Advice needed please - Strange electric supply

horizon

Hi

My Mother in Law moved into a small Housing association flat about 18 months ago.

She is on electric only as there is no gas supply to the village.
She has been getting some very high bills, which were perplexing as she hardly uses any Electricity.

She is on a very wierd type of supply. It is billed in three rates, normal daytime, econ 7 and stored heat ? (this is with Southern Electric)

I have had a look at the bills, and they don't make much sense to me.

Her last electric bill shoed her as having used 1 unit of economy 7 in the last 3 months.
I questioned the elec company, and the HA who checked the wiring.
Neither could find anything wrong, or would admit something is wrong.

I think that she is being billed for all the night time elec at daytime rates ?
Unless it is going on this tarrif called Stored energy, which I've never heard of ?

Is it possible they are right ?

I would like to swith her to another supplier, but can't find anyone else who does a three tier price structure.
If she changed supplier, would they change the meter and put her on the standard economy 7 metering ?

TIA

Horizon

penrhyn

What did customer services at Southern Electric tell you?
I've always had good service from them when I rang on behalf of my mum.
They have a special register for old and vulnerable people.

Ken68

Hi Horizon......found this article via Google, explains a little, and the tariff is new to me too.http://forum.moneysupermarket.com/forums/thread/1107.aspx
As Pen., mentioned Southern Electric have a Careline Service......http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/Home/CustomerServices/HelpForElderlyAndDisabled.aspx....lots to read.
Powergen do a Economy 10, not sure if they are taking new customers.

crossleydd42

Are the storage heaters (and water heater) wired into a special circuit to use the E7+E2 cheap rate part of the tariff? Otherwise, are they wired up to timers? If the latter, are these timers in sync with the 'economy' hours. It's very strange that only 1 cheap-rate unit has been consumed in three months. Obviously,the storage heaters won't be working in the Summer, but the hot water tank presumably is.
I see no point in changing from Southern as they are certainly better than many power companies and the problem is not proved to be theirs.

If you can't resolve this after my suggestions, I wonder if an electrician should see what's going on.

horizon

crossleydd42 wrote:

Are the storage heaters (and water heater) wired into a special circuit to use the E7+E2 cheap rate part of the tariff? Otherwise, are they wired up to timers? If the latter, are these timers in sync with the 'economy' hours. It's very strange that only 1 cheap-rate unit has been consumed in three months. Obviously,the storage heaters won't be working in the Summer, but the hot water tank presumably is.
I see no point in changing from Southern as they are certainly better than many power companies and the problem is not proved to be theirs.

If you can't resolve this after my suggestions, I wonder if an electrician should see what's going on.

The storage units are definitely wired into the E7, as to the hot water tank ?
I have asked the HA's electrician to check the wiring, they have been out twice and say that it is wired in correctly.

I can't believe this is correct, because the water heats up every night, yet no units of E7 are being notched up ?!

I have been sneakily going round the other 5 flats in the block and had a look in their meter boxes.

There are a couple of others with the same sort of meter, so I might ask if I can have a look at ther bills.

I am seriously thinking that, I should change her to another company, get the meter removed and replaced with a straight E7 meter.

Cheers
Horizon

espresso

horizon wrote:

I can't believe this is correct, because the water heats up every night, yet no units of E7 are being notched up ?!

Obviously the hot water tank heater is not wired into the E7.


I am seriously thinking that, I should change her to another company, get the meter removed and replaced with a straight E7 meter.

Are you sure that this is possible in a housing association property?

HTH.......

horizon

It should be possible to get the meter changed.

I've had a look in the other meter boxes outside the flats, and there are different ones in them. At Least one of them has a straight E7 supply.

I wouldn't have thought the HA could force you to have a certain type of meter / supply ?
Surely the elec company own the meter, not the HA ?

I have pointed out to the HA electrician that if the water is heating up at night then it should be going on the the E7 rate.

Perhaps he was just thick, because he said there was nothing wrong ?!

Cheers
Horizon

espresso

horizon wrote:

It should be possible to get the meter changed.

I've had a look in the other meter boxes outside the flats, and there are different ones in them. At Least one of them has a straight E7 supply.

I think that some housing associations have rules about this but if others have changed their meters then that looks good for you.

I wouldn't have thought the HA could force you to have a certain type of meter / supply ?
Surely the elec company own the meter, not the HA ?

I have pointed out to the HA electrician that if the water is heating up at night then it should be going on the the E7 rate.

It would appear that only your heating is connected to the cheap rate circuit but in most properties anything used at night would be metered at cheap rate on E7.

Perhaps he was just thick, because he said there was nothing wrong ?!

No comment!

Cheers
Horizon

HTH.......

JasminB

I think that you will find that the tariff is as discussed in this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=249799

If so we would not recommend any change in wiring as this would probably end up with the actual heaters not being capable of heating the property as the size of these will have been designed around the actual tariff.

Hope that this helps.

JasminB
Energylinx

penrhyn

If you are on Economy 7 then all the electricity that is used in the property during the 'cheap rate' period is charged at the E7 rate.
The Storage radiators are switched by the radio teleswitch, however if you want to take advantage of Economy 7 for your other appliances like washing machine, immersion heater etc you need to use/fit additional timers.

Sorry I've just reread the thread and it might not be as simple as I thought (i'll get me coat)

crossleydd42

I'd have thought that you could get the Housing Association to look into this. Surely they have a duty of care to ensure that the electrical system is man enough for the job. Try them. They certainly should get someone around to discuss how the system works.

Good luck.