Starting the journey with a new eon tarrif

[Jones886]

Hi all hope is well so I've decided to take the plunge today and try out eon's new ev drive tarrif I'm doing a test run for a month and will post my findings how I go so here is a low down on the costs and what it involves and what I'm doing to try cut costs.

Previous eon tarrif
32.81kwph (24 hour pricing)

New tarriff
47.34kwph 07.00 am till 00.00am (day rate)
10.99kwph 00.00am till 7.00am (night rate)

The steps I plan to take to make full use of the 10.99 kwph rate

. Washing machine on from 2 am (pre set on a time delay)

. Dishwasher on from 00.00 before I go to bed. This is around when I do go up so not causing me massive issues but will see.

. Ordering digital time delay plugs from amazon to charge up the kids ipad,s and phones overnight including ours.

. Using a project ev charger which I have time delay set to come on from 00.05 hours now plugged in ready to charge.

Things I'm worried about
. Having items charging when in bed around the house washing machine on etc.
. Will It become more costly based on the day rate charge ?

Best case - partner works 3 nights a week so doesn't have anythink running in the day.

. Kids at school

. I'm working 08.00 till 5pm

Worst case
. School holidays increased day usage
. Does it start to grind on me remembering to do the daily tasks of having multiple items on ready before I go to bed in other words been arsed to get up off the sofa.


Hope you all enjoy the thread and look forward to the comments

 

[mailmannz]

Why did you go with Eon instead of OVO (which is 32p a kWh and 10p charge any time for the car)??

 

[Jones886]

Why did you go with Eon instead of OVO (which is 32p a kWh and 10p charge any time for the car)??

With ovo you have to have certian chargers and they only have a limted number on there list currently I did look at this but only avialbule for a select few

 

[mailmannz]

Ahhhh…makes sense. Pity though.

 

[Lovemyev]

How do you heat your hot water ?.
Do you have a hot water storage tank with an emersion heater for example ???.

 

[Jones886]

How do you heat your hot water ?.
Do you have a hot water storage tank with an emersion heater for example ???.

Hi we have a hot water boost function which is powered by gas so standard boiler and water tank. our boiler is 17 years old and tbh I do need to look at upgrading ideally to a combi boiler ex council home so we are slowly upgrading stuff. Hope that answers the question not good with this sort of stuff.


Dan

 

[Gomev]

Hi all hope is well so I've decided to take the plunge today and try out eon's new ev drive tarrif I'm doing a test run for a month and will post my findings how I go so here is a low down on the costs and what it involves and what I'm doing to try cut costs.

Previous eon tarrif
32.81kwph (24 hour pricing)

New tarriff
47.34kwph 07.00 am till 00.00am (day rate)
10.99kwph 00.00am till 7.00am (night rate)

The steps I plan to take to make full use of the 10.99 kwph rate

. Washing machine on from 2 am (pre set on a time delay)

. Dishwasher on from 00.00 before I go to bed. This is around when I do go up so not causing me massive issues but will see.

. Ordering digital time delay plugs from amazon to charge up the kids ipad,s and phones overnight including ours.

. Using a project ev charger which I have time delay set to come on from 00.05 hours now plugged in ready to charge.

Things I'm worried about
. Having items charging when in bed around the house washing machine on etc.
. Will It become more costly based on the day rate charge ?

Best case - partner works 3 nights a week so doesn't have anythink running in the day.

. Kids at school

. I'm working 08.00 till 5pm

Worst case
. School holidays increased day usage
. Does it start to grind on me remembering to do the daily tasks of having multiple items on ready before I go to bed in other words been arsed to get up off the sofa.


Hope you all enjoy the thread and look forward to the comments

Using your figures input into my spreadsheet you will need to use c.65% of your day rate usage overnight to break even compared to your previous tariff (SVR).

To clarify if you use say 100kWh per week during the day then you will need to use approx 65kWh overnight per week. Any less overnight and you should stay on the SVR, any more and you are quids in.
The yellow column indicates how much extra you need to use at night per week based on your daytime usage
I hope this helps.

 

[Jones886]

Hi thankyou for the Info appreciate that. I have switched over the washing machine,dishwasher , all items that need charging including the car overnight.

