I am Switch. I compare energy deals for a living, and I have spent two days watching people treat £1,046 as a secret cheaper version of £1,723.
It is not. Ofgem published both numbers on Wednesday 26 August, in the same letter, for the same three months: 1 October to 31 December 2026. £1,723 is a typical dual-fuel Direct Debit home. £1,046 is a typical Economy 7 Direct Debit electricity bill. Different meter. Different assumed kWh. No gas in the second headline. Line them up and you have invented a £677 “saving” that is not on anyone’s statement.
This is not another October price-cap announcement. That page is already live, with the official dual-fuel rates, here. This page is the leftover question that page only flagged: Economy 7 after the October 2026 cap, and whether the night rate is still doing any work.
What Ofgem published
The default tariff cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 landed on 26 August. Direct Debit dual fuel moved +4%. Economy 7 Direct Debit moved +1%.
What Ofgem is describing | Jul–Sep 2026 | Oct–Dec 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Dual fuel, Direct Debit | £1,663 | £1,723 | +4% / +£60 |
Prepayment, dual fuel | £1,620 | £1,678 | +4% |
Standard credit, dual fuel | £1,796 | £1,861 | +4% |
Economy 7, Direct Debit | £1,039 | £1,046 | +1% |
Source: Ofgem’s summary of changes, 26 August 2026. All four typical bills use the 2026 TDCV. Dual fuel assumes 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas. Economy 7 assumes 3,400 kWh of electricity on a multi-register meter. That is why £1,046 sits in a different row.
The +£7 on the typical E7 bill is Ofgem’s own rounding of a 1% move. Dual fuel’s +£60 is about £5 a month, if those rates lasted a year. They will not. The cap resets on 1 January 2027. Ofgem’s next announcement is due 25 November 2026.
You are covered if you are on a default / standard variable tariff, including on an Economy 7 meter. Ofgem lists E7 in the same “who the cap protects” sentence as Direct Debit, standard credit and prepay. If you already fixed, the October letter does not rewrite your contract. The electricity VAT cut still lands on 1 October, automatically, on fixed tariffs too.
£1,046 is not cheaper dual fuel
I will keep saying this until the screenshots stop.
A dual-fuel typical bill is two fuels. An Economy 7 typical bill, in Ofgem’s table, is electricity on a multi-register meter. Storage heaters, an old white meter in Scotland, a house that never had gas: that is the product. If you also have a gas boiler, you still pay for gas. Ofgem did not publish a “dual fuel plus Economy 7” headline. I am not going to invent one and call it official.
The assumed homes are not the same size either. From 1 July 2026 the medium single-rate electricity home is 2,500 kWh a year. The medium multi-rate home is 3,400 kWh. Of course the electricity-only typical can look “low” next to £1,723. It is counting more units and leaving gas off the page.
If you want the dual-fuel argument, use the dual-fuel guide and the October cap page. If you want the payment-method argument, prepay vs Direct Debit is yesterday’s URL. This URL is the meter.
Why E7 only rose 1%
The dual-fuel rise is a gas story. Ofgem’s press release, same morning: gas bills rise about 8%; households that do not use gas see an increase of less than 1%. The Economy 7 typical moved +1%. That is the electricity-only version of the same sentence.
Two things held the electricity half down.
VAT. From 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, VAT on domestic electricity is 0%. Gas stays at 5%. GOV.UK, 26 August: the cut saves households an average of £45 a year, and you do not apply for it. Ofgem’s matching line: without the government’s VAT intervention the dual-fuel headline would have been around £45 higher. On an Economy 7 bill the electricity share is the whole typical, so the tax cut does more work than it does on a gas-heavy dual-fuel statement. Our VAT on electricity page is the tax. Do not treat 0% as a reason to change meter.
The standing charge on single-rate electricity fell. National-average Direct Debit, from Ofgem’s consumer table: electricity standing charge 57.19p/day in July–September, 54.83p/day from 1 October. The unit rate nudged up, 26.11p to 26.32p. Those pence are the single-rate averages. They are not your Economy 7 day rate. They are the direction of travel: a bit more per unit, a bit less per day, VAT off the electricity column.
Gas went the other way. 7.33p to 7.97p per kWh, standing charge 29.04p to 29.68p a day, 5% VAT still sitting in the figure. That is why dual fuel printed +4% and E7 printed +1%.
Ofgem is blunt that, because of the VAT change, “costs cannot be compared directly to previous periods”. The +1% is their like-for-like presentation. It is not a simple pence-on-pence match with July.
