Advice/Info on Eon Heatwise Tarriff (very long and complex)

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi jh292

I'm sorry you've not received much help when talking to us about your Heatwise meter.

If you drop an email with your details to the address in my Profile, I'll be happy to find out the times for you.

It's certainly possible to change your meter to a more conventional type. However, the Heatwise part will be wired directly into the water heating/central heating circuits at the property. Changing it could have implications for your water/heating and may also involve some remedial work.

Therefore, I always recommend customers arrange for an independent approved electrician to check over the set up before going ahead.

We currently charge £50 to change meters. Additionally, the costs of employing an electrician are the responsibility of the customer.

We do have various schemes available to help with insulation depending on the particular circumstances. More details are available on our website.

It may also benefit you to have a chat to our Energy Efficiency team. They specialise in helping people reduce the amount of energy they use. Just let them have details of the property and the appliances. They'll be happy to advise.

Ask for a copy of a booklet called '100 ways to save money by saving energy. It's free and contains lots of useful ideas.

Check out our website, too; particularly the Interactive House and Energy Fit campaign. More good tips here.

Hope this is of some help jh292. Give me a shout if I can help further as happy to do so.

Malc

mickdooher

Having read the posts relating to to this thread, I'm totally confused about my supply and metering.
I'm on an Eon RHT Energy plan 24 and I'm seeking advice with a view to reducing my energy costs. I have an all electric house.

I'm not on Heatwise, Economy 7, nor Economy 10. As I understand, I am supplied through 2 meters and pay 3 rates, one for the first 900 kwh, a standard rate, and a restricted hours rate.
When trying to compare prices from other suppliers, I am informed that no other supplier would provide power on this basis.

I have four questions.
1. As a 72 year old am I on the best Eon tariff?
2. Would I be better to switch to Economy 7 to take advantage of a lower tariff?
3. If so, how would I go about doing it?
4. Would this require a meter change, would I have to pay for it, and how much might it cost?
Thanks

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi mickdooher

First things first; I would delete your account number. As this is a public forum, having this number on display could compromise the security of your account.

Restricted Hour Tariff (RHT) meters are somewhat of a hybrid set up. They're designed mainly for all electric properties.

RHT meters provide electricity at a cheaper rate at certain times during every 24 hours for things like storage heaters or under floor heating.

Customers on these systems have two single rate meters using a timeswitch to switch between the two.

One meter records normal usage whilst the second is for off peak usage for storage heaters, water heating etc.

These meters are set up on a specific tariff with lower rates for usage recorded on the RHT meter.

As a specialised set up, I'm afraid, there'll only be the one tariff available with us for this type of meter.

Not sure if other suppliers can support your particular set up. Best thing to do is call the individual companies and check as RHT meters don't appear on the comparison sites.

It's certainly possible to change the meter. However, with these types of arrangement, the meters are usually wired directly into the water/heating circuits at a property.

Changing the meter can sometimes have an adverse effect on the water heating and central heating. Therefore, I always recommend customers arrange for an independent approved electrician to check over the set up before going ahead with a meter exchange.

Customers are responsible for paying the electrician. We also currently charge £50 per meter to change meters.

It may be you can save money by better utilising the periods of cheaper electricity during each day.

Hope this is useful mickdooher. Give me a shout if you need any more info as happy to help.

Malc

hax1e

Just wondering if the friendly E.ON Company Representative Malc is still be active in this forum?


I have all electric wet radiator system in a large rural barn conversion. Energy is supplied by E.ON on Heatwise/Economy7.
Had a shock to find that E.ON had failed to record anything for Heatwise Boost for about 2.5 years so got presented with a bill showing a sudden debt of about £4,500. E.ON have applied back billing rule and we are currently negotiating on what falls before/after cut off threshold for back billing rule. That’s progressing in right direction, I think.


Needless to say it made me check my bills and usage in more detail and what I find is that my boiler for the central heating is operating too much on boost. Thermostat is about 18 C day & 16 C overnight (hardly excessive). I have been looking at programming thermostat so that it is at 18 C in Heatwise periods and 16 C other times – but what are exact times?
Problem is Heatwise times are just guidelines. My own observation for my location is afternoon 1pm – 4pm, evening 8pm – 10pm, overnight 1pm-6pm. I understand it is radio teleswitch instigated by the Grid and periods of lull/heavy load can affect times but is it possible to confirm my particular norm is as per my observation and can I get any historical data to indicate how frequently it has deviated from that historically, say over a year.


My other query is that whilst I have an override boost switch on the immersion heater (also on heatwise and switched off), the central heating boiler has no such boost switch. Therefore irrespective of what I do with thermostat program, if the core temperature in the boiler is below threshold of it’s internal thermostat, it will boost anytime to top up, even if thermostat dead low and radiators cold. I tried googling to see if I could see anything about Boost Controllers and whilst I found details of them for immersion heaters, I could not find any mentioning central heating boilers. Are such controllers only for Immersion boilers? I have an Imstor heating system, a giant tank with an internal heating coil that heats up to very high temperature.


I have written to E.ON several times with queries, but most get unanswered and it does not seem conducive to sorting out the billing errors. I thought I’d try to get some more advice elsewhere.


Are you about Malc? If so, can you give any advice and possibly more info. Re: my Heatwise periods/historical data –I could supply postcode and/or meter codes (MPAN) by private message if you are willing to investigate.


Regards
Hexie

Flibertigibit

I have a feeling the Eon rep is no longer Malc, but there still is one. Can't remember his name (maybe Brian?) - I'm sure I saw an answer from him on another thread.

