Scottish Power ComfortPlus

gunsandbanjos

Can one of you kindly souls explain comfortplus to me? I recently tried to switch supplier but was told i couldnt ever switch because i have 2 meters? Only Scottish Power can service these apparently? I checked my most recent bill and have indeed been charged 2 separate rates, one is ComfortPlus Heating, not sure if this just covers heating though as we have white meter heating but havent used it once in the 5 years we have been living here. The other just says ComfortPlus. I am mighty confused:o

dfh4np

I was on comfort plus control until last year when I moved to hydro, I had to have the second meter and timeswitch removed before i could apply to move. All in the process took a few months and was held up because sp took so long to change the mpan to a single meter.

Funny thing is i am moving back to sp to get the fixed rate till 2011 on comfort plus as they are now cheaper than hydro e10, to be honest its not a bad tariff.

DFH4NP

Heres what sp say on their rates sheets

ComfortPlus Control (CPC)

This tariff has a Daily Service Charge which applies regardless of usage and two different kWh rates. These are Heating kWh rate and the Other rate and are applied as follows:

Heating rate applies to all electricity supplied by the
Heating meter and is made available on three circuits
which operate as follows:

(a) The controlled circuit supplies storage space heating
and is energised for periods having an aggregate
daily duration between 0 and 14 hours chosen by
ScottishPower on the basis of forecast weather
conditions. The intention is that the customer should
be able to leave all storage heaters switched on
with their charge controllers set to maximum and
obtain a substantially constant daily average indoor
temperature in each heated room throughout the
year. For this temperature to provide acceptable
comfort conditions it is essential that the heating
system is correctly sized. CPC is only permitted where
the system provides whole house heating and storage
heating forms at least 60% of the total installed
heating load.

(b) The storage water heating circuit supplies storage water
heating and is energised for periods formally defi ned as
being at ScottishPower’s discretion totalling 4 _ hours
per day, but in practice would normally be 0400 to
0830 Local Time.

(c) The direct space and water heating circuit supplies
direct acting space and water heating and is energised
24 hours per day.

The “Other” rate applies to electricity used for all other
purposes. This will include any space or water heating not
supplied by the appropriate heating circuit.
CPC has an advantage over CPWM in that all heating is
supplied at the same low kWh price but, on the other
hand, the Daily Service Charge is higher and the Heating
rate is higher than CPWM’s Controlled Circuit rate. With a
well sized and properly operated heating system it should
be possible to achieve a lower annual cost with CPWM

(with Weathercall) than CPC.

Joyful

In my company if you have comfort plus it must get removed and an E7 meter is fitted instead. This means you do not get the extra day time boost of heating at your cheap comfort plus rate. As you see it would only make sense to move if you do not need this top up during the day. Most other suppliers cannot bill a 3 rate meter.

gunsandbanjos

Thanks for the replies, so basically i need to ask Scottish Power to remove my second meter?
I have never used my white meter heating in 5 years and have actually removed the heaters as they are butt ugly and take up loads of room:o So i would be much better switching to a single rate with no standing charge.

owain.davies

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, so basically i need to ask Scottish Power to remove my second meter?
I have never used my white meter heating in 5 years and have actually removed the heaters as they are butt ugly and take up loads of room:o So i would be much better switching to a single rate with no standing charge.

If you are definatley not using the heating circuit (and just to double check - the comfort plus should be a zero amount on your bill) then definately move to a single rate credit. You'll then be able to benefit from the best availalbe rates from any supplier

gunsandbanjos

Have phoned Scottish Power and asked them to change my meter, they are doing it next week at a cost of £50! Grr, cant see a way round it unfortunately? Hopefully the savings i make on my electricity should make up the initial outlay quite quickly though.