Originally Posted by muggins14:
“If you are on Economy 7 or 10 there are cheap hours, mostly at night, when things like storage heaters will store their heat and yes, the rate is cheaper. Unfortunately the day rate is more expensive than you may be paying for a non-Economy 7, so all-in-all it's less cost-effective and you really have to be using at least 55% of your electricity in the 'cheap' hours (usually around midnight-7am) for it to work out cheaper.
You can ask your supplier to go onto Economy 7, but you will find you are paying more for your electricity as you would likely be using most of your electricity during the expensive hours.
ETA: All a smart meter does is tell you a lot of detail about what you are using so that you should, technically, be able to see what electricals you use that are using more electricity, perhaps enabling you to cut down or keep your heating lower - monitor your usage. You would really have to be very disciplined to make it work for you in this manner.”
Economy 7 and 10 are meant for people with storage heaters. If you have not got storage heaters, get off Economy 7/10 ASAP, it's costing you money.
The principle is this: just about the most expensive thing to do with your electricity supply is heat your home. A storage heater can use electricity supplied at night to heat up (basically) a load of bricks in your heater, which can then radiate that heat out through the day without being powered. It makes sense to use cheaper nighttime electricity to to that, (especially if you can use that same electricity to do other things, such as running a washing machine, that can be set on a timer) even if the electric you
use during the day for more mundane things is on a higher than normal rate, you usually come out on top. Not by much, but about 95% of the time it works out cheaper.
HOWEVER, if you do not have storage heaters (and they're not that common these days) but are on an Economy 7/10 tariff you are not only not using much of the cheap night rate electricity but you're ALSO heating your home with the much more expensive day rate electricity - and you are DEFINITELY onto a loser, contact your supplier IMMEDIATELY and get off the Economy 7/10 tariff!
I used to answer the phones for British Gas, and a lot of the people who I talked to who were on the Economy 7/10 didn't have storage heaters. What had usually happened was that the heaters were once storage heaters but then had been ripped out and replaced by a different type of heater - but no-one had thought to change the electric tariff and it had just carried on being cheap night/expensive day supply.
So, in summary - if you're on Economy 7/10 but don't have storage heaters...you're paying way over the odds for what you're using your electricity for. Get changed to a singe-rate tariff today!