Economy 7 rate for gas and electricity

[filthiestfis]

Is it true that you can only go on economy 7 rate if you have storage heaters at home? I have central heating so im thinking that I dont qualify for it

[rov1200]

I don't think you need to qualify for it as its just a personal choice. We once had it and we only used it for having the immersion on overnight. Because we never achieved value from it I decided to go onto the single tarriff. We had two meters but all they do was to add the 2 figures together.

Work out your output as you may start to lose money.

[filthiestfis]

Hi rov1200 and thank you for your answer. Im sorry but I dont really understand what you are saying re. immersion (what is it?) and single tariff?

[regulo]

My friend is on a day/night tariff, (economy 7 in all but name), but has had gas central heating since her bungalow was built. She used to have a washer/dryer with a start delay, so did all her laundry on night rate. Since she had to change her machine to one without a start delay, and it needs two separate button pushes to start it, she now can't use it, but she uses a convector heater in her conservatory, timed to come on during the night in winter, to save all her delicate plants. Rov1200's referring to immersion is an electric water heater, like a kettle element in the hot water tank, usually 3kW, a very expensive way of heating large amounts of water. Single tariff is simply one rate for the whole 24 hours.

[buildersmate]

It isn't a question of qualifying for it - it's a question of whether it will save you money. Economy 7 only works well if you use a lot of electricity at night when the cheaper (note, not cheap) electricity is available. Storage rads are the device used to use electricity at night, then dispense it out as heat by day.
Unless you use lots of electricity to cook, run dishwashers and washing machines at night, this isn;t going to save you anything.

[filthiestfis]

But surely if you have a storage heater that saves electricity at night its using the lower night rate thus this is a saving? So as I dont have storage heaters at home it means I cant store energy at a cheaper night rate.

[factor-fiction]

Re your latest reply, filthiestfis, you could save money from storage heaters because of the lower night rate but if you have Economy 7 you pay ahigher than normal rate for day use, so you may be worse off overall.
But even without storage heaters you can still be better off with E7 if you heat water by electricity overnight and use your dishwasher and washer overnight. I recall you need to have al 30-35% of your electricy consumption at Economy 7 night rates to make it worthwhile

[filthiestfis]

Oh I couldnt use our dishwasher or washing machine in the middle of the night as our neighbours would definetly complain about the noise!