Economy 7 - Provided readings wrong way round I think!

andyb87

HappyMJ wrote: »

Depending on what your secondary day rate is you really need to consider changing suppliers or tariffs. That is an awful rate for day rate @ 21.08p and an awful rate for night rate @ 5.26p. You are using 83% of your electricity in the day and if you switched to a standard tariff that was not E7 you could get a tariff for a bit less.

I assume your primary tariff is 21.08p and with my supplier it's charged for the first 2kw per day and you have only used 1.8kwh during the day hours and the secondary tariff hasn't kicked in yet so the bill won't be £176.65 it will be a lot less depending on what your secondary rate is.

edit: had a look at southern's website and you'll be charged around 21p for 225 units per quarter then around 12-14p for the remainder and also around 5p for the night rate. Or a 24/7 rate would be around 11.5p for all kwh plus a daily standing charge of 7.25p.

So time for the calculator your bill should be around (225*21p)+(613*13p)+(167*5p)=£135.29 less discounts plus vat
Or on a 24/7 standard plan it would be (90days*7.25p)+(1005*11.5p)=£122.10 less discounts plus vat

You'll need to enter your exact figures to get the correct answer for your region.

Hi,

Yes I can confirm that we use storage heaters to heat the flat pretty much 24/7. We used to keep 2 storage heaters on (hallway and living room), but we've switched the hallway one off now which will reduce the number of units used.

Thank you HappyMJ for that detailed explanation, it's started to make me wonder whether I'm not on a cheaper tariff. Problem I have though is that when I originally signed up for this tariff I'm sure I got told that it's a 12 month minimum contract, but thats another story I suppose.

Based on your calculations and the tariff for my area here is the result:

E7 No Standing Charge - (225*21.08p) + (613*13.69p) + (167*5.26p) = £140.12 (less discounts and VAT)


But the problem is at this current moment in time, before I can even consider a new tariff or supplier is the whole Day/Night readings fiasco. Anybody have any ideas on what I should do?

Many Thanks,

Andy

HappyMJ

That is just a standard plan you won't have a 12 month contract on those prices. Are you sure they are the wrong way around. Storage heaters are designed to load up with heat at the night rate and release it in the day. So although you are using them in the day it's from heat that was paid for in the night. In winter the ratio will be much higher at around 80% night/20% day in summer as there is no heating the ratio is 30% night/70% day. Over the year the ratio averaged out will end up as around 55% night/45% day.

That ratio matches up with the historic reading since the meter was installed.
14830 night/13066 day. That's 53% night/47% day.

andyb87

I checked the meter at two different times during the evening (before midnight) as grahamc2003 advised, but the higher reading increased.

mattcanary

Is the timeswitch (if you have one) showing the correct time? If not, your meter may be switching over to the night rate at the wrong time of day (meaning the wrong reading of the two is advancing when you checked it). Just a thought.

samtheman1k

andyb87 wrote: »

If I keep quiet up until the day I give the final reading, would I get away with it or should I just come clean and be prepared to pay a huge bill to make up the difference in charges per unit between day and night?

No you wouldn't get away with in. In fact, you'd be screwed the next time someone real comes to read the meter, or if you move out, when the next occupant gives their initial reading. Only one way out I'm afraid!

Premier_2

andyb87 wrote: »

I checked the meter at two different times during the evening (before midnight) as grahamc2003 advised, but the higher reading increased.

Then that'll be the day register

andyb87 wrote: »

Hi Again,

I've just got a new quarterly bill just now and I've worked out that it should be £176.65 for Standard and £8.78 for Night if I was to switch around the units. I'm very worried about this!


Img of bill: img52.imageshack.us/img52/1356/billz.jpg

It won't be that bad.

You see you are on a non standing charge tariff. This will involve 2 tier pricing for day units. As your bill shows a very low usage of day units, it is all charged at the tier 1 rate.

When the figures get recalculated, there will be a much lower tier 2 rate for a large proportion of the day units you have consumed.

(there is no 2 tier pricing for night units)

[Deleted User]

Hi,

andyb87 wrote: »

Based on your calculations and the tariff for my area here is the result:

E7 No Standing Charge - (225*21.08p) + (613*13.69p) + (167*5.26p) = £140.12 (less discounts and VAT)

well, if things are the wrong way around, you would then have:

225 +613 = 837 * 5.26 = 44.03
167 * 21.08 = 35.20
Total = 79.23

So, you should be on the right side.

andyb87

mattcanary - I couldn't comment, I can only assume it is correct judging from past bills when the unit count wasn't too high during the summer time.

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,
well, if things are the wrong way around, you would then have:

225 +613 = 837 * 5.26 = 44.03
167 * 21.08 = 35.20
Total = 79.23

So, you should be on the right side.

Hi frugalmacdugal,

Sorry I think I may have confused you as well as my self! That calculation is how my current bill has been calculated. (img52.imageshack.us/img52/1356/billz.jpg)

The below calculation (thx to HappyMJ) is how the bill should look had the readings been the correct way around:

E7 No Standing Charge - (225*21.08p) + (613*13.69p) + (167*5.26p) = £140.12 (less discounts and VAT)

Premier, from what I can tell from your post is essentially what has been explained with the above calculation.


I think it's just clear now that I must get in contact with Southern Electric to get this straightened out.



2 last questions though...
How far back must these amendments go? Every bill since I first joined the provider?

If so, I best get my calculator out to see how much Santa can loan me!

andyb87

mattcanary wrote: »

Is the timeswitch (if you have one) showing the correct time? If not, your meter may be switching over to the night rate at the wrong time of day (meaning the wrong reading of the two is advancing when you checked it). Just a thought.

Hi again,

I feel I have made a fatal error. I'm still new to the E7 world (is it noticeable? :A ) and may have stumbled onto why I have such high usage during the day.

The fuse box (not sure if this is the correct name for it nowadays) has several switches for different electrical appliances for throughout the flat. However I've noticed a timer (48 tiny switches), these were preset by the previous tenants to be switched on during the Off-Peak period. I assumed this was active and working as it should, but I was wrong... there was another switch within the unit to switch the timer on and off. This was set to off, and I'm now kicking myself for not noticing this sooner. I've been wasting 20-30% during the day when the heat was already being stored in the bricks during the night.

I suppose thats how you learn really.... from your mistakes!