Can I change from Economy 7 to Economy 10

I’m not sure I can add much to what’s already been said.

A word of caution, though: you say that “the more expensive on peak is not a major concern as I don’t run any high energy appliances during on peak ...”. You should do your sums very carefully, although not having a smart meter able to tell you precisely how much energy you use every half-hour doesn’t make this easy. You may be surprised how much electricity is used by what you seem to regard as ‘low-energy appliances’ - televisions, fridges and freezers, for example, particularly older ones, not to mention cookers and electric kettles.

I had a look at OVO’s E10 tariffs for Northern Scotland to see how they compare. In fact, the Simpler Energy plan is far more generous than I expected, with a day rate of 22.88p, night 18.04p and standing charge 59.25p against the single rate of 21.80p with a standing charge of 58.18. Ignoring the difference in standing charge (it’s only £4 a year), you would be better off on the day/night plan if you used more than 22% of your electricity during offpeak hours. The rates will be different in the Scottish Power region.

This is of course academic if your meter doesn’t allow for E10 timings. You haven’t told us anything about your meter or how it handles E7; a photo of the meter itself with its markings and readings clearly visible, and perhaps another of the whole meter backboard with its ancillary equipment and cabling would be very helpful.

There are ways of getting round the smart meter communication hurdles in many parts of Scotland, but they can’t really be used until the smart meter is actually in place. We might have other suggestions once we see your current meter arrangement.

I'm switching from economy 7 to an Economy 10 smart meter in April .  I'm currently on a fixed tariff that ends on 19/04/25  , I had signed up for a further year of fixed tariff before agreeing to the economy 10 . Will the fixed year tariff ( until April 26) still be honoured , the person I spoke to yesterday at Ovo was vague and didn't really give me a definite answer . 

Hi ​@Sal138 ,

Generally speaking, the answer would be yes - your existing contract would normally run to the very last day and then flip to the new one once the clock strikes midnight the following day, which in your case, would be 00:00:01 on the 20th April 2026.

I cannot say for sure what happens if you’re moving between E7/E10 but I think you’d just get migrated to the E10 version of the same tariff you’re currently on.

I will ask around, please bear with me.

Thank you Blastoise 186  , I'm not really getting any answers from ovo . 

Hey ​@Sal138, 

I’ve asked internally look at this and I’ve been advised said an email was sent on 13/03 which confirmed your unit rates. If you can’t find the email or have any specific questions around your rates you can speak with our Support Team and they’ll answer any questions you have. I hope this helps! 

I got a smart meter installed in my all electric flat in July. The previous owner was on ECO10 with OVO. I decided to switch to Octopus Snug to power my HHR Dimplex for 6 hours overnight, with an extra 1 hour boost in the afternoon. It turns out that I can not get the one hour boost on my current set up for the reasons set out below by Octopus.

given this set up, would it be possible to switch back to an ECO tariff, or have i burnt my boats by changing to a smart meter?

Thank you for all the pictures, they are very useful and I appreciate you taking the time to get them for me. Currently the meter that is installed at the property is called a 4 Terminal meter (given that name due to the 4 wires/terminals that come out of the bottom), with these setups in order for the meter to control the flow to certain assets like storage heaters it would need something called a contactor, which would be wired to the storage heater element of your consumer unit.

From the pictures provided there is not a contactor installed at the property, as such I do not believe that the meter or tariff is doing anything to control the flow of energy to anything in your property. I believe there are two likely things that are controlling your storage heaters and that is either setting on them physically, in that case I'd advise reaching out to the manufacturer or installers for any further support in setting them up for your needs. Or there is some form of mechanical timeswitch somewhere in the property, these can either look like chunky units almost looking clock-like or simple small circular dials with pegs you can lift up and down to set the time on them. Which in that case may need a private electrician to disconnect/remove it from the system.

Finally, in regards to the Eco7/Eco10 tariff we can definitely review suitable options, but this would only affect the amount of time the smart meter clocks on the off-peak register, it would not have any affect on the heating issues of not being able to trigger them at various times of the day as needed.
 

Hi ​@Dave-Nice-VIII ,

Being on a Smart Meter does NOT wipe out your ability to be on Economy 7 - it just changes out the Meter. Your meter doesn’t sound like it’s set up for a contactor, but you can just use timers on your stuff anyway to get the same kind of result.

Could you show us your setup please?

Morning ​@Dave-Nice-VIII, I hope you’re well and had a good weekend.

As ​@Blastoise186 has mentioned, it may be possible for the meter to be remotely changed over to be Economy 10 again if that would suit you better - it would mean that the heating could come on at certain different times of the day, whereas Economy 7 would mean you’d have off-peak cheaper rates which would allow your storage heaters to use energy during the night, and release it as heat during the day.

Without knowing your usage patterns though it’s hard to say what the best option for you would be.

I think that I will need to park this until the spring, then make a decision on getting new heaters with timers. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

Morning again ​@Dave-Nice-VIII,

When you do start looking at new heating systems I’d recommend searching online for energy saving advice in your local area. You should find that there’s charities and organisations, maybe even your local council, that are set up to advise on new energy saving kit including heating systems. As a supplier, OVO’s knowledge in this sort of thing can be limited. I don’t doubt that there’s some on the Forum that might have some good recommendations too.

Keep us updated on your progress! Cheers.

Thanks, I have asked a local contractor affiliated to OVO for a couple of quotes on new kit, which will be a better match for smart meter based tariffs.

Hi ​@Dave-Nice-VIII,

Just to let you know I’ve changed your most recent question to a new post, as it’s a really interesting proposition that hasn’t been brought up in a while, and should see more traction as a standalone topic. Hope this is ok!

here’s the link:

Good suggestion, thanks.