Wholesale still did the damage underneath. The summary letter: wholesale costs up 11%, now 47% of the dual-fuel cap against 44% last quarter. Gas wholesale allowance up 13%, electricity wholesale up 10%. Middle East, LNG risk, a hot summer, low wind, more gas-fired generation. The VAT cut absorbed a chunk of the electricity half. It did not cancel the gas half. Prices remain 52% below the 2022 crisis, when the government capped bills at £2,500 — Ofgem puts that gap at £1,859.
The typical E7 home
Ofgem’s “typical” is a presentational tool. From 1 July 2026 it uses new Typical Domestic Consumption Values. For multi-register meters (Profile Class 2 — Economy 7 and cousins) the medium home is 3,400 kWh of electricity a year. It used to be 3,900 kWh. That cut is in the 27 May 2026 TDCV decision. They also left the day/night split alone.
Usage band | 2023 TDCV | 2026 TDCV | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Low | 2,200 kWh | 1,900 kWh | −300 |
Medium (the £1,046 home) | 3,900 kWh | 3,400 kWh | −500 |
High | 6,700 kWh | 6,100 kWh | −600 |
That is electricity only, multi-rate. Single-rate medium is 2,500 kWh. Gas medium is 9,500 kWh. Do not mix the rows.
The split they kept: 58% peak (day), 42% off-peak (night). GB-wide. They considered changing it and did not. Any future rewrite, they said, sits with Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement, not with this review.
So the official typical Economy 7 home, the one behind £1,046, is assumed to use 42% of 3,400 kWh at night. That is 1,428 kWh overnight and 1,972 kWh by day. Those two kWh figures are just the official split applied to the official medium TDCV. They are not your house. If your night share is 20%, you are not the typical. If it is 60% because the storage heaters run from midnight, you are not the typical either — you are the person E7 was built for.
Your own kWh are on the bill. Two electricity readings, not one. “Normal” / “Low”, or a red button for the night register. The MPAN on many Economy 7 supplies starts 02. If the bill only has one electricity unit rate, you are not on E7, whatever the previous tenant told the estate agent.
Day rate, night rate, one cap
Here is the bit comparison sites keep getting wrong, including some that still quote a single night pence for the whole country.
Ofgem does not publish a national-average Economy 7 day rate and a national-average night rate the way it publishes 26.32p for single-rate electricity. The consumer page is explicit: on a multi-rate tariff like Economy 7 you pay one unit rate in peak hours and a different unit rate off-peak. Together, they cannot be more than the price cap.
That is a ceiling on the combination, at the assumed split, plus the standing charge, for your region and payment method. It is not a promise that your night units are 12p, or 15p, or half the day rate. Suppliers still set the two pence. They have to land inside the cap. They do not have to land at the same split as the supplier next door.
I am not going to reverse-engineer a day pence and a night pence from £1,046 and dress it up as Ofgem’s. The standing charge on E7 is regional. The day/night split on your tariff may not be 58/42. Do that sum with the wrong standing charge and you will publish a fake night rate. Other sites already have. I will not join in.
What you actually do:
Open Ofgem’s unit rates and standing charges. Pick Direct Debit or prepay for 1 October to 31 December 2026. Find your electricity region. Read the multi-rate row, not the single-rate row.
Read last year’s bill for your day kWh and night kWh. Not the Direct Debit amount. kWh.
Run a comparison with the meter typed as Economy 7. A single-rate quote on an E7 meter is a different product. Rank by annual cost, the same lecture as standing charges vs unit rates. Sorting by the cheapest night pence is how you buy an ugly day rate.
The seven cheap hours sit somewhere between 11pm and 8am. The exact window depends on the regional network and how the meter was configured. uSwitch’s E7 guide (last updated 8 December 2025, still the live explainer) is right on the mechanics even though it has no October money: many meters do not move when the clocks change, so the cheap window slides an hour in March and October. Ask the supplier. Do not guess from a forum post about “midnight to 7”.
Scotland’s old white meters are the eight-hour cousin. Economy 10 / Heatwise is the ten-hour cousin, with a slab of afternoon cheapness. Those are not the £1,046 row. Do not force them through an Economy 7 comparison.
Northern Ireland is a different market. The GB cap does not apply.
The 42% test
Should you be on Economy 7 at all? The honest test is your night share, not a vibe about “cheap night units”.
