Meter Change??!! Scottish Power

millrose

A relic from when my property had storage heaters, I have a two rate electricity meter. I try to use as much as possible on low rate with my washing machine and tumble dryer but it is not always convenient even though they both have timers. Reading through this forum I realise that I could be losing money on the deal. So, armed with this knowledge I contacted Scottish Power to request a change to a single rate for electricity. I was informed that this would necessitate a change of meter and that there would be a £50 charge for the callout to do this. I pointed out that my existing meter was able to deliver a total figure for electricity consumption but was told that this was not acceptable. The adviser from SP thinks that I my not save much by going to single rate and is going to come back to me with a calculation based on my past years consumption. Because my meter is running 25 mins fast and still gaining it occurs to me that it is either faulty or needs adjustment needing a callout to remedy. Could be that I should get be able to request a meter change without the £50 fee. Any observations appreciated.

Whiteshepherd.

deedee71

I had the same problem and told Scottish Power if they didn't wave the £50 fee I would switch to another supplier who would change the meter for free. They switched it for free.

There are websites you can put your usage and unit rates into to see if it would benefit you to switch. The day rate on a two rate meter is very high even if you are using timers on washing machine/dishwasher etc as I was when I had storage heaters.

I wouldn't just take SP's word for it.

Good luck

westv

You do NOT need a new meter if changing from E7 to normal rate. The company should be able to simply add the two readings together. That's what happened at my previous place with E.on.

millrose

westv wrote: »

You do NOT need a new meter if changing from E7 to normal rate. The company should be able to simply add the two readings together. That's what happened at my previous place with E.on.

This was the point I made but I got a blank No. The annoying thing is I submit my own readings so I know how easy it is.

Whiteshepherd

notbritishgas

Some companies can indeed add the 2 readings together and I believe EoN is one of them.

I do not think it is the company being bloody minded when they say no it is more the computer saying no! I would think the computer system software for SP has not been written to allow that to happen.

macman

What percentage of your annual kWh usage is on cheap rate? If it's less than 33% then it's likely that E7 is costing you more than a single rate tariff. You don't need SP to do this calculation for you, you can do it yourself in minutes-or any comp site can do it for you even quicker.

millrose

macman wrote: »

What percentage of your annual kWh usage is on cheap rate? If it's less than 33% then it's likely that E7 is costing you more than a single rate tariff. You don't need SP to do this calculation for you, you can do it yourself in minutes-or any comp site can do it for you even quicker.

My low rate consumption is 19%. SP are trying to tell me that I have only paid £4+ extra to what I would have paid had I been on single rate. This is on an annual consumption of 1911 kWh. Needless to say I don't have a great deal of confidence in the £4+ figure.

Whiteshepherd

macman

So put your split figs (19/79%) into any comp site along with your current tariff and you will get the answer in seconds. Then do the same for a single rate tariff and compare.
Normally one third cheap rate usage is required to make E7 work, but since you are such a low user, that may not be the case.
You can then factor in the cost to change the meter.

millrose

macman wrote: »

So put your split figs (19/79%) into any comp site along with your current tariff and you will get the answer in seconds. Then do the same for a single rate tariff and compare.
Normally one third cheap rate usage is required to make E7 work, but since you are such a low user, that may not be the case.
You can then factor in the cost to change the meter.

As long as I continue to use my washer and drier overnight it is not costing me very much. I have decided to run out my current fixed price deal with Scottish Power and switch at that time to a more flexible supplier making sure I apply for single rate electricity.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread.

Whiteshepherd