Economy 7/9 worth it?

[SiD the Turtle]

Morning people of OcUK. I've just moved into a (rented) flat and entered the wonderful world of Economy 9. Yes, 9, rather than 7 apparently.

If I understand it correctly this means my electricity is cheaper in the evenings, so this is when the boiler heats the water, when I should wash my clothes etc. uSwitch suggests that this is only cost efficient if you use 40% of your juice in the off-peak hours.

Now this sounds like a recipe for huge bills considering my flatmate is a student who may be in the house, on the PC, TV etc during the day time.

Is it worth it? If not, can I just use the normal tariff? If I do that, considering everything in the flat is electric, is that going to be equally expensive?

 

[RobH]

My flat has economy 7, the off-peak tariff is about 1/5th of the peak one so it makes sense to take advantage of the off-peak period if possible. My flat has storage heaters, electric water heater and a tumble dryer, scheduling these to be on in the off-peak times saves a considerable amount. If you had a normal tariff you would probably end up paying a similar amount to use these appliances due to the increased costs.

Remember, it going to be things such as water heaters, electric heaters, ovens, dishwashers and tumble dryers that will really rack up the usage. Things like TVs and computers are not going to be too bad in terms of usage.

 

[LordSplodge]

If you can run your White goods like dishwasher, washing machine etc overnight on Economy 7 then the savings are higher than Economy 9 as the rate is better.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Morning people of OcUK. I've just moved into a (rented) flat and entered the wonderful world of Economy 9. Yes, 9, rather than 7 apparently.

If I understand it correctly this means my electricity is cheaper in the evenings, so this is when the boiler heats the water, when I should wash my clothes etc. uSwitch suggests that this is only cost efficient if you use 40% of your juice in the off-peak hours.

Now this sounds like a recipe for huge bills considering my flatmate is a student who may be in the house, on the PC, TV etc during the day time.

Is it worth it? If not, can I just use the normal tariff? If I do that, considering everything in the flat is electric, is that going to be equally expensive?

Sounds like you'd be better off on the normal tarriff. Although it depends on your friend. Is he out most of the time, or is he the type to stay in all day on his PC with the heating on and using the electic oven a lot? (etc)