Member Article

Smarter thinking needed to tackle soaring energy bills says electric expert

As soaring energy bills challenge household budgets, one Leeds business thinks it has a “smart” solution to tackle the tariffs.

Garforth-based Trust Electric Heating manufactures modern electric radiators and is at the sharp end of the technology behind the systems.

They believe that whilst enormous strides have been made with the technology inside modern radiators, like their NEOS range which features high conductivity aluminium frames and a sophisticated soapstone core, it is the tariffs themselves that need modernising.

Managing director Fiona Conor explains;

The problem with the majority of today’s electric tariffs is they offer either a flat rate that doesn’t offer any real help to the consumer or the alternative is an Economy 7 type of tariff.

That system was originally designed for storage heating in the 50’s!

Back then, electricity companies were generating lots of power to meet the demands during the day but that demand slumped at night. Keeping power stations running was more efficient so creating a demand at night was one answer – and so the economy 7 tariff was created.

Smart. Or maybe now, not so smart anymore.

Currently, energy companies offer a slightly cheaper tariff from the hours of 12:01 am till 07:00 am, which at first glance, appears to offer a benefit to the homeowner.

However, in reality, unfortunately this tariff merely offsets the cheaper night rate to the considerably more expensive day rate from 07:00 am till midnight.

During this period, the consumer uses more electricity than during the cheaper rate, having to power the home through breakfast to early evening using the inflated flat rate tariff – it costs a bomb to put your kettle on!

So we’d like to put forward a suggestion - why can’t we create a smart tariff in the way that energy providers such as Octopus have done, that will eliminate heat and energy poverty?

This could come in the form of an E7 tariff, where we take the 7 hours and put them into a daytime period. The more expensive rate could kick in while the heaters won’t actually be on, giving 7 hours of 30 minutes of cheap and 30 minutes expensive heating all the way from 7am–9pm.

We have been battling this system for years with the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) because whilst well intentioned, they are not fit for purpose when it comes to electric radiators and we believe that needs a huge shake up too.

As with Economy 7, life was very different when EPCs were introduced 15 years ago; it’s time the industry moved on - we think our plan will help landlords who want to introduce more sustainable heating into their properties, the energy companies themselves and residents who are having to cope with the cost of living crisis.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mac Watson .