Economy 7 meters?

[Ellieb98]

Hi everyone, does anybody have economy 7 meters? How do you manage? And if you dont mind me asking how much does it cost you? For a 2 bed flat just electric

Yes, unfortunately we are on economy 7! Such a pain in the bottom as I have one storage heater for the whole flat, so have electric radiators in the other rooms. I pay around £60 a month during the summer months and £80-£90 in the winter months for 2 people living in a one bedroom flat.

I submit meter readings every month online and pay for what I've used so that there's no nasty surprises!

We had Economy 7 when we had electric heating - I did my best to run washing machine, tumble drier etc at night. You may not like doing that if you worry about the fire risk.

Electric heating is expensive, especially older storage heaters. Hated it. But if it's what you've got, make the best of it by learning the best settings for heaters, exactly when your cheap hours are and shop around for cheapest deal on uSwitch etc.

I have 5 storage heaters through out my 2 bedroom flat and my energy suppliers trying to charge me £250+ a month 🙄. So do you do your washing and heat your water up during the night when it's cheaper? Im abit worried about using a plug in timer for the machine as we will all be asleep and could catch fire.

Are you using the storage heaters effectively? Are you on the right tariff?

My brother has economy 7 and times his washing machine to go on first thing.you need to research how to effectively use the heaters

I havent even used the storage heaters in months and i heat my water during the night for the next day. Only thing i do is use the washing machine every couple of days and the oven during the day.

Dont think id be able to sleep with the washing machine on during the night due to the risk and suppose its not really fair on the neighbours underneath

How long is your water on for? A couple of hours should be sufficient

2 hours during the night

I have a huge apartment with three big storage heaters, in a very old, poorly insulated house with leaky windows and I pay £150 per month which includes all heating, cooking, washing and tumble drying. I supplement the storage heaters with fan and convector heaters, and oil filled radiators in the colder months. Something is wrong with your usage/tariff/billing.

You need to find out when your cheaper 7 hours are. From memory, ours used to be 12-7 or 1-8, changing when the clocks went back/forward. I think some suppliers do a tariff with ten cheaper hours - you need to look at the details to work out which is best for you.

If you don't want to run machines when you're asleep, you can time them to come on early morning. Also, learn to read your meters. Take readings and get an idea of how much you use in a 24 hour period when not doing much. Then when you use your storage heaters, you can get a rough idea of how much they're costing you.

When I was very poor, I knew how much it cost to boil the kettle, run the heating, do a quick wash or hot wash. Also be aware that things like the fridge and lights with lots of bulbs don't use much electricity compared to an iron, but because they're on all the time or for hours, they can be expensive over a long period.

£250 a month sounds way too expensive, but you don't want to underpay and have a huge bill in the spring.

Are you on an economy 7 tariff? Have you checked if another supplier would be cheaper

My tariff says 'warm home saver' i think because ive got a warm home discount on my account im assuming. im going to give them a call Monday

Who is your supplier?

Spark

You are going to use way more electricity in the winter, so if you know how many kwh you use in a year, you could go on a comparison site such as uswitch and put in your tariff for an annual cost. It will also show you cheaper alternatives.

If you don't know how much you use, you could go with averages (www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/average-household-gas-and-electricity-usage). If you head over to Moneysavingexpert, there is a Gas and Elec forum where there will be lots of people who will help you to reduce your usage and bills.

However, if you've never used the storage heaters and Spark are trying to charge you £250 a month, they must have made a mistake unless you're repaying a debt for previous usage.

Ok thank you. No im not paying any debt im sure they have made a mistake ill call them. Thanks

Do you input 2 different readings when submitting them? One for day and one for night?

Yes

I would just add that you should check your agreement with the management company if flats are leasehold, as we are not allowed to run our washing machines/dryers after 11pm or before 7am.

I've lived in a few flats with economy 7, it's not too bad if you know how to make the most of it.

As others have said, try to run your washing machine and water heater overnight. Putting on the immersion heater during peak time will cost a fortune! Heating water uses a lot of energy so running it during the day should only be a last resort, if you need hot water for washing up just boil a kettle for what you need.

For the radiators, you need to keep one eye on the weather forecast! Turn up the "input" dial if it looks like it'll be a cold day tomorrow, and keep the "output" dial turned all the way down. The input dial controls how much the heater heats up overnight, and the output dial controls how quickly the heat comes out. What you're aiming for is a slow release of the heat over the course of the day, so you need to keep the output dial turned off, and only open it up as a last resort if you're cold in the evening. If you do need to turn up the output dial, make sure you turn it off when you go to bed otherwise it'll just piss away all the heat that should be building up overnight.

Hot water bottles and snuggling under a duvet on the sofa are your friend! Don't turn on the peak rate heater if they have them, it'll cost a bomb.

Ok thank you. With the storage heaters say the 7 hours was 12-7am does that mean id have to wake up at 12 turn the input up then wake up again at 7 to turn the input off then turn the output on low during the day?

My storage heaters are kept on low output (2) permanently, except for the rare evening when I turn it up. They’re very old, dials are 1-6. I keep them thusly:
Summer (roughly July - Sept, when nights are warm) input 2. Often the thermostat doesn’t allow them to heat up, but if there’s a cold snap I get some warmth.
Autumn (roughly late Sept - early Nov) input 3
Winter (mild) (late Nov, Dec) input 4
Winter (coldish) (Jan, Feb) input 5.
Very cold Winter input 6.
Spring (March - May/June) input depending on temperature, 3/2.
The trick is not to do too much adjustment and let the thermostat do its work.
Oh and days I’m at work I keep them one setting down from seasonal. I’m working Mon - Thur next week so this evening I’ll turn them down, Thur evening I’ll turn them back up.
I’m an early riser so my tumble drier goes on 5:00 - 7:00 am.

@Ellieb98

Ok thank you. With the storage heaters say the 7 hours was 12-7am does that mean id have to wake up at 12 turn the input up then wake up again at 7 to turn the input off then turn the output on low during the day?

No, there will be two sets of wiring in the property. One for peak rate, which is live all the time, and one for cheap rate which only comes on when the economy 7 is active.

So you set the input dials on the heaters the night before (after checking the weather forecast!) and you don't need to worry about turning it off as it'll do that by itself.

Same with the hot water heater, you usually have 2 switches - one for the economy 7 that heats the whole tank, which should be left switched on all the time, and one for emergency use that will cost a small fortune and only heat part of the tank.

Ok thank you, so when it gets really cold i can leave the input on medium all the time and it will only charge me for the night use? And my hot tank doesnt have any switches its just got the little pins and the time so ive set it for a couple hours during the night and its on for an hour in the evening so my son can have a bath.