Economy 7

[Farmer Giles]

I have an Economy 7 supply - which is used for storage heaters, and for domestic hot water. The supply naturally has its own separate consumer unit, and I was thinking of putting a socket in my kitchen wired up to this.

Our Economy 7 supply normally doesn't switch off until around 9.00 am so

- as my wife and I are usually up some hours before that - we thought that we could could plug the washing machine, tumble dryer etc, into this socket and obviously make quite a saving - if these daily tasks were carried out early in the morning.

Leaving Part P considerations out of it, does anyone know if our supplier would object to this?

[tinnews]

It's not "natural" to have a separate consumer unit for Economy 7 nowadays, that's the old-fashioned way of doing it.

We're on Economy 7 and we simply have a meter with two totals on it, one is the number of units consumed between 07:00 and midnight, the other is the number of units consumed between midnight and 07:00 (not sure about the exact times but you get the idea). Thus *all* of the electricity we consume during the night is on the cheap rate.

I think you may find that if you ask you can get your supplier to change to a 'dual' meter like ours. It's certainly the simplest and easiest (and most economical for you) solution.

[Rob graham]

I cannot see why it would, nor why it should be allowed to if it does. The Economy 7 is there for you to use as you want to. Just because most people only have their immersion heaters and such like wired into it doesn't mean that nothing else can be.

Rob Graham

[Martin]

As already mentioned, the "old" off-peak system of having 2 separate meters (one used exclusively for night storage) has largely been replaced by Econ 7 (the 7 refers to 7 hours off-peak, midnight to 7am) whereby all units are on cheap tariff during the night.

(IIRC, the earlier 2-meter system included an afternoon boost for a couple of hours - does yours?)

Your supplier would be delighted if you used off-peak for everything (hence the incentive of cheaper units).

However, bear in mind that full rate should click in at 7am (before peak demand when the factories start up etc) - so yours has obviously slipped a couple of hours. Hence, you'll need to get up early (easy for a farmer) to take full advantage. Or use a timer - our hot air drier had such a timer built in....

If you stick to two meters, then fit the 13A outlets (Part P permitting, as you say), and just load the washers etc before midnight, and the timing will be done for you. That said, the damp washing will have to sit around til the next night to get dried....

[ARWadsworth]

Your supplier does not care what you use the Economy 7 electricity for. Adding a socket for washing/drying overnight is fine.

Adam

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. To answer the questions asked - we do only have one meter, which has two separate registers, but we have a separate CU for off-peak supplies. The off-peak supply is controlled by a clock, which presently seems a wee bit adrift - it comes on about 2.00 am until 9.00 am - but this is ok by us.

There doesn't seem to be any afternoon 'boost', although we do have friends with a similar set-up and theirs does come on for a short while in the afternoon.

[Dane Koekoek]

My setup sounds similar to yours. Here I have a meter with two settings - LOW and NORMAL. The separate timeclock switches the meter over to LOW for the 7 hours a day for Economy 7. This is switches on the separate circuit for Economy 7 in the properly, heating up storage heaters and the hot water tank.

However, it's worth noting that when the meter is switched over to LOW (Economy 7) then *ALL* electricity usage is charged at the lower rate, automatically. So there's no need to mess around wiring in extra circuits, just use the washing machine and tumble dryer when you're in the Economy 7 window and you'll be fine.

This is how it's wired up for me, at any rate.

Dane

[Farmer Giles]

I don't think mine happens that way - but I'll check tomorrow morning. If it does it will save a lot of bother.

[zaax]

On mine when the economy 7 timer clicks over,*all* the sockets are on economy 7. As the washing machine and dish washer both have a built in countdown timer they are all timed to work at night.

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks. This has already been pointed out to me, and I have discovered that my system does work in this way as well.