I made it clear to eon that I will be doing a test run for one month to see what my bill is and if its not saving me any money I'll be going back to my standard tarrif and they said I can do this as there is no exit fee.


Dan

 

[smokie]

I made it clear to eon that I will be doing a test run for one month to see what my bill is and if its not saving me any money I'll be going back to my standard tarrif and they said I can do this as there is no exit fee.

That's a good call. It will take a bit to tempt me away from Octopus for nerdy reasons ( - as a hobby I've invested quite a bit of time in downloading my stats via a Raspberry Pi on a daily basis - ) but I am considering going back onto the Agile tariff (in preference to the Intelligent Octopus) at the end of my cheaper Go tariff (June), but only because I know I can change again after a month with no exit fee if it doesn't work out.

Interestingly, over the past week Agile would have been about £2 cheaper (£14 not £16) than my 7.5p Go Faster, though I've not charged the car much, and there have only been 13 Agile slots under my 7.5p 4-hour rate (which actually runs from 21:30 which is also quite convenient) - though some of those were negative (i.e. they pay you for your usage!)

 

[Lovemyev]

Hi we have a hot water boost function which is powered by gas so standard boiler and water tank. our boiler is 17 years old and tbh I do need to look at upgrading ideally to a combi boiler ex council home so we are slowly upgrading stuff. Hope that answers the question not good with this sort of stuff.


Dan

Dan - What rate are you paying for your gas ?.
Consider using your emersion heater in your storage tank to heat the water on the cheaper off peak as well ???.
This what we have done.
Just keep an eye on how many items you intend to “load switch” onto the cheaper rate.
What size is your main cut out protection fuse to your property?.
This is the main cut fuse that is owned by your local DNO network.
It should be printed on the service head.

 

[smokie]

You'd have to go some to bust a fuse surely? Usually minimum is 60 isn't it?

 

[Jomarkh]

Sounds like you have it sorted.
Just try staggering the starts times of the heavy current items.
I have added a couple of storage heaters so the EV starts at 0030, heater 1 at 0100 and heater 2 at 0130 then the immersion is on from 0300 and the loft water heater on at 0400 and the washing machine sometime around 0200.

 

[Deep purple]

I have PV system, no battery, which for some of the year sorts out the daytime usage.
I have some storage heating (about 4 KW) and use washing machine etc etc overnight, plus charging the car.
I am retired so probably use more daytime as I am not at work.
My proportion of night to day usage is 75/25.
I suggest that you could look at the cost benefits of a battery but my back of the envelope calc suggests that you might save £1K per year so payback time is long. The cost benefit gets better as soon as you add PV panels, but even then payback will be probably nearly 10 years.

 

[Lovemyev]

You'd have to go some to bust a fuse surely? Usually minimum is 60 isn't it?

