UK electric tariffs

[Plug]

Do you have a special meter or the standard one Plug?

Just the standard meter, I did ask about the smart meter and submitted the request online but got a reply saying that they haven't started rolling these out in my area yet.

The reason I asked about that was that I've read that Centrica (British Gas) have started a trial tariff for smart meter customers which offers free electricity on Saturdays. This is to smooth out the peaks/troughs from peak demand during the week days and has apparently run successfully in the US. I figure that'd be a nice perk for EV owners

 

[Bunter]

Do you have a special meter or the standard one Plug?

Just the standard meter, I did ask about the smart meter and submitted the request online but got a reply saying that they haven't started rolling these out in my area yet.

The reason I asked about that was that I've read that Centrica (British Gas) have started a trial tariff for smart meter customers which offers free electricity on Saturdays. This is to smooth out the peaks/troughs from peak demand during the week days and has apparently run successfully in the US. I figure that'd be a nice perk for EV owners

So how does the supplier know when you bought the electricity in order to charge you at the night time tariff?

 

[Plug]

So how does the supplier know when you bought the electricity in order to charge you at the night time tariff?

I guess it must be one of the older 'economy 7' type meters although I'm not sure. I only bought the house recently and this split tariff is what was offered to me when I moved in so I'm keen to keep it seeing as I'll be doing the vast majority of my charging overnight.

 

[RJSATLBA]

I've started to try and work out whether it would make sense for me to switch to an Economy 7 tariff once the i3 arrives and it is looking interesting. I haven't researched the market fully yet the but for suppliers I've looked at, the E7 day rate is higher than their normal day time rate so it seems that you have to factor in how much extra the day time rate costs rather than just looking at how much E7 will save overnight when charging the i3.

For example, EBICO which was mentioned by another forumite charges 17.24 on its std tariff but 20.94 day and 8.07 night in my region, my existing non-green supplier says as a guide that for E7 to give savings, around 35% of usage must be at off-peak rate. For Ecotricity the tariffs in y region are 16.87 std and 19.81/6.72 E7 with an increase of c £25 in the annual standing charge.

I've been checking my meter morning and night and it looks as if I would use about 9Kwh during the 17 hours of day rate and 2Kwh during the 7 hours of night rate assuming day is 0600-2300.. I doubt if that will change much in Summer as the day time consumption will drop because the central heating pump will be not be in use and the electric lighting will be negligible but the fridge and two freezers (home cooked and/or home grown food!) will be working harder. The only load I can shift to night rate is the washing machine and the dishwasher but as I live on my own the former gets used less than once every two days and the latter once a week. The other 24 hour load is the pumps and filters for two small ponds.

in EBICO's case I noticed their offpeak is 0100-0800, which would help as it would mean that a significant early morning peak use (heating firing up in Winter, kettle etc) would be at off-peak rate, which surprised me.

It looks like we each need to do the calcs based on current (ouch) electricity use, the gains and losses on E7 tariffs and how much home charging we expect to do.

 

[Plug]

I've been checking my meter morning and night and it looks as if I would use about 9Kwh during the 17 hours of day rate and 2Kwh during the 7 hours of night rate

and what do you estimate those numbers will be when you get your i3 ?

I've only been driving an i3 for just over a week but so far my charging consumption has averaged about 13kWh per day.

 

[RJSATLBA]

I got as far as deciding that rather than repeating calculations for assumptions of tariffs and i3 charging I ought to knock together a quick spreadsheet but haven't yet done so. Will post when I have. What average daily mileage are you doing to give that daily charge requirement, I reckon I'll be able to get by on charging every other day most of the time, occasionally less but once a week I'll do a round trip that will use around 80%.

 

[Plug]

What average daily mileage are you doing to give that daily charge requirement ?

I'm almost ashamed to say the average was only 41 miles per day which is pretty poor but in my defence I've been driving it 'enthusiastically' and over half of the mileage is fast motorway (my daily commute is well within the battery range so I don't really think about being ECO-PRO). I'll be doing a 200 mile journey fairly soon so will find out then how well I can stretch the range when driving more carefully.

 

[RJSATLBA]

Lots of number crunching done now, assuming 10,000 home charged miles pa, and 80 miles per full charge equivalent.

I'm heartily sick of the big 6 energy companies and the tricks they get up to, so intend to switch to a green energy provider at the same time when my contract runs out, by which time the i3 should be imminent. I've looked at Ovo, Ecotricity and Good Energy.

For me, in this region (electricity prices vary by region as well as supplier) it looks like moving to an Economy 7 deal is a no brainer unless the cost of installing the special metering is prohibitive (does anybody have any experience of this?). The highest break-even point was 6,500 miles pa.

As I would like to switch both gas and electric away from the big six it tends to be the gas price that holds most sway rather than the E7 price or how the E7 trade-off pans out between higher than standard day time prices and lower off-peak prices At present the biggest saving from E7 would be with Ecotricity, partly because they offer a slightly cheaper tariff to EV owners, aimed at giving the equivalent of about 1,000 'free' miles. The net electric E7 saving with them would be £170 compared with their std electricity tariff. The estimated annual home charging cost for the i3 varies between £126 (Eco) and £199 (Ovo) but Ovo come out significantly cheaper overall for me, including gas. Compared with my current NPower fix to Aug 2014, the current Ovo Fix for 100% green energy would only cost £70pa more if I've got the numbers right. Ecotricity would cost £240 more, which is unfortunate as they seem to be the only supplier planning rapid charge points on the Mways so I would have liked to go with them. I've put the numbers through USwitch too and there do not appear to be any other suppliers I should have considered.

It will all pale into insignificance compared with depreciation!

 

[Robkenobi]

If you're fed up with the ''big 6'' and you look for a cheaper supplier, not just for gas and electric, but for all your services check my link ( http://www.utilitywarehouse.org.uk/L32501/jointheclub ) and make a quotation yourself. I'm with them for an year now an I've saved about £600. Any questions, inbox me...

 

[Gonville]

I’ll just use the electricity generated by my PV on the roof. :evil:

...and not charge at night? Are you getting a feed in tariff or just free during sunlight?

 

[MikeS]

You are quite correct that I would have to charge the car when the PV was producing. However, I am at home often in the afternoons!