My system, though on the infamous Heatwise, is nothing like yours but I can confirm that the times you give are consistent with what I have experienced, and I have never known them to substantially vary. It's been quite easy for me to check the times recently as I had a switch for a storage heater in my living room moved from somewhere inaccessible to waist height. The electrician didn't have a the proper switch (not sure why he didn't use the original?) and temporarily put one on that is really for a water heater and has a light which comes on whenever the Heatwise comes on - jolly handy actually.

The only thing I can say about "Boost" is that Eon were very vague about it when I asked but said "nobody uses it" and sure enough it's rate 3 on my bill and the number has never moved.

But the worst thing is that Eon customer service always seem quite polite and helpful when I call but everybody gives me conflicting information. I get the impression that most of them do not understand Heatwise either. I even had a "meter supervisor" out to look at mine and he said it would be easy to change the meter to Economy 7 but everyone else (including Malc) has said that isn't possible without having additional electrical work done.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

hax1e

Thank you for your comments.

My experience trying to get answers to questions from E.ON seems similar. Lots of no answer, wrong answer and conflicting answers - it all gets very muddled!

My HW switch is not in a place or height where I can see. I'm 5ft and it's way up high so I keep having to get a step ladder out to manually check what it is doing.

Noticed last night was 2am to 7am and today afternoon started at 2pm.

I think I posted this in wrong place, it should really be a new thread, so I am going to re post as new, in case I can catch attention of the E.ON rep.

All the best

Hexie

Flibertigibit

hax1e wrote: »

My HW switch is not in a place or height where I can see. I'm 5ft and it's way up high so I keep having to get a step ladder out to manually check what it is doing.

Noticed last night was 2am to 7am and today afternoon started at 2pm.

I think I posted this in wrong place, it should really be a new thread, so I am going to re post as new, in case I can catch attention of the E.ON rep.

All the best

Hexie

I am double checking the times it comes on and will let you know. I think maybe the clock changes affect it?

I think it's an excellent idea to give it it's own thread and hope you trace the elusive Eon rep (not that it means he will give you accurate info - but here's hoping!).

djjeckel

Hi there. We have just moved into a cornish unit house near Newquay in Cornwall. I have fitted a Thermaflow Thermal store electric combi boiler. We are with EDF on economy 7 at the moment. Have heard about Economy 10 and Economy 18 tarrifs. Want to get more info on prices for these tarrifs and who supports it and MORE IMPORTANTLY who will supply and fit the correct meter to get this sorted. Keep getting told alsorts from E-on and EDF. Firstly told we would need a new supply so there is two supplies but Western power told me this is a load of rubbish. Also both EDF and E-on say they wont supply a meter for this and to contact the other and they will do it. ROUND and ROUND we go.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi djjeckel


Economy 10 and Economy 18 are what’s known as Restricted Hour Tariffs (RHT). These give customers cheaper electricity at some time during every 24 hour period. This varies depending on the region and meter.

These meters are specifically designed for all electric properties with particular types of heating arrangements. This can be storage heaters, under floor heating, space heating, water immersion heating etc.

Usually, the meter will be wired directly into the heating/water heating circuits at the property. We always recommend customers thinking about this type of meter to have an independent approved electrician check over the system before going ahead. Often, there will be some remedial work needed before the meter can be fitted.

Depending on the region, different meter operators provide different types of RHT meter.

Sorry, but Economy 18 is only available in the Eastern region and is definitely not an option for properties in Cornwall.

Economy 10 is more widely available. The actual type and availability though depends on the meter operator for the region. I’ve just spoken to the meter operator for Cornwall and they’re currently still available. However, this may change as the whole country moves over to the new Smart meters.

Also, we only have the one tariff for this type of metering set up. Whereas, there are a number of tariffs available for the more conventional Economy 7 meters.

Economy 7 meters also tend to benefit customers with all electric properties, particularly if they’ve certain types of heating like storage heaters and water immersion heaters.

Some RHT set ups tend to be more of a comfort rather than an economic tariff. I’ve done a quick comparison between our standard Economy 7 tariff and our Economy 10 tariff for Cornwall. I’ve based this on the average consumption for a residential property according to Ofgem figures.

This shows the Economy 7 to be marginally cheaper. However, with Economy 7, more tariffs are available and greater savings can be made on one of these.

Other suppliers will be different again and it’s best to check with each to see what they’re able to offer.

Hope this is of some use Marc. Let me know if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Terrylw1

djjeckel wrote: »

Hi there. We have just moved into a cornish unit house near Newquay in Cornwall. I have fitted a Thermaflow Thermal store electric combi boiler. We are with EDF on economy 7 at the moment. Have heard about Economy 10 and Economy 18 tarrifs. Want to get more info on prices for these tarrifs and who supports it and MORE IMPORTANTLY who will supply and fit the correct meter to get this sorted. Keep getting told alsorts from E-on and EDF. Firstly told we would need a new supply so there is two supplies but Western power told me this is a load of rubbish. Also both EDF and E-on say they wont supply a meter for this and to contact the other and they will do it. ROUND and ROUND we go.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Since you're in the SWEB region, E18 as Malc says, is not in your region. Its actually called Redring Boiler tariff and its actually 17.5hrs, not 18 as observed on the distributors daily signal.

You are limited to the meters in your region because despite deregulation, meters are recorded against regions.

Every region has always supported E10 with 1 MPAN which works like E7. Complex E10's with 2 MPAN's require rewiring to add a heat circuit to your consumer unit by your electrician first and then you may find other suppliers don't want your business...its nothing more than the fact they are be allowed by Ofgem pro penalise groups if customers by turning them away causing a lack of competition to these customer segments.

Since simple E10 was in all regions, all ex board suppliers have always supported them but now they are refusing business to make their lives easier.

You will need to phone around the suppliers to find out who will take them and failing that, put the question to Ofgem's Consumer Affairs Team for advice.