Ofgem’s typical is 42% off-peak. That is the assumed home behind £1,046. uSwitch’s older rule of thumb is more than 35% at night before E7 starts to look cost-effective. I am repeating that as their rule of thumb, last updated December 2025, not as a 2026 Ofgem threshold. I do not have a break-even table in pounds, because that table needs a day rate and a night rate I refuse to invent.
Use this instead.
Your night share | What that usually means | What to do this week |
|---|---|---|
Well under 42% | Daytime house, no storage heat, kettle and oven on the expensive register | Price a single-rate tariff at your kWh. E7 is probably charging you for a night you do not use |
Around 42% | You are the official typical | Stay on multi-rate unless a named quote beats £1,046 at your split |
Well over 42% | Storage heaters, immersion on a timer, EV on charge overnight | Keep a multi-rate or a smart time-of-use / EV tariff. Do not flatten to 26.32p |
Storage heaters and a hot-water tank are still the original fit. Heat the bricks and the tank in the cheap window; live off stored heat in the day. If the house is freezing by 6pm and you boost on the day rate, you are paying peak pence for the bit of heating you actually feel. That is not an Economy 7 failure. That is a heater that ran out, plus a tariff that punishes the top-up.
An EV can use the night window. It can often use a dedicated EV tariff with a shorter, cheaper window instead. Kenward, in Wednesday’s press release, pointed at “cheaper electricity to smart meter customers for electricity consumed out of peak times”. That is the smart ToU family, not 1980s E7. I am not printing a 7p overnight from a brochure. Compare the EV tariff at your miles and your charger, against E7 at your actual night kWh. The smart meter guide is the kit. The quote is the decision.
If most of the load is a dishwasher at 7pm and a tumble dryer on Saturday afternoon, you are on the wrong meter. The cheap seven hours will not save a daytime house. A single-rate cap of 26.32p/kWh with a 54.83p/day standing charge — national Direct Debit averages from 1 October, 0% VAT already in — is the benchmark that house should beat, not £1,046.
Do not sort the market by cheapest kWh on an E7 meter. The night unit will win the sort. The day unit will win the bill.
Stay, leave, or go smart
I do not get paid more if you rip the meter out. I also will not tell you that “Economy 7 is being phased out”. uSwitch asked that in December. It is not. Smart meters are supposed to work with it.
Already on a fixed E7 deal that runs past 1 October. Do nothing because of the cap. Your day rate, night rate and standing charge stay as contracted. The electricity VAT cut is still applied. Note the end date. If it lands in autumn or winter, start comparing as Economy 7 before you roll onto the default.
On the E7 standard variable / default. You are the person £1,046 is about, if your use is medium. From 1 October the typical is £1,046, up £7 on £1,039. That is not a crisis and it is not a reason to stay asleep. Pull last year’s day and night kWh. If night is a small slice, get single-rate quotes. If night is the heating, get E7 quotes and any smart ToU your meter will actually take. Rank by annual cost at your split.
Thinking of switching onto Economy 7. Only if you can move a real share of use into those seven hours, and you are prepared for a day rate above the single-rate cap. You usually need the right meter. Some suppliers will fit one. Some will try to charge. Ask before you sign. A smart meter is the cleaner route onto a modern time-of-use tariff. Book it free with the current supplier; then compare.
Coming off Economy 7 onto single-rate. This is a meter / configuration conversation with the supplier, not a comparison-site toggle. On a smart meter it can be a mode change. On an old two-rate dial it may need an engineer. Get the single-rate quotes first, at your total kWh, against the official October single-rate pence. If they only win by a tenner, leave the meter alone.
Prepay on E7. Possible. The prepay typical in Ofgem’s table is the dual-fuel £1,678, not a separate E7-prepay headline. I will not invent one. Use prepay vs Direct Debit for the payment method, and this page for the registers.
Neil Kenward, same press release: fixed tariffs are available at £100 or more below the October price cap. That £100 is Ofgem’s line against the dual-fuel £1,723 headline, not a promise that an E7 fix sits £100 under £1,046. Most of the competitive book is still sold as single-rate Direct Debit. Compare E7 as E7. If the cheap card vanishes when you tick the meter type, that is information. The winter fix vs variable page is the wider call. I am not rewriting it.
Cornwall Insight, figures from close of play 25 August, page updated 26 August: January–March 2027 dual-fuel Direct Debit forecast £1,872.15 on current TDCVs, or £2,107.43 on the old ones. That is a forecast for the dual-fuel cap, not for Economy 7. Ofgem confirms January on 25 November. Until then, treat £1,872 as a winter warning on the gas-and-power market, not as your E7 bill.
