Parents not allowed to switch electricity provider

caxia

Would anyone be able to give me some advice?

My elderly parents have never switched electricity supply company. (There is no gas supply to their rural house). They are supplied by Npower and have Super 7 (?) storage heating.

According to my Dad this means their bills have 4 different rates on them and no other supplier will allow them to switch to them. I find this hard to believe but he gets upset if I query it.

Any thoughts? I suspect they are paying well over the odds for their electricity but I havent got a bill of theirs at the mo.

Thanks.

irnbru_2

caxia wrote: »

Any thoughts?

A quick search suggests he's right.

Without a meter change they might not be able to switch.

Get a hold of the bill and confirm the details.

caxia

Thanks irnbru. Will get my Dad to post me a bill. Ironically the storage heaters they installed in the eighties was to save them money.I wonder if it is actually costing them more now.

HappyMJ

caxia wrote: »

Thanks irnbru. Will get my Dad to post me a bill. Ironically the storage heaters they installed in the eighties was to save them money.I wonder if it is actually costing them more now.

If he switches to standard E7 it will probably cost more.

Npower Super 7 tariff is 5 hours of heating during the night and 2 hours in the early evening. It is designed to top up the storage heating before the evening so that they don't run out. If he switches to standard E7 he may find on a cold winters day the storage heating will run out in the evening and he will be forced to use peak rate electric heating to keep warm.

irnbru_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

Npower Super 7 tariff is 5 hours of heating during the night and 2 hours in the early evening.

OP you'ld need to look at E10 for something with a top-up which would probably be in the afternoon (and I'm sure would require a meter change).

Compare the standard usage in winter and summer - they may be topping up the heating with peak time usage during winter in which case E10 might be a better tariff (reducing peak rate heating costs).

caxia

Thats really interesting. So despite not being able to switch they may still be on the most economic energy supply. Thanks for your input. I will try and have a good look at their old bills and do a comparison with E7 and E10.