[R4R]

Yesterday I managed to save £760 off of my annual electricity bill! No not by swapping suppliers or signing away my first born into household service, but by asking one simple question.

What did I do to save such a large amount of money? Well I asked about economy 7. For those that don’t know, economy 7 is a tariff that allows a consumer to have a lower than normal tariff between the hours of 10:30pm - 8:30am. Is some areas the time period is different, but the principal is the same. To compensate for this lower tariff the day rate is charged at a higher rate.

Having been on this tariff for some years the household was used to setting the dishwasher to run at night and generally a load of washing in the washing machine ready for hanging on the line in the morning. We stopped short of doing the vacuum cleaning at night but we had lived next to people that did this in years past! Realistically this tariff was created to power storage heaters where they would heat up at night and release the stored heat throughout the day.

Anyway back to the saving. I am with E-on for my electrical supply so called the call centre. Asking about the economy 7 tariff and what the charges and times were etc, I was stopped in my tracks by the agent and advised probably within 45 seconds of the call “looking at the way you use electricity you’re on the wrong tariff sir!, if you’re not using at least 50% of your energy in the economy period you are on the wrong tariff! Ok I’ll change that for you now and the saving will be £760!”

So to all those on a domestic tariff that uses economy 7, I suggest that you give your electricity supplier a call. Ask the question and hopefully make a saving. After all you could be under the misguided concept like me that it saved you money.

Good luck and let us all know if you made a saving. After all its one low cost phone call to make a worthy potential saving.

Good luck
Dario