the night rate was coming on in a very usable time slot away from the dead of night to make good use of heavy use appliances.. Maybe its worth thinking twice about dumping eco 7
• Hi espresso
  It was other posters in the energy forum who told me I was a very low user when I posted for advice about changing my gas to Ebico after it came up in my cheap energy club account. I didn't have a clue til then, always thought I was just average, maybe verging on the lower side of average. I'm pretty new to this switching lark and, as such, any further advice from more knowledgeable posters is always welcome
  Electricity
  Between actual meter readings done on 10th March 2014 and 14th Feb 2015 (don't have actual confirmed readings exactly a year apart) I used 2055kWh total
  Day/Night usage varies between 50%/50% and 60%/40% depending on how careful I've been that month (last year i got a bit slack and the whole year averaged out at 60%/40% but previous years were always nearer the 50/50 mark - gotta get back on track with that).
  E.ON Energy Fixed 1 Year v10 for electricity only
  Day 14.049p per kWh
  Night 5.807p per kWh
  Standing charge 16.422p per day
  Paperless billing discount: Ј5 a year
  The Ј50/60 a year saving figure was just a quick 'on-the-fly' rough calculation, just comparing it to the single rate on my same tariff (13.912p per kWh) - I didn't check other companies.
  The last time I checked (admittedly a few months ago now) the cheapest single rate deals from any company were still Ј20-30 more a year than I'm paying on my current E7 tariff for the same number of kWh with standing charges factored in.
  I will still be looking at single as well as E7 rates next time I switch though as the big companies don't need a meter change according to E-on - they just add your readings together.
  My gas is on a pre-payment meter (legacy from previous tenant) so I can't have dual fuel - it was with British Gas but I'm in the process of changing to Ebico as, again, a low user apparently and the standing charge makes up nearly a third of my annual bill! If I find a credit meter tariff that's cheaper even with a standing charge, I will also be looking at changing to a credit meter if possible/free
  Annual usage 5143 kWh
  currently paying - 4.87p per kWh plus 26p per day standing charge. (with standing charge factored in it's costing me 6.7p per kWh used)
  Ebico price 5.41p per kWh, no standing charge.
  My heating and hot water are gas (GCH with a nearly new combi boiler), cooking and everything else is electricity.
• "Sainsburys Energy have come in with such a good night rate its got me thinking..eg day 12.29 kwhr and night at only 3.82 kwhr (26 p a day ) "
  Hi Sasquo - have you got a Sainsbury's discount card ?!
  I just did a "energyline" quote, and see no Sainsbury's rates
  anywhere at all, so went to their energy website instead, and
  any quote I saw was waaay above your figures !
  " I ve seen a least half a dozen old eco7 set ups today and 5 of them had their timer switches so out of kilter the night rate was coming on in a very usable time slot away from the dead of night to make good use of heavy use appliances.. Maybe its worth thinking twice about dumping eco 7 "
  Isn't it up to the supplier / meter reader to "re-set" these out-of-kilter
  mechanical timers? Mine is an ancient Horstmann timer
  with similar problems, I cannot see any way to adjust it myself,
  but everytime there's a power cut ( thanks, W.P.D. it is always incorrect, sometimes in my favour, sometimes not....
• There's a lot of discussion about Economy 7 here, but nobody has really answered the OP's question.
  Your supplier (Co-op) is responsible for your meter and your billing. If you don't want an Economy 7 tariff then they need to make this happen. They either need to just change your tariff and add your two meter readings together, or they need to arrange for a new meter to be fitted. The person at Co-op who you spoke to before obviously didn't know what she was doing. Try emailing them perhaps?
• I just called E.On, who was the supplier, paid about Ј60 by credit card, somebody came to change it, and that's it.
  Make sure you agree the closing meter readings from the old meter, and the starting reading of the new meter. Ideally, the engineer should give you a card with these on. Don't lose it until you have had a couple of bills, and all look correct.