Key facts (verified for April to June 2026)
- Single-rate electricity cap: 24.67 p/kWh plus 57.21 p/day standing charge, set by Ofgem for the period 1 April to 30 June 2026.
- Typical Economy 7 use: 3,900 kWh of electricity per year for a medium household, against 2,700 kWh on a single-register meter, according to the Ofgem Typical Domestic Consumption Values.
- Break-even rule of thumb: Economy 7 only saves money if roughly 40 percent or more of your electricity is used during the off-peak hours, depending on the gap between your peak and off-peak rates.
The belief most Economy 7 customers hold (and the maths that ought to change it)
Ask a household on Economy 7 why they signed up and the answer is almost always the same: "the electricity is cheaper at night". That is true on a per unit basis. It is also, on its own, the wrong test for deciding if the tariff saves you money. Economy 7 is a two-rate (or multi-register) meter, which simply means your meter records electricity in two separate buckets: one for the seven cheap overnight hours, and one for the more expensive daytime hours. The bill multiplies each bucket by its own unit rate (price per kilowatt hour, or p/kWh), then adds a fixed daily standing charge (a flat fee for being connected, paid regardless of how much you use).
For Economy 7 to beat a normal single-rate tariff, the savings you make at night need to be big enough to cancel out the premium you pay during the day. That sounds obvious. In practice, very few households actually run the numbers.
Why "cheap at night" doesn't automatically mean "cheaper overall"
Think of Economy 7 like a gym contract with a discount on Tuesday classes and a surcharge on every other day. If you only ever go on Tuesdays, the discount wins. If you go five times a week, the surcharge swamps the discount and you pay more than someone on the standard plan. The split between peak and off-peak hours behaves the same way: the discount on the night unit price is real, but it sits next to a peak unit price that is normally higher than the single-rate cap. Use most of your electricity in the day and you are paying that premium for the bulk of your usage.
The three numbers that decide everything
Three figures, taken together, tell you whether Economy 7 wins or loses for your household. The first is your annual electricity usage in kWh, the headline number on your bill. The second is the off-peak share: what fraction of that usage happens during the seven cheaper hours overnight. The third is the rate spread, the gap in pence between your peak and off-peak unit rates. The bigger the spread and the higher the night share, the more Economy 7 saves. Take any one of those three away, especially a low night share, and the maths flips against you. The rest of this guide unpacks each of those numbers, with a calculator further down so you can plug in your own.
Why most guides on Economy 7 get the trade-off wrong
Most online articles describe Economy 7 by listing its features: dual-rate meter, seven cheap hours, regional off-peak windows. Very few do the comparison that matters, which is the total annual bill on Economy 7 against the total annual bill on a single-rate cap tariff for the same household. That gap is where the truth sits, and it depends on three numbers: your annual usage, the share of that usage that falls in the off-peak window, and the spread between the peak and off-peak unit rates.
A second common mistake is treating "the Ofgem price cap" as a single number. It is not. The cap publishes separate maximum unit rates for single-rate meters and for each register of a multi-register meter, plus a maximum standing charge, with all of them varying by region and payment method. The headline 24.67 p/kWh figure widely reported in the press is the single-register cap. Economy 7 peak rates are usually capped higher than that, while off-peak rates are capped much lower. Comparing your night rate to 24.67 p/kWh and concluding "I am saving" misses half the equation.
How Economy 7 pricing really works (peak rate, off-peak rate, standing charge)
An Economy 7 bill has three moving parts. The peak unit rate applies to every kWh used during the day, when most cooking, lighting, screens and ovens are running. The off-peak unit rate applies for the seven hours overnight. The exact window depends on your region and supplier and is normally somewhere between 11pm and 8am. Many households are on 00:30 to 07:30 or 23:30 to 06:30. The window may shift by an hour when British Summer Time starts or ends. The standing charge is the fixed daily cost of being connected to the grid and is paid even if you use no electricity at all.
