ANY ADVICE BETWEEN SMART METER AND ECONOMY 7. EDF SAYING SMART ECONOMY 7 IS BETTER BUT WE DONT HAVE STORAGE HEATERS.

[dundee1961]

He says aa we are currently in EDF Easy online January 2023 and excellent Rates.. I'm better to stay on this and get a Smart Economy 7 Meter.. Needing some advice.. Thank you Catherine

 

[biffo]

Would the plan be to have car charger running on the economy 7 meter? Might be that the prices of their peak rate portion of an EV tariff would cost you more as your fixed rate is significantly lower? Just speculating though…

 

[dundee1961]

Would the plan be to have car charger running on the economy 7 meter? Might be that the prices of their peak rate portion of an EV tariff would cost you more as your fixed rate is significantly lower? Just speculating though…

Yes with us renewing our electricity December 21 with current tarriff. He says changing to and ev tarriff I'll be more during the day and. Dearer for daily charges.
I'm currently 17.6p a kwh ( new tarriff daily 24.2 during day and 4.5p at night) and 26.3p daily charge ( which is going up to 34.3p)
Thank you

 

[Lovemyev]

Would the plan be to have car charger running on the economy 7 meter?

I had this facility for a good while, when we had our previous car.
We had a Eco 7 rate and meter which gave us cheaper "Off - Peak" juice between midnight and about seven A.M. ( ish ) in the morning.

 

[dundee1961]

I had this facility for a good while, when we had our previous car.
We had a Eco 7 rate and meter which gave us cheaper "Off - Peak" juice between midnight and about seven A.M. ( ish ) in the morning.

What are you on now? Guy from EDF took time explaining, he said I'm currently on an excellent tarriff and even adding on an ev he thinks if i move to an ev tarriff I'll be more expensive.
I'm not sure what to do, he says stay on current tariff and get a Smart Economy 7 Meter i didn't know you got them? Thank you

 

[biffo]

Might be worth going with their advice until your figure out nightly usage for EV, then compare your Peak and Off-Peak usage (and cost) compared to their (or other company’s) EV tariff

 

[dundee1961]

Might be worth going with their advice until your figure out nightly usage for EV, then compare your Peak and Off-Peak usage (and cost) compared to their (or other company’s) EV tariff

Yes that's a good idea xx

 

[dundee1961]

What to you think is the best get a smart meter installed or a smart economy 7 meter?

 

[Alb]

Economy 7 doesn't require a dedicate meter.
A standard smart meter can be remotely programmed to apply any tariff arrangement.

 

[dundee1961]

Economy 7 doesn't require a dedicate meter.
A standard smart meter can be remotely programmed to apply any tariff arrangement.

Even ev tarriff?

 

[Alb]

Even an EV tariff.
It isn't doing anything clever, just recording when energy is used and applying the relevant rate.

 

[Jomarkh]

Does E7 have a seperate meter?
When I had storage heaters they were on their own meter you could not turn them on during the day.
If that is the same set up nowadays then the EV charger would be on the E7 meter and could only be used on the E7 times so no top up during the day if it was needed?
I maybe totally wrong of course.

 

[Alb]

You could find two meters on very old installations if you had dedicated circuitry for storage heaters but there must be very few people using these now.

 

[Tim Green]

With off-peak nowadays you get a meter that records the two charging periods separately. The system works well for storage heaters, although still expensive. It needs separate wiring in the house so would need as special feed to the garage/car.
I'm not sure whether you are allowed to put 13A sockets on the night-time system.

 

[Jomarkh]

If it was a car charger it maybe 32A for a 7.5kw unit

 

[Lovemyev]

Before having our SMES2 smart meter installed, we had a four terminal digital dual rate meter installed.
This controlled the switching of the “Off - Peak” rates automatically.
The tails from the meter where configured so we could charge from the wall box both on daily rate and Off - Peak.
With a dedicated Eco 7 meter designed for night storage heaters, with only three meter terminals, you end up ONLY being able to charge “Off - Peak” hours.
Which is useless if you require a charge in the day !.
But the older four terminal dual rate meters are fairly rare now.
I ended up with one that had been removed from somebody else’s home after a smart meter upgrade !.
It worked just fine and I was billed correctly by British Gas at the time.
You just have to be careful what type of meter you get installed.
A smart meter is a better long term solution because when chasing EV tariffs, energy companies are likely to insist that you have a SMES2 meter installed, in order for them to speak to the meter every 30 minutes or so.

 

[BrianG]

E7 rates seem expensive these days, I was on E7 for years (without storage heaters) but ditched it a few years ago. The EV rates are much better, possibly because you draw power year round rather than peak winter times at night. Anyway with the power prices in chaos at the moment who can say when is a good time to change supplier tariff?