How does Economy Seven Electricity work?

Question

Have just moved into a house with storage heaters and an immersion for hot water. Having never lived in an all-electric house before, I'm curious to know how the Economy Seven system operates, and whether it is economical or not.

Answer 1

I have had economy 7 for the last 25 yrs. Storage heaters are heated between midnight and 7 am water heater too
I also have a time switch on my washing machine so that it uses cheap rate elec I have no complaints

Answer 2

The trouble with economy 7 heating is that one has no control over it. The heaters are wired into a different system than the normal one, and come on from about 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. with, possibly, a boost in the afternoon, but not in all cases. I had this form of heating once, and changed to Phoenix gas. I found the Economy 7 far from economical too - about £250 per quarter in the winter, plus, your immersion heater is useless during the day when hot water is needed. It is a stoneage invention as my husband used to say !!!!!

Answer 3

Economy 7 uses off peak electricity to heat up the storage heaters. They will switch on at about 11 at night and charge up until 7 the next morning, same for the immersion heater.
Problem is that you pay full price to heat the water during the day.
Electricity is definately not economical for any form of heating.

Answer 4

I thought E7 had been phased out. But it used to heat the water in the tank between 0000 and 0700 ONLY. If you wanted hot water in the afternoon, you simply switch on your booster on the switch say for 15 or 20 mins.

Answer 5

My mum used to work for the leccy board and she said a while ago that econ 7 had been disbanded. But if you have timers on your machines and with your heaters set them to come on between I think it's 11.00pm and 6.00pm then you can benefit from using cheaper fuel.

Answer 6

never buy a place with E7 heating its the worse form of heating there is,if you can afford it get it replaced