how to get rid of economy 7 please

allan673

hi,
parents have economy 7 and its not cost effective to continue having it anymore for them - theres only 1 storage heater on the landing.
how do they get rid of it or change tariffs please? i really want to know if they switch tariffs or providers will they need a new meter at all?
or will they take readings from the 2 meters they have at present to provide 1 new bill???

many thanks

Magentasue

Depends on which supplier. I think:-

Some change meter for free.
Some charge.
Some leave meters and add them together.

May be worth switching to a supplier who doesn't charge if their does. This has been discussed this week. Will try and find thread for you. Can't find it but this one might be of interest.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1482449

richardc1983

Most I know of leave the meter as it is but add the two readings together and charge you as a standard meter so just ring them up and tell them what you have put here.

allan673

thankyou - much appreciated,
they are with scottish power now and may stay with them??? may go onto scottish power standard tariff with no standing charge???

like i say theres only 1 storage heater on the landing, and this is not used in the summer.

allan673

richardc1983 wrote: »

Most I know of leave the meter as it is but add the two readings together and charge you as a standard meter so just ring them up and tell them what you have put here.

i will do, thankyou for the reply,
im going round at the end of the week to sort it out for them.

Magentasue

allan673 wrote: »

thankyou - much appreciated,
they are with scottish power now and may stay with them??? may go onto scottish power standard tariff with no standing charge???
.

There are probably better tariffs than the standard - find out their annual use in kwh and use a comparison site to compare.

allan673

you dont want to know the annual use ! 7500kwh

im guessing the storage heater eats electric?? theyre checking the meter overnight to find out how much it costs to have it on, its on for 7 hours per night, every night, apart from summer months.

may be difficult to do a comparison without a more accurate kwh figure? without the storage heater included?

i use 2200kwh per year, i cant see why theres should differ too much from my figure, or say 3000kwh per year for them.
but that means the storage heaters using 3000 to 4000 kwh per year to run, is that possible??

Magentasue

Do you know how much of that 7500kwh is off peak. If it's less than 25%, they're probably better off on single rate. Between 25% and 60% depends on tariff. If they use more than 60% off peak over the year, they're better off on E7.

I have limited experience of storage heaters - one winter with them and it cost us a fortune. Never again!

allan673

Magentasue wrote: »

Do you know how much of that 7500kwh is off peak. If it's less than 25%, they're probably better off on single rate. Between 25% and 60% depends on tariff. If they use more than 60% off peak over the year, they're better off on E7.

I have limited experience of storage heaters - one winter with them and it cost us a fortune. Never again!

sorry i should have brought the bill, doh ! will try and post accurate figures tomorrow night.

winter months, cold weather etc storage heater is on overnight, its also used to dry/air clothes.

so im guessing there will be a massive saving if they rip out the storage heater, and have a rad plumbed into the central heating. then change the electric to a competitive standard tariff.

Magentasue

They have central heating AND use a storage heater? Oh dear.

Would definitely get rid of it.

allan673

Magentasue wrote: »

They have central heating AND use a storage heater? Oh dear.

Would definitely get rid of it.

i know.................basically when the storage heaters removed and tariffs changed there will be no need for e7 whatsoever as they will be asleep during e7 hours. they only have e7 for the heater and werent aware there day rate was more expensive.

how much roughly does a storage heater cost to run for 7 hours???