Around 35% of households — about 11 million — are already on a fixed tariff and the cap does not touch them. About 22 million households sit on a default. Those are Ofgem’s July 2026 counts. If you have not chosen a deal in a year, you are in the second pile, E7 or not.
If you also have gas
Plenty of E7 meters live in houses with a gas boiler. The night rate is then doing less, unless you still heat water on an immersion or run machines overnight.
You pay:
Electricity on the multi-rate cap track. Typical, if you are medium, £1,046 from 1 October.
Gas on the normal gas cap. National Direct Debit average from 1 October: 7.97p/kWh and 29.68p/day, 5% VAT included.
I am not adding those together and calling the sum an official “E7 dual-fuel bill”. Ofgem did not. Your gas kWh is probably not 9,500 if the house was built around storage heaters, and it probably is if you retrofitted a combi and left the old meter. Read both fuels off the statement.
The October +1% on E7 will not describe the gas column. Gas is the +8% story. Dual fuel printed +4% because the two were averaged. You will feel both.
VAT on the night units too
0% VAT from 1 October applies to the whole domestic electricity supply: day units, night units, and the electricity standing charge. HMRC’s fuel-and-power notice has always treated the standing charge as part of the qualifying supply. GOV.UK’s 26 August explainer: you do not need to do anything; suppliers should stop charging VAT on electricity, including on fixed tariffs. Prepay: VAT currently comes off the top-up; from 1 October it should not.
Gas keeps 5%. An E7 home with no gas gets the clean version of the tax cut. An E7 home with gas gets 0% on the electricity registers and 5% on the boiler. The Dual Fuel Direct Debit headline of £1,723 already includes that mix. The E7 typical of £1,046 is the electricity-only view.
Warm Home Discount is still £150 this winter, GOV.UK says around 6 million households. Electricity account, including prepay. It is not an Economy 7 product. Do not change meter to “unlock” it.
What I would do this week
Read the October cap page once, for the official dual-fuel rates. Then come back here. Do not make a meter decision off a poster that was written for a gas boiler.
Find last year’s day kWh and night kWh. Add them. That total is your electricity. The night number divided by the total is your share. Compare it to 42%.
If you are nowhere near 42% and you do not have storage heaters, price a single-rate tariff at that total. Use the official October Direct Debit averages — 26.32p/kWh and 54.83p/day — as the default you are trying to beat. Put the postcode into the compare hub. Tick the meter type you actually have, then tick the one you would have after a change, and look at both annual costs.
If you are well over 42%, stay multi-rate unless a smart ToU or EV tariff at your hours is clearly cheaper. Ask the supplier what the cheap window is, in clock times, after the late-October clock change.
Submit a reading, both registers, around 1 October. New cap, new VAT on electricity. Cleaner split.
If you cannot pay, say so. The cap does not pause arrears. Extra support credit, a repayment plan, the Priority Services Register — Ofgem lists them. A clever night rate will not clear a debt.
Switch Squid Ltd (company number 13332631) is based in Leamington Spa. We compare. We are not Ofgem, and we are not your supplier.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Economy 7 price cap for October 2026?
£1,046 a year for a typical Economy 7 household paying by Direct Debit, on the 2026 TDCV of 3,400 kWh of electricity. That is +1% on £1,039 in July–September. Source: Ofgem’s 26 August 2026 summary letter. It is not a dual-fuel figure.
Why is Economy 7 only £1,046 when dual fuel is £1,723?
Because they are different products. £1,723 is typical dual-fuel Direct Debit (2,500 kWh electricity / 9,500 kWh gas). £1,046 is typical multi-register electricity only. There is no gas in that headline, and the assumed electricity use is higher. Do not subtract them and call it a saving.
Does the price cap set my day and night rates?
Not as two national pence. Ofgem caps the combination: peak unit rate, off-peak unit rate and standing charge together cannot exceed the cap, at the assumed split, for your region and payment method. Suppliers still choose the two unit rates. Look up your region on Ofgem’s tables. I will not invent a GB-average night pence.
How much electricity do I need to use at night?
Ofgem’s typical Economy 7 home uses 42% of its electricity off-peak. That is the assumption behind £1,046, and they did not change it in the 2026 TDCV review. uSwitch’s older explainer still says more than 35% as a rule of thumb. Your bill’s two registers beat both rules.
Should I switch off Economy 7 onto a single-rate tariff?
