How to get meter changed for free?

LittleMissAspie

We have a dual rate meter for our electricity but we use a lot more electricity during the day than we do at night.

Unfortunately our power company charges a fee of £60 for swapping the meter over.

Does anyone know a way of getting it changed for free? I read that all companies will have replace meters with smart meters soon, could we persuade them to give us a smart meter now for no fee? Any other ideas?

timbo58

best give them all a call offering to swap both fuels over if they do it for free.
Most don't (I'm talking about PPMs here but maybe dual rates are the same scenario?) EDF do but beware, they take ages to change them, usually can't do both on the same day and rarely answer the phone in less than 1/2 hour solid!

System

You do not necessarily need to have the meter changed when you switch to a none Economy 7 tariff, it depends if your supplier normally changes the meter or not. For a none Economy 7 tariff you simply read both the day rate and the night rate meter readings, work out the units used on each rate and add the two together to get the total units used.

But, if your supplier is refusing to move you onto a none Economy 7 tariff without swapping the meter, then they should not charge you for the meter change.

Tell your energy provider that you will switch to another supplier if they insist on charging to change the meter, if they still refuse, then simply switch your Gas and Electric to a supplier that does not charge.
You would switch to a new supplier and probably start on an Economy 7 tariff, then a few weeks after the switch, you would ask the new supplier to change your tariff (and meter). You may get a better tariff at the same time.

LittleMissAspie

We already get gas from them too, and we're tied into a contract until October.

System

I assume you do not have electric storage heaters.

So, in that case, calculate how much you would save by switching to their none Economy 7 best tariff.

If the saving is more than £60 then it would pay to change and pay the charge.

If less than £60 then could you change the way you use electric so that more is used at night between now and October.
e.g.
Use washing machine, tumble dryer, dish washer etc. after 1 A.M. by using plug in time clocks for example.

Then switch supplier when your current contract expires.

P.S.
Some suppliers only change meters free of charge for pensioners. (I understand)

macman

Call their bluff and say you're switching anyway (regardless of the ETC) to a provider that does not charge, then ask them to either bill you on combined readings or switch your meter FOC.
The ETC is rarely more than £25 per fuel anyway, if you're running E7 with no storage heaters you'll recover that very quickly.

LittleMissAspie

I believe the house was built with storage heaters but we have a gas boiler and radiators now. I've calculated that dual rate is costing us £40-60 a year more than single rate, and that's with using the washing machine overnight. We don't have a dish washer. I am at home 4 days a week using stuff, boyfriend is home 3 days a week using stuff, so I don't think we can make dual rate work for us.

I'll try calling and see what they say, otherwise I think we'll switch in October.

macman

You need to be using at least 33% of your consumption on E7 cheap rate to make it viable.