Confused pensioners (and me!)

Foggster

My parents have been growing more concerned about their rising gas & electricity bills (as many other people are).

My dad has always been very independent and until now hasnt allowed me to look at the bills.

What hit me straight away was the 2 readings on their electricity bill. It would appear they have E7 meter but they have gas central heating and I have always assumed E7 was in general for households with storage heating.

They havent been in the house many years and we know that gas CH was fitted 12 months before they moved in and replaced the old storage heaters.

So my question is, would they be better off getting their meter changed? Being retired, they are at home all day and using electricity at around the same rate all day. The CH system is new and appears quite efficient.

Would there be a charge to change the meter if they would be better off doing so?

Many thanks for any help.

bloss0m

If they dont have storage heaters they could very well be paying over the odds for electric unless of course they use off peak

Check you annual usage sometimes its on bills and use one of the many comparison web sites

Martin has a guide for this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/


The best deals tend to be online so you submit your readings via phone or via net and paying by direct debt

energy saving trust are a good resource for grant help

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Easy-ways-to-stop-wasting-energy/Energy-saving-grants-and-offers/Grants-and-Discounts-Database

Also make sure they are insulated you can get grants its well worth toping up the loft or cavity walls in they have them

Terrylw1

In terms of meter changing, this depends on where you live and what type of meter manufacturer you have.

Some meters in some regions can support E7 and standard billing. The latter would still record across both dials but the unit prices reflect a one rate tariff. You Supplier would know if this is possible by checking the type of meter & region you are in.

If not, thye will need to change the meter. It's up to the Supplier if they charge on that basis but many don't. You can only ask.

First ensure they would be better off on another tariff.

Given they ahve gch, it's likely the meter should have been removed when the work was done. Since that was before they moved in, the old occupier may have been receiving standard rate on 2 dials as mentioned above since it was a common way in the Midlands region to avoid paying for engineers to go out. Npower did that quite a lot years ago. When a new occupant starts an account, sometimes they would get reverted to E7 by default. If thats the case, they should have clarified if your folks needed E7 because they would have changed the tariff incorrectly otherwise. Just a thought.

dogshome

Hi Foggster - As per Terrylw 1's post, it's not uncommon that when a supplier is told that Gas CH has been retro fitted into an ECO7 heated house, that they opt not to fit a new meter but charge the Elec
on 'Standard' rate by adding the ECO7 Day & Night readings together.

The problem with this is that when this is done, it's just by a 'Note' added to the account. Then later when there is a change of Account Holder or Switch of supplier, the 'Note' is lost.
It's unlikely that the previous owner would have gone to the expense of fitting Gas CH and then not told the supplier, so the chances are that the supplier was chargeing 'Standard' rate to that account holder.

Your dad should immediately inform the supplier of his Gas CH and ask for a 'Standard' Elec tariff, and if that supplier is the one he inherited with the house, he should ask why he wasn't put onto a 'Standard' tariff when he moved in.

Terrylw1

Adding reads together is a non compliant way operated to save in spending money on a meter change.

It is ok to continue to bill on 2 reads on 1 standard unit price only if the meter supports it in industry Market Domain Data. This differs froms region to region but was common for Npower as the Midlands board has combinations of MDD to allow for this situation.

Anyone adding units together knows it's just to save costs, is non compliant and will only make the customer suffer when they change Supplier.

If the previous customer converted to 2 rate on 1 unit charge, it should be reflected in the tariff code on the previous account which often gets changed back by default...by staff not checking properly. If it's one of the Suppliers who is adding registers together, then this would also cause it as DogsHome says but again staff doing to change of tenancy should notice that and ask.

This might not be the case at all with the OP but I thought it worth mentioning since it would mean the Supplier had disadvantaged the customer.

Foggster

Thank you everyone.

We have now called British Gas who have confirmed that there is one standard charge for both meters and that they do indeed read both meters and charge one rate.

Scottish Power seem to be considerably cheaper but how would we go about getting them to accept both meters?

Airmike23

if it is an economy 7 meter, their site has a meter that switches at a set time from the day to night read, hence on thgeir elec bills why 2 reads. You can have bg do a cosmetic meter exchange for an unrestricted (1 rate) meter, or change suppliers and ask them, once supply live with new supply, to do a change. Do bear in mind that the meter being changed is a cosmetic change, i.e no fault, and some co's may charge for this to be done. You would probably be better off getting BG to swap the meter then leave them.

dogshome

Hi foggster - Glad the Elec. billing is sorted, but this still leaves the problem of your parents worry on overall Gas & Elec. costs.

It seems you have done your homework on the annual Kwh consumptions and found an SP tariff that is cheaper - As for SP accepting the combined readings of an ECO7 meter for chargeing at 'Standard' rates, you can only ask.
If they agree I would strongly advise that you get it in writing, or if it's verbal, you write to them confirming the arrangement.

As a final check, it would be as well to post details of your parents property and annual consumptions so that some of the regular responders can check that the bills are within the 'Normal' range

Terrylw1

If they can't bill an E7 on 1 flat rate, then can always send out an engineer to change the meter for you. As long as you have nothing individually triggered by the off peak circuit, thats no problem.

Be wary of Suppliers adding registers together. If you find SP say this cannot be supported on your meter, it would have been the same foryour old Supplier as the data which governs all this is industry supplied, not Supplier supplied. However, a simple meter change will resolve it at the site.

A cosmetic meter change would just change your bill, so then a Supplier would be adding registers together. Not all will do that, since it's not correct process.

When you switch, your Supply Number is very likely yo say you are E7 if you have these 2 rates, hence new Supplier's get tariff mismatches between what you asked for and what your meter will support.

But you may have one of the types that cna support either, so worth asking them about it.