Yes, if almost all of your use is in the day and a single-rate quote at your total kWh beats the E7 quote. No, if storage heaters, an immersion or an EV are genuinely running in the cheap window. Get the quotes before you book an engineer. On a smart meter it may only be a configuration change.
Does 0% VAT apply to Economy 7?
Yes. From 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 VAT on domestic electricity is 0%, including night units, day units and the electricity standing charge. Gas stays at 5%. Automatic, including on fixed tariffs. GOV.UK, 26 August 2026.
I have gas as well. What do I pay?
Electricity on the E7 track, gas on the gas track. From 1 October the national Direct Debit gas averages are 7.97p/kWh and 29.68p/day. Ofgem did not publish a combined “E7 plus gas” typical bill. Add your kWh, not theirs.
Are Economy 7 times the same everywhere?
No. Seven hours, somewhere between 11pm and 8am, set first by the regional network and then by how the meter was configured. Many meters ignore the clock change. Ask your supplier for the window in force at your MPAN.
Can I get a smart meter on Economy 7?
Yes, in principle. Not every supplier’s smart estate handles two-rate tariffs cleanly, but smart meters are designed to work with Economy 7 and with newer time-of-use products. A smart meter is also how you get the half-hourly deals Kenward flagged. It does not, by itself, cut the bill.
Will the cap rise again in January 2027?
Unknown until 25 November 2026. Cornwall Insight’s dual-fuel Direct Debit forecast from 25 August is £1,872.15 on current TDCVs. That is a forecast, for dual fuel, not a decision, and not an Economy 7 figure.
Sources
Ofgem, 26 August 2026: Summary of changes to the energy price cap, 1 October to 31 December 2026 — Economy 7 Direct Debit £1,039 → £1,046 (+1%); dual-fuel Direct Debit £1,663 → £1,723; standard credit £1,796 → £1,861; PPM £1,620 → £1,678; TDCV 2,500 / 9,500 / 3,400 kWh; wholesale +11% (47% of the cap); gas wholesale +13%, electricity wholesale +10%; VAT electricity 5% → 0%, gas 5%.
Ofgem press release, 26 August 2026: Energy price cap will rise by 4% from October 2026 — typical Direct Debit £1,723 (+4% / +£60 / +£5 a month vs £1,663); gas bills about +8%; no-gas households less than 1%; VAT cut worth around £45 on the headline; Kenward on fixes at £100 or more below the October cap and cheaper off-peak electricity for smart-meter customers; ~22 million default households, ~11 million already fixed (35%); 52% / £1,859 below the 2022 £2,500 support level.
Ofgem, 26 August 2026: Changes to the energy price cap between 1 October and 31 December 2026 — Direct Debit national averages electricity 26.32p/kWh and 54.83p/day (0% VAT), gas 7.97p/kWh and 29.68p/day (5% VAT); E7 meters listed as covered; next announcements 25 Nov 2026 / 23 Feb 2027 / 26 May 2027.
Ofgem: Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges — July vs October Direct Debit pence; “For multi-rate tariffs like Economy 7… Together, they cannot be more than the price cap”; “costs cannot be compared directly to previous periods”; regional tables.
Ofgem, 27 May 2026: Review of typical domestic consumption values: decision — Profile Class 2 medium 3,900 → 3,400 kWh; low 1,900, high 6,100; E7 split kept at 58% peak / 42% off-peak.
GOV.UK, 26 August 2026: Breathing space on your energy bill — 0% VAT on household electricity from 1 October 2026; average £45 a year; applies to fixed tariffs; prepay top-ups; Warm Home Discount £150, around 6 million households.
GOV.UK: Fuel and power (VAT Notice 701/19) — qualifying electricity includes the standing charge.
Cornwall Insight, updated 26 August 2026 (close of play 25 August): Default Tariff Cap predictions — January–March 2027 dual-fuel Direct Debit forecast £1,872.15 (current TDCVs) / £2,107.43 (previous TDCVs). Forecast, dual fuel, not E7.
uSwitch, updated 8 December 2025: What is an Economy 7 meter and tariff? — seven hours between 11pm and 8am; clocks often do not adjust; >35% night-use rule of thumb; smart meters can work with E7. No October 2026 typical bill on this URL.
uSwitch, updated 26 August 2026: Energy price cap 2026 — official Oct dual-fuel £1,723; single-rate 26.32p / 54.83p; supplier-average January 2027 prediction £1,852 as of 26 August. No E7 typical in the tables checked.
