Who decides?

Flibertigibit

I live in a shared ownership flat, built in 2006. I am the first person to live here, and rather too naive about things as I'd never had an all-electric place before (and never will again!). I've written about various aspects of this problem on other threads, but my question here is - who would have decided to install Economy 7 meters in the first place - would it have been the builders or the HA? As it is, Economy 7 is completely wrong for our situation as our electric heaters use only day-time electricity, not night-time like storage heaters. Not only that, but the day-time rates we've paid for our heating are more than they would have been on a "normal" tariff.

I am considering paying £2000 to have storage heaters put in, but thought it might be worth writing a letter to the HA (if they are responsible) to ask for some financial help with that, or compensation for the over-exaggerated bills I've had to pay over the past 3 winters. The thing is that there is a total of 22 flats in this shared ownership scheme and they will all, presumably, be in the same position. Before I start sharing what I've discovered with them, I want to see what the HA have to say (if it turns out that they are responsible).

pinkarsenalprincess

Are you allowed to have storage heaters put in?
We are shared ownership and there are lots of clauses in the lease about what can and can't be done. The HA would have decided on the Economy 7 meters.

Flibertigibit

Yes I had to get permission for the storage heaters but it was no problem and I have it in black and white.

As you seem sure it would have been the HA who decided could you hazard a guess at how they might react to me writing to them in the way I've described? It just makes me so angry that shared ownership is aimed at people who can't afford to buy a property, and we have the govt. "affordable warmth strategy" and yet some nit at head office made this decision which has meant we have all paid through the nose for heating all this time.

Premier_2

Not sure with HA developments, but with private developments, it's usually the builder themselves (perhaps in conjunction with the supplier).

They need power to check their installations (if not to build the actual property)
The builder knows exactly what he is putting into the property electrical wise so knows if a dual rate supply is more appropriate.

An owner can always change the supply, once they own the property.

Many homes around here have gas central heating, but were also initially installed with E7 ... and many of us still have it as it works out cheaper overall. Yes, normal rates may be a little (up to 10%) more expensive than single rates, but those 7 hours of low rate (29% of the day) at 50-70% discount are brilliant

Flibertigibit

Well, whoever decided they put in an inappropriate dual rate supply. Yes of course, if you have gas heating it might be better to keep the Economy 7 and do as much as you can at the cheap rate - e.g. water heating and clothes washing, but the same does not apply if you have all electric heating which is only on in the daytime. They say something like if you are all-electric you will find it beneficial to be on Economy 7 if at least 50% of your total usage happens (in my case) between 1.00am - 7.am. Between Nov 2006 and May this year my usage figures break down as 5450 in the daytime and 287 at night, so nobody can convince me that Economy 7 is right for my property! Luckily I had changed suppliers and they themselves got muddled up for a while with the day and night rates, so eventually said it was their error and let me off £300 of the bill. Oh and installing gas is not an option.

Terrylw1

The electricity Supplier has to register the MPAN's for the properties on any new build. Then once the Distributor has put the service in, the Supplier gets contact from whoever is putting the place up and arranges for the meters to be fitted.

The builders/electricians arrange all wiring, consumer units, etc and provide a set of tails for the meter fixer to add his meter to the board and connect the tails.

Sometimes, Distributors put the meters in and the meter fixer just connects the tails when ready. This was term one shotting and it's rarer thesedays as it used to cause crossed metering issues constantly.

So, someone will have called the Supplier and stated the type of metering required. This will be based on what was in the plans for the building. So, who commissioned & payed for the build? It would have been their decision or they would have at least agreed based on advice they took since the contractors would be told what was required.

If your property was due to a large building company like say Wimpey, they would made the decision.

Flibertigibit

Terrylw1 wrote: »

If your property was due to a large building company like say Wimpey, they would made the decision.

It was Barratt "Housebuilder of the Year" (not!)

Premier_2

As you have a dual rate meter, you can tell easily what consumption you use at the two different rates.

You can then do a comparison based on a single rate equivilent. Sometimes a dual rate tariff is always cheaper than the equivilent single rate no matter what the usage.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1207887

In the event you do find a single rate tariff is cheaper for your particular situation, then some suppliers will allow you a single rtae tariff even though you have a dual rate meter.
You cannot have a dual rate tariff if you have a single rate meter.

The account holder ultimately decides which tariff they want, no one else