Electricity is cheapest when no one else wants it

Electricity is cheapest when demand is low and there's plenty of cheap power around: at night, at the weekend, when it's windy and in the middle of the day when sun and wind produce the most. It's dearest on cold winter evenings when everyone heats their house at once. Shift your use to when the price is low and you cut the bill without using less electricity.

Hour by hour the price follows a fairly predictable pattern, even though the exact level can never be known in advance. Below we cover when across the day electricity is cheap, whether the weekend is cheaper, which season is lowest, why wind pushes the price down, how to shift your use to the cheap hours, and why you don't have to sit up watching it.

Usually at night. When most people are asleep and industry is idle, demand is low, and then the cheap electricity is enough without dearer power being brought in. The price tends to creep down from late evening and sit at its lowest in the small hours before dawn.

It's dearest when a lot of people draw a lot of electricity at once. The morning when the house wakes up and the evening when everyone comes home, cooks and heats the house are the two recurring peaks on a weekday. Between them, in the middle of the day, the price can dip again when the sun contributes the most.

Often, yes. Offices, shops and industry draw a large share of the country's electricity on weekdays, and when they slow down on Saturday and Sunday demand falls. With less competing for the cheap electricity, weekend prices land lower on average than an ordinary working day.

It's no guarantee. A cold, windless weekend can cost more than a windy Tuesday. But if you want to run a big load of laundry or charge the car during a predictably quiet stretch, the weekend is rarely a bad bet.

Summer, as a rule. The need for heating is gone, the days are long and the sun produces plenty. Spring and autumn sit in between. It's dearest in winter, when the cold drives up electricity use across the whole country at once and the need is greatest just when it's hardest to meet.

The difference between a mild and a cold winter can be large, and it's the swings in winter that hurt the bill the most. It's also when using electricity at the right time is worth the most.

Because wind power then produces a lot of electricity at low cost. When there's plenty of cheap power, no dearer plant has to be started to cover the need, and the price falls. A really windy day can push the price low in the middle of winter, against the season's usual pattern.

The downside is that the wind can't be ordered. If it drops on a cold evening the price climbs quickly again. That's why the weather, more than almost anything else, decides what you pay in a given hour.

By running what draws a lot of electricity when the price is low, not when it happens to suit you. The dishwasher and washing machine can run at night. You'd rather charge the car at three in the morning than the moment you get home. The water heater and the heat pump can work a little extra when electricity is cheap and take it easier during the evening peak.

Two things help most. Shift the big, movable loads to cheap hours, and avoid starting everything at once during a price peak. You use the same number of kilowatt-hours, but pay less for them. If you have solar panels and a battery you can also use your own electricity when the grid is dear, instead of buying.

No. Shifting your use is simple in theory. Doing it every day, all year round, is tiring. Nobody wants to set an alarm to start the dishwasher, and tomorrow's hourly prices aren't released until the afternoon before anyway.

That's what an energy subscription from Elvy handles for you. The system sees tomorrow's prices, knows how fast your particular house loses heat, and shifts heating, hot water and charging towards the cheap hours in the background. You pay a fixed amount a month, the same in January as in July, and never have to know which hour was cheapest. Electricity is still cheapest when no one else wants it. You just don't have to keep track of it any longer.