Yeah - A 60 Amp fuse appears to be the most generally type / size of fuse fitted by the local DNO in our area.
But in new build modern properties, they shoot for installing either a 80 or 100 Amp fuse, because the larger number of electrical appliances used today, soon gets you creeping closer and closer to safe working load of 60 Amp fuse.
It surprisingly easy to reach that 60 Amps if you add up the items that you intend to use by load switching.
You absolutely do need to take full advantage of them precious 5 hours of any cheaper rate off peak tariffs, in order to try and make it pay.
But no two households I’ll be the same of course.
So, let’s just say for example you have your car charging from your wall box pulling ( 7 kw’s ) then you have an emersion heater heating your hot water, on a timer at ( 3.5 Kw’s ) then either a washing machine OR a tumble dryer ( 3.5 kw’s ) then bingo, your total demand is then 14 Kw’s.
This converts into JUST under 60 Amps and this makes no account for any other smaller electrical appliances running like fridges / freezers, charging phones lap tops etc in the home at the same time.
This was the whole reason why I had our general issued 60 Amp cut out fuse, updated by our local DNO to a 100 Amp service head and cut out fuse.
Load shifting has to be the absolute target here IF you are considering trying to use an off peak tariff.
We all know and accept the fact ( I think ) that the days of cheap energy has long gone for now and any so called “cheaper rate” tariffs are stacked up on the day time charges to claw back any discounts offered.
Therefore you really have to try avoiding the use of ANY high demand items in the day time hours if it’s at all possible, or it’s can become a completely pointless exercise TBH.
Since the huge increases in energy prices our
tumble dryer has pretty much been made redundant, it rarely gets used anymore and we always wash our clothes at night now.
We have reduced our gas boiler usage by 50% to heat our hot water for the first time in almost 30 years, because it is cheaper to use electricity to power an emission heater on a off peak tariff now at 4.5p / kWh.
Of course, this is not possible if you have a combi boiler as it’s hot water by demand.
We have a large duel fuel five gas burner set up with a double electric ovens.
The ovens are in semi retirement also now, after we bought an air fryer about 4 months ago.
Of course our energy bill ( like many others ) is very high, but you have to remember that if you are somebody who is covering a reasonable number of miles in a year in an EV, then this bill includes our fuel bill for the car !.
We are retired now and we have still managed to cover about 10,000 miles per year in our EV.
The cost of covering this number of miles in a fossil car, would not be viable or affordable anymore for us now.
I did the quick “man maths” on covering 10,000 miles in a year in a fossil car recently and nearly fainted at the cost !.
Again, no two user cases are ever going to be the same.
This applies to the use of fossil fuel cars, over EV’s and “should I be on a single rate tariff or time of day ( off peak ) tariff ?.
If you are a EV low mileage user case and your electricity consumption at home is also low, then it’s likely that paying the higher premium on time of day ( off peak ) tariff has no real gains to be made.
Similar could be said when it comes to installing a PV system and a home battery storage system.
The large initial outlay in this popular and newish technology, is both expensive to purchase and then install and will therefore require a good number of years to recoup.
Again, what user type are you ?.
High or Low ?.
What age bracket do you fall into ?.
If you get my meaning .

 

[Jones886]

Dan - What rate are you paying for your gas ?.
Consider using your emersion heater in your storage tank to heat the water on the cheaper off peak as well ???.
This what we have done.
Just keep an eye on how many items you intend to “load switch” onto the cheaper rate.
What size is your main cut out protection fuse to your property?.
This is the main cut fuse that is owned by your local DNO network.
It should be printed on the service head.

Hi its the standard rate for the gas told me that would not change its 10.24. I will have a to have a look in to that as not my special subject took a bit to get my head round all the faff eon was waffling down the phone according to them I could save roughly 500 pound if I play ball. My response was 1. We will see , 2. As in earlier comments no harm in a 1 months trial then compare the April's bill to may.

What I intend on doing is buying some timer plugs and set different items to come on at different times my wife isn't a fan on leaving stuff on but I just said you need to come on the process with me she hasn't got a lot of Intrest so I'll have to send her clothes shopping to cheer her up

Sounds like you have it sorted.
Just try staggering the starts times of the heavy current items.
I have added a couple of storage heaters so the EV starts at 0030, heater 1 at 0100 and heater 2 at 0130 then the immersion is on from 0300 and the loft water heater on at 0400 and the washing machine sometime around 0200.

Hi well I hope I do not quite sure if I've got it on hand just yet but I need faith i am been catious now what I'm doing just hard drumming it in to the kids who love the electric fire on every 5 minutes then I'm the bad one going around turning it off.


The plan is to get some digital timers to stagger the different items around the house.

I did a trial run last night with all the phone devices on, Car on a start delay charge from 00.05 and the dishwasher on. (Still waiting for the eon app to update the cost for last night)

