Eon/Heatwise is a con

storminbalder

I have recently moved into a newish flat in Nottingham which does not have gas.

I'm on E-On's Heatwise tarriff. It seems astronomically expensive and I am desperate to leave it.

The rates are as follows.

Day
First 900 KWH per year 34.15p
After this 13.48p
Night 4.92p
Heatwise boost 14.26p
Heatwise afternoon 6.35p
Heatwise ecening 6.35p

And to cap it all a standing charge of 10.02p per day.

They really are taking the micky aren't they. I'd love to leave but cannot find anywhere to take me.

I have phoned Eon a few times to try and fathom out this mess of a tariff and they don't seem to understand it themselves.

I suspect that they have made it as unfathomable as possible so as to make it impossible to change.

Does anyone know how I remove it. Would I need to have the whole flat rewired as there would seem to be more than one circut (possibly 3) with different things wired to different circuts. Would it also need a new meter.

Please someone help. I'm very confused and feeling very ripped off by this hideous tariff.

Thanks.

lincs123

I think other companies can supply but you need to ring each one and I have yet to find a comparison site that deals with this. I agree that while initially Heatwise was not a bad tariff it is clear that EON would rather stop it or are recognising that people with the tariff have little choice so are raising prices. Since 2004 our heatwise tariff has gone up by nearly 300%! That being said check that you are heating your hot water only with the HEatwise input (our hotwater tank has 2 immersion heaters 1 for heatwise and 1 from standard). The other option is to put a timer on the non heatwise immersion so that it only runs at night on economy 7 rate but you need to check you don't start running out of hot water.

Cardew

I agree, for some reason the Utility companies have made huge increases in Economy 7 and Economy 10(heatwise) rates and they have lost their competitive edge.

see.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1274643

I think many people might be better off to just get a 'normal' electricity tariff like BG Click 6 where all tier 2 electricity is around 9p/kWh

Obviously you will need to calculate your consumption at the various rates before making a switch, but you are going to need to use a lot of electricity at the night/heatwise periods to compensate for the huge charges at other times.
It would be interesting to see some figures.

storminbalder

lincs123 wrote: »

I think other companies can supply but you need to ring each one and I have yet to find a comparison site that deals with this. I agree that while initially Heatwise was not a bad tariff it is clear that EON would rather stop it or are recognising that people with the tariff have little choice so are raising prices. Since 2004 our heatwise tariff has gone up by nearly 300%! That being said check that you are heating your hot water only with the HEatwise input (our hotwater tank has 2 immersion heaters 1 for heatwise and 1 from standard). The other option is to put a timer on the non heatwise immersion so that it only runs at night on economy 7 rate but you need to check you don't start running out of hot water.

Thanks for replying.

Are you also paying 35p a unit then, or is yours lower?

My hot water is on heatwise (the 6.35p rate) but not the night rate - even if heating it at night. This makes it even more expensive anf there doesn;t seem to be anything I can do about it. This is another thing that galls me.

storminbalder

Cardew wrote: »

I agree, for some reason the Utility companies have made huge increases in Economy 7 and Economy 10(heatwise) rates and they have lost their competitive edge.

see.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1274643

I think many people might be better off to just get a 'normal' electricity tariff like BG Click 6 where all tier 2 electricity is around 9p/kWh

Obviously you will need to calculate your consumption at the various rates before making a switch, but you are going to need to use a lot of electricity at the night/heatwise periods to compensate for the huge charges at other times.
It would be interesting to see some figures.

Thanks.

Yes I would love to go on a normal tariff like the "Click" one. Much cheaper and less stupidly complex. I just don't know how.

ie would I need the place rewiring? New meter? Would the landlord allow it?

I just wish someone had a clue about it. Eon themselves are polite but clueless and don't really understand themselves.

Cardew

storminbalder wrote: »

Thanks.

Yes I would love to go on a normal tariff like the "Click" one. Much cheaper and less stupidly complex. I just don't know how.

ie would I need the place rewiring? New meter? Would the landlord allow it?

I just wish someone had a clue about it. Eon themselves are polite but clueless and don't really understand themselves.

Write to them - don't phone or email - and demand to be put on a normal tariff or you will take the issue up with the Regulator.

spiro

Cardew wrote: »

Write to them - don't phone or email - and demand to be put on a normal tariff or you will take the issue up with the Regulator.

Thats fine but if they swap it to a 24/7 meter there may be wiring that needs changing so before you do that work out what you use on each register (rate) on the meter and how much that costs. Then price all of it at a 'standard' 24/7 tariff. What you will find with some heatwise type tariffs is that you get 10 rather than 7 hours heating and you pay about a 10-12% premium for that over the E7 price. You also need to bear in mind that an all electic house will always have bills that are higher than the combined costs for a gas & elec house.

Cardew

spiro wrote: »

Thats fine but if they swap it to a 24/7 meter there may be wiring that needs changing so before you do that work out what you use on each register (rate) on the meter and how much that costs. Then price all of it at a 'standard' 24/7 tariff. What you will find with some heatwise type tariffs is that you get 10 rather than 7 hours heating and you pay about a 10-12% premium for that over the E7 price. You also need to bear in mind that an all electic house will always have bills that are higher than the combined costs for a gas & elec house.

That is what is said in post #3

Heatwise is 10 hours.

storminbalder

Cardew wrote: »

That is what is said in post #3

Heatwise is 10 hours.

It's actually more complicated than that.

You get 10 hours per day heating and hot water at 6.35p per unit. That's 5 hours at night, 3 in the afternoon, and 2 in the evening. These hours can vary.

Then for eveything else, ie shower TV, washing machine, cooker et all, it's 7 hours economy 7 tariff of 4.92p per unit (currently between 1-8AM) and for the remainder at the astonishing 35p per unit.

So even if you heat up the water over night you don't get this at the 4.92p rate.

storminbalder

I still have not been able to find out how to move supplier from this god awful tarrif.

Anyone have any ideas please?

space_rider

All you need to do is to turn the storage heaters or whatever you have running off the heatwise meter when you leave the house in the morning. That way it won`t get the afternoon boost or the evening one if you don`t need it. you just need to turn it back on when you go to bed or before 1am to get the over night boost. You can do the same with the immersion heater. Heatwise was never marketed as a cheap tariff. It`s a comfort tariff.

Can you tell me if you have storage heaters, I can help you reduce the bills even further. I used to have storage heaters so I know how they work. I never had a problem with the cost of them because I used them as efficiently as I could.