It’s a common myth that many people seem to believe in these days thanks to all sorts of conflicting advice that flies around on social media – but is it really cheaper to use your washing machine at certain times of day? Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has previously weighed in on the domestic dispute, advising his followers that the rule on when to set off power hungry appliances really only applies to those on certain tariffs.
Martin Lewis has in the past urged people not to use washing machines or tumble dryers before 9pm – but only if you’re on a type of tariff which tracks usage and charges accordingly based on time of day, such as an Economy 7 tariff or a tracker tariff. For most energy customers, time of day makes no difference at all to how much you’ll pay for your energy, because a standard tariff, whether a variable or a fix, will not consider the time you use your appliance, even if you have a smart meter.
But for households on usage tariffs which track the time of day, these time-of-use tariffs, such as Octopus Energy’s Octopus Tracker, will update your price, sometimes every 30 minutes in real-time, to give you different prices based on the current levels of demand across the country.
On these trackers, the energy becomes cheaper the less demand there is, and more expensive at times of higher demand. These exist to help energy firms and the grid manage power loads, and they can save money on energy generation if demand is ‘smoothed out’, handing some of this saving back to customers on time-of-use tariffs.
For people on such tariffs, off peak times are the best times to run high energy usage white goods and appliances like a washing machine, according to Martin Lewis.
Martin Lewis, replying to a question on Twitter, previously outlined way back in a post on October 6, 2022, during the peak of the energy price crisis: “Most don’t have time-of-use tariffs so there’s no price difference.
“If you do, night’s cheaper. Yet peak use is 4pm to 9pm so for UK’s energy security, not then is better.”
Of course, if you have solar panels, this changes again. For solar panel users, unless you have a battery as well to store the energy, you’re going to want to use appliances during the day time.
Martin added: “If UV solar panels, use appliances in daylight hours.”
Martin Lewis’ MSE website adds more information about Economy 7 tariffs and how they work.
In a piece uploaded to the site on January 8, it says: “An Economy 7 tariff gives a cheaper electricity rate at night and a more expensive one in the day. These tariffs are mainly for those who use night time storage heaters to heat their home and water. Done right, it can save you money. Done wrong, it can cost you more.
“Economy 7 is often called a ‘time-of-use’ tariff, as what you pay depends on when you use electricity. There are others, such as Economy 10, but these aren’t very common anymore. All suppliers offer Economy 7 tariffs, but you’ll need a smart meter or a dedicated Economy 7 meter to get them.”
Another type of time of day tariff is a tracker tariff. In another piece on MSE, it explains: “Tracker tariffs are a type of variable tariff, but the rates you pay can change much more frequently than other variable deals. The Octopus Tracker and Agile Octopus tariffs, for example, can change as often as every half-hour based on wholesale energy prices.
“This makes it difficult to know whether or not they’ll work out cheaper for your home. But these tariffs have been far cheaper than the Price Cap in recent months, so can be real winners, but you need to understand that if wholesale prices spike, so will what you pay.”
