Confused about Scottish Power Eco 7 meter readings

GrammarGirl

Hi all. I set up an Economy 7 tariff account with Scottish Power about 4 months ago and gave them our initial moving in meter readings. Our readings are labelled 1 and 2.

Yesterday I got an email saying it was time to input our meter readings again. I wrote them down (1 and 2 as it says on the meter) and inputted them in the website. When I clicked enter I was given a summary of the readings, which were correct as I had them written down, so I submitted. I was then sent an email to confirm everything was okay.

Reading the email, it seems that meter reading 1 is night rate, and meter reading 2 is day rate. This seems strange to me. Firstly, meter reading 1 is much higher than meter reading 2. I would expect this to be the day rate, as we use more electricity first thing and early-late evening than we do overnight. Secondly, why would they be the wrong way round like this? Night first, then day? It's very confusing.

The meter readings are correct, in the sense that reading 1 marries up with the meter, as does meter 2. But it seems to me that I should be entering meter reading 1 as the day and meter reading 2 as the night! Am I making sense? Is this just the way SP Eco 7 works, or is something wrong here? Anyone else have any experience of this?

Thanks in advance.

Be_Happy

I have had the same problem with Scottish Power E7 meter readings since my meter was replaced with a new one a few months ago.

My meter clearly shows 1 as being day rate and 2 as being night rate. I can check this with the flashing light beside the one in operation and checking the readings overnight.

However when entering the readings on-line the form shows Reading 1 as night rate and 2 as day rate. All I do is match my figures to the descriptions against the reading numbers on the form ie day rate and night rate.

Over the year the night rate readings are higher than the day rate as the storage heaters use more units than other electrical things. In winter we can use 5 or 6 times more night units than day in 24 hours, whereas in summer it can be more day than night.

Do check your bill carefully to make sure you are being charged for the correct rates.

GrammarGirl

Thanks for your help. So, you enter your readings based on the day and night descriptions, rather than the numbers? Okay. I'll have to work out which way round our meter is reading... all I have is reading one and reading two, the meter doesn't tell me which is day and which is night. I guess I'd work this out by taking the readings in the morning and again in the evening, and seeing which one had increased (to find the day meter)?

I'm prepared for the night meter to start whizzing round when we're using the storage heating... at the moment we're perfectly fine without it (let's hope it continues!) and the only thing using our night rate is the fridge freezer and the boiler.

Thanks again for your help.