Advice on economy 7/9/10 tariffs for meter upgrade due to RTS switch off

[jfb]

Hi all,

 

I have a 3 phase supply that feeds multiple buildings including a house with 6kw ASHP and potentially another dwelling (with ASHP) in the future.

It also feeds other outbuildings.

there is also the possibility of solar panels in the future.

 

currently I’m on a split system with cheaper rate for storage heater/night time though I don’t actually have storage heaters and I suspect the timer for the system isn’t as it should be. Anyway the RTS switch off is happening and I need to book a new meter or two.

currently with OVO and they say that once I choose which one to go for it can’t be changed to another option.

there seem to be 4 options, economy 7/9/10 and anytime.

Apart from anytime where it’s a single rate (25p) the others have slightly different timings economy 7 being a solid 8 hours at night and 9 and 10 having two or three hour chunks spread out in the day. To go with that they have slightly different rates for on and off peak but only by a penny or two (27/18, 28/19 and 27/19)

 

Does anyone have any advice on what might be best long term? Can ASHPs be told to prioritise certain time settings (the current one is an ecodan Mitsubishi)?

 

I’m thinking it would be a mistake to go for the standard anytime tariff but it’s not really based on actual knowledge of how much energy gets used at different times of the day!
 

cheers

[JohnMo]

12 minutes ago, jfb said:

Does anyone have any advice on what might be best long term

Move to octopus they have better smart tariffs, are a better company to deal with, use the forums referral scheme and get £50 credit.

 

Your tariffs will also have a peak rates, so you need to understand how you use energy and work out the best one for you

[jfb]

2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Move to octopus they have better smart tariffs, are a better company to deal with, use the forums referral scheme and get £50 credit.

 

Your tariffs will also have a peak rates, so you need to understand how you use energy and work out the best one for you

Thanks, seems like good advice. Not too keen on OVO.

 

one question - there is a bit of urgency in that apparently the RTS switch off is happening in a few days here. I was thinking that when it turns off basically all my electrical usage will just be billed at the higher rate but in speaking to OVO they seemed adamant that anything  that runs from the off peak meter will just stop working. Any idea if that’s true?

to be honest it’s a bit of a clusterf…… where the meters are and I can’t even tell what is running from the different meters. If it does get turned off it’s going to be quite awkward!

[JohnMo]

From what understood RTS is used to switch on the cheap rate consumer unit (charge up storage heaters etc), so what they say may be correct - if you don't have storage heaters switch to standard rate now, while everything gets switched over.

 

I would then get your consumer units brought together to act as one - should be an easy job for an electrician.

[Susie]

If you don’t have storage heaters now the switch over probably won’t affect you too much. Perhaps the property did once and they where removed. Did you use timers for washing machine or immersion heaters to make use of economy 7 it’s not just what was on the one CU, eg old storage heater CU.
Presumably you are going to have a smart meter installed, there could be a wait for a 3phase smart meter as the installation involves a little more knowledge than the average switch over and there was a shortage of supply of 3phase meters once.

we switched over 2 years ago EDF did the switch they where useless first year with them and they never got it all reporting our useage correctly. They knocked off £600 for the inconvenience though.

Moved to Octopus and from day one it worked correctly but we have had a few wobbles when rates change etc reassuringly they always know how much electricity we are using and on what tariff even if the in home display is incorrectly showing me my solar outgoing rate.  A few emails and messages and it got sorted.

Once you have a smart meter with a counter for two rates then you can change between economy 7 to economy 10 or any other time of use tariff. 
It would be worth looking back at your bills now and seeing how much it would have cost you had you been on standard rate 24hrs. 
We currently get paid slightly more for our outgoing electric (solar) then the off peak economy 7 rate so I use as much as I can immersion, dishwasher, even the bread maker at night and we are better off both in winter occasionally storage heater and summer being on economy 7. We also run a business from home and are both here all day so use a fair bit of daytime electric. 
You really need to do your sums based on your own usage.