If you do not know your exact rates, take your most recent bill out now: the peak unit rate is normally labelled "day rate", "peak", "rate 1" or "anytime", and the off-peak rate is labelled "night rate", "off-peak", "rate 2" or "economy". The standing charge is shown in p/day. These are the three numbers you need to plug into the calculator further down this page.
The hidden cost: a peak rate higher than the single-rate cap
The single-register cap for April to June 2026 sits at 24.67 p/kWh. Economy 7 peak rates published by suppliers under the multi-register cap are usually noticeably higher. That premium is the price you pay in exchange for the cheap night rate. So every kWh you use in the day on Economy 7 costs you more than it would on a standard tariff, not less. The off-peak hours have to be busy enough to make up that lost ground.
How Ofgem's cap applies separately to each register
Ofgem updates the price cap every quarter and publishes separate capped maximums for the single-rate, the multi-register peak rate, the multi-register off-peak rate and the standing charge, broken down by the 14 regional pricing zones and by payment method. Your supplier cannot charge above the relevant cap, but they can sit below it. The capped rates for your address are printed on your latest bill or available in your online account. The widget below lets you enter whatever rates apply to you, so the verdict reflects your real prices rather than a national average.
How UK households end up overpaying on Economy 7
Two patterns dominate the calls we take from Economy 7 customers who turn out to be worse off than they realise.
Storage heater households that never shifted habits
A storage heater is an electric heater with a dense ceramic core that "charges up" overnight on the cheap rate, then slowly releases the warmth through the next day. It is the original Economy 7 use case. If the heaters are modern, properly insulated and set to charge on the off-peak hours only, they can push 50 percent or more of total electricity into the night bucket and Economy 7 genuinely pays off. The problem is that many older units leak heat through the evening and need topping up with daytime electric heating, or are controlled manually and stay on long after the off-peak window closes. The off-peak share then collapses to 25 to 30 percent, and the household ends up paying the peak premium on most of its consumption.
New tenants who inherited an E7 meter but don't use night electricity
The second pattern is tenants and owners who moved into a flat already fitted with an Economy 7 meter, often because a previous occupant had storage heaters that have since been removed. The new household has gas heating, cooks and works in the day, and barely touches electricity at night beyond a fridge and the broadband router. Their off-peak share is well under 20 percent. Every kWh in the day is paid at the peak rate, and the small night discount goes nowhere. These households are almost always better off asking their supplier to switch the meter to single-rate mode.
Insider truth: the break-even point most people never calculate
There is one calculation that tells you, in one minute, whether Economy 7 is right for your household. It is the break-even off-peak share: the percentage of your annual electricity that needs to fall in the off-peak window for Economy 7 to cost exactly the same as the single-rate cap tariff. Use more than that share at night and you save. Use less and you overpay.
The maths is simple. Call your annual usage U (in kWh), the peak rate P, the off-peak rate O and the single-rate price S, all in pence per kWh. Set the share at night to x. Total cost on Economy 7 is U times (1 minus x) times P, plus U times x times O. Total cost on single-rate is U times S. The two are equal when x equals (P minus S) divided by (P minus O). With illustrative figures of P = 30.00 p/kWh, O = 13.00 p/kWh and S = 24.67 p/kWh, that gives a break-even share of about 31 percent. Below 31 percent night use, Economy 7 loses. Above 31 percent, it wins. With a smaller spread between peak and off-peak rates, the break-even threshold climbs higher, often above 40 percent.
The table below shows the illustrative scenario for an Economy 7 medium household (3,900 kWh per year) at three levels of night use. The rates are placeholders, exactly as in the widget; substitute your own to get the real figure for your home.
| Share of usage at night | Economy 7 annual cost | Single-rate cap annual cost | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low night use (15%, no storage heaters) | £1,279 | £1,171 | +£108 |
| Medium night use (35%, some appliances overnight) | £1,147 | £1,171 | -£24 |
| High night use (55%, storage heaters or EV charging) | £1,014 | £1,171 | -£157 |
Illustrative scenario only, based on placeholder Economy 7 rates of 30.00 p/kWh peak and 13.00 p/kWh off-peak, an Ofgem-capped single rate of 24.67 p/kWh and a 57.21 p/day standing charge on both tariffs. Your real figures will depend on your region, payment method and supplier.
