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Economy 7 - to stay on or not?

(7 Posts)
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kittylester Sun 08-Feb-15 08:19:43

With having a large family it has always made sense for us to be on Economy 7 and use our appliances overnight - we do not have storage heaters. I gather Economy 7 is only worthwhile if the units used overnight are around 25% to 30% of the total so, as ours are borderline, we are thinking of going onto a single tariff. DD3 and the children , obviously, increase our usage quite considerably but look as though they will be moving out soon.

I would like to know whether the meters would need to be changed if we changed tariffs?

I would welcome losing the 'tyranny' of Economy 7.

Thanks for your help!! And, any suggestions of good and bad companies would be nice too! smile

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Pittcity Sun 08-Feb-15 09:13:14

Our house was on Economy 7 when we moved in and we changed straight away. It is not economical unless you have storage heaters as the daytime tariff is higher. Yes, you will need a new meter.
Money Saving Expert has a good article about it with links to help you get a free new meter and the best deal.

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pompa Sun 08-Feb-15 09:20:57

EON have an online tool that lets you enter your energy usage pattern and amounts, it then gives you a comparison of the relative costs/yr of the various options. Coming off E7 was slightly cheaper for us and we didn't have to worry about setting things to run overnight.

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kittylester Sun 08-Feb-15 11:36:55

Thanks both! Did you have to change meters pompa? MSE has two different opinions on that on the forum!

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pompa Sun 08-Feb-15 12:18:31

No, we have a single meter that switches between night/day, guess they just sum the two together.

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Tegan Sun 08-Feb-15 12:26:00

Yes; that's what they do with mine. I hadn't realised that, with Economy 7 the daytime rate is higher and didn't switch for years.

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pompa Sun 08-Feb-15 12:35:20

I suspect E7 only works if you can use a fair amount of overnight power, otherwise the high day rate negates it.

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