Yeah - A 60 Amp fuse appears to be the most generally type / size of fuse fitted by the local DNO in our area.
But in new build modern properties, they shoot for installing either a 80 or 100 Amp fuse, because the larger number of electrical appliances used today, soon gets you creeping closer and closer to safe working load of 60 Amp fuse.
It surprisingly easy to reach that 60 Amps if you add up the items that you intend to use by load switching.
You absolutely do need to take full advantage of them precious 5 hours of any cheaper rate off peak tariffs, in order to try and make it pay.
But no two households I’ll be the same of course.
So, let’s just say for example you have your car charging from your wall box pulling ( 7 kw’s ) then you have an emersion heater heating your hot water, on a timer at ( 3.5 Kw’s ) then either a washing machine OR a tumble dryer ( 3.5 kw’s ) then bingo, your total demand is then 14 Kw’s.
This converts into JUST under 60 Amps and this makes no account for any other smaller electrical appliances running like fridges / freezers, charging phones lap tops etc in the home at the same time.
This was the whole reason why I had our general issued 60 Amp cut out fuse, updated by our local DNO to a 100 Amp service head and cut out fuse.
Load shifting has to be the absolute target here IF you are considering trying to use an off peak tariff.
We all know and accept the fact ( I think ) that the days of cheap energy has long gone for now and any so called “cheaper rate” tariffs are stacked up on the day time charges to claw back any discounts offered.
Therefore you really have to try avoiding the use of ANY high demand items in the day time hours if it’s at all possible, or it’s can become a completely pointless exercise TBH.
Since the huge increases in energy prices our
tumble dryer has pretty much been made redundant, it rarely gets used anymore and we always wash our clothes at night now.
We have reduced our gas boiler usage by 50% to heat our hot water for the first time in almost 30 years, because it is cheaper to use electricity to power an emission heater on a off peak tariff now at 4.5p / kWh.
Of course, this is not possible if you have a combi boiler as it’s hot water by demand.
We have a large duel fuel five gas burner set up with a double electric ovens.
The ovens are in semi retirement also now, after we bought an air fryer about 4 months ago.
Of course our energy bill ( like many others ) is very high, but you have to remember that if you are somebody who is covering a reasonable number of miles in a year in an EV, then this bill includes our fuel bill for the car !.
We are retired now and we have still managed to cover about 10,000 miles per year in our EV.
The cost of covering this number of miles in a fossil car, would not be viable or affordable anymore for us now.
I did the quick “man maths” on covering 10,000 miles in a year in a fossil car recently and nearly fainted at the cost !.
Again, no two user cases are ever going to be the same.
This applies to the use of fossil fuel cars, over EV’s and “should I be on a single rate tariff or time of day ( off peak ) tariff ?.
If you are a EV low mileage user case and your electricity consumption at home is also low, then it’s likely that paying the higher premium on time of day ( off peak ) tariff has no real gains to be made.
Similar could be said when it comes to installing a PV system and a home battery storage system.
The large initial outlay in this popular and newish technology, is both expensive to purchase and then install and will therefore require a good number of years to recoup.
Again, what user type are you ?.
High or Low ?.
What age bracket do you fall into ?.
If you get my meaning .

Answer to this question also
Age bracket coming on 30 feel like 50
I would say currently as haven't been doing a lot charging once every 6/7 days (This will increase soon as the summer is near will be out on a lot of day trips for the kids.

I could fall flat on my arse with this tarrif but I was curious to find out and really see what I can achieve eon have based me on 8/10k a year usage to calculate the saving

 

[Lovemyev]

Did you remember to check what rating your main cut out fuse is rated at ??.

 

[smokie]

Phone chargers won't help a lot but every little helps.

My rule of thumb is that is anything gets warm then it's using more power than stuff which doesn't. Well, my car doesn't get warm as far as I know, but heating, washing, dishwashers, tumble dryers, heaters etc etc... you know what I mean.

 

[Lovemyev]

If it’s got a heating element, then expect it’s going to be hungry for juice .
Phone chargers / tablets etc are a light load in the great scheme of things.

 

[Tweed98]

Use a Slow cooker overnight to save money cooking, you'll have to have dinner for breakfast though!

I read somewhere before the prices got silly if you charged your phone constantly for a year it would cost you around 20 pence.
You would be better of putting timers on TVs, smart speakers (Sonos particularly bad apparently) anything that goes onto standby rather than powers down.

 

[Lovemyev]

Use a Slow cooker overnight to save money cooking, you'll have to have dinner for breakfast though!

I read somewhere before the prices got silly if you charged your phone constantly for a year it would cost you around 20 pence.
You would be better of putting timers on TVs, smart speakers (Sonos particularly bad apparently) anything that goes onto standby rather than powers down.

We have a slow cooker also, they are brilliant and only use a very small amount of enery.
Buying an air fryer makes a much bigger difference than using a electric oven.
We use it almost every day in one form or another.
There is no pre warning of a large oven space like in a conventional oven.
Our range cooker oven can take 15 - 20 minutes to hit the 200 degree mark from rest.
That cost soon multiplies in daily use.
We only ever use the large oven now if we have family around for a Sunday diner.
They are a worth while investment for saving on energy usage.