Economy 7 break-even calculator
Enter your annual usage and your tariff rates. The calculator compares the cost on Economy 7 with the single-rate cap and tells you the break-even share of night use.
Your household
Ofgem typical for Economy 7 medium household: 3,900 kWh.
A household with no electric heating is usually around 15 to 25%.
Economy 7 rates (from your bill)
Check your bill for the exact rates. Defaults are illustrative.
Single-rate alternative (Ofgem cap)
Pre-filled with the Ofgem cap for 1 April to 30 June 2026.
Your annual cost
On Economy 7
£
On single-rate cap
£
Difference
/year
Break-even night-use share
Below this share, Economy 7 costs more than the single-rate cap.
Figures are estimates. The Ofgem cap is updated quarterly and Economy 7 rates vary by region, supplier and payment method.
What you should actually do
Once you know your break-even share, the decision splits cleanly into two paths.
When Economy 7 is genuinely worth keeping
Keep Economy 7 if you can confidently push at least 40 percent of your electricity into the off-peak window, and ideally more. The clearest cases are:
- Modern, well-controlled storage heaters that charge only on the cheap hours.
- Hot water tanks with a timer set to heat overnight.
- Electric vehicles charged at home through a scheduled overnight session (although a dedicated EV tariff with a deeper off-peak rate will usually beat Economy 7).
- Heat pumps run on a schedule that prioritises overnight thermal store charging.
- Washing machines, dishwashers, dryers and pool pumps routinely set on a delay-start timer to run after midnight.
If two or more of those apply, Economy 7 probably still saves you money. The widget will confirm it.
When to ask your supplier to switch register / meter
If your break-even share is well above your actual night-use share, and you have no realistic way to shift more consumption overnight, contact your supplier and ask for a single-rate setup. With a modern smart meter, this is usually a remote configuration change with no engineer visit. With an older two-rate mechanical meter you may need a replacement; ask up front whether there is an installation fee and refuse to proceed if a charge is quoted that wipes out a year of savings. If you previously had a Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meter, note that the RTS signal was shut down on 30 June 2025, so any RTS-dependent Economy 7 meter still in your home should already have been replaced.
Pay less for your electricity
Whether you keep Economy 7 or move to a single-rate tariff, the right deal depends on your region, your usage and your supplier. Selectra's UK energy team can walk you through the comparison and arrange the switch.
Compare electricity tariffsFrequently asked questions
Is Economy 7 cheaper than a single-rate tariff? ▾
What are typical Economy 7 off-peak hours in the UK? ▾
How is the Ofgem price cap applied to Economy 7? ▾
Did the RTS switch-off affect Economy 7 customers? ▾
Can I switch from Economy 7 back to a single-rate tariff? ▾
Conclusion: Economy 7 rewards a specific lifestyle, not a postcode
Economy 7 is not a relic and it is not a scam. It is a tariff built around a specific use case: households that genuinely run a meaningful slice of their electricity at night, normally because they have storage heaters, an EV, a hot water tank on a timer, or a heat pump on a schedule. For those households, the maths still works and the savings versus a single-rate cap tariff can be substantial.
For everyone else, Economy 7 is a quiet tax on daytime electricity. The peak rate sits higher than the single-rate cap, and unless enough usage shifts into the off-peak window to offset that premium, the bill is bigger than it needs to be. The single test that matters is the break-even share. Run your own numbers in the calculator above, compare them honestly to your daily routine, and you will know within sixty seconds whether to keep the meter you have or ask your supplier to switch it.