E7 Storage heaters

juno-eclipse

Hello,

I switched my electric a few months ago, i was on economy 7 when i moved in, however my bills have doubled what they were in my last property, i have checked my meter and my neighbours tonight, and my meter only lists units for one rate, im on prepayment, so im paying 15p a unit for all units I think.

My storage heaters are still working through, I thought they would not turn off if i wasnt on an Economy 7 tarrif? They dont seem to cool down at night, so does this mean there on all of the time?

Do they have a thermostat in them, so its just keeping them at that temperature, because if it was using 3.5kw every hour my bill would be thousands wouldnt it? Im currently putting about £150 a month on, i have 1 large storage heater, and 1 very small one.

Can someone help me get my head round it, im not sure whats going on

[Deleted User]

Hi,

when you switched supplier, did you also get the meter changed from credit to prepayment?

If you are not on a time switch for heaters, then they will have power constantly, though as they are thermostatically controlled they will on/off depending on setting and ambient temperature.

One way round the time switch problem meantime would be to manually operate the heaters, switching off for a few hours each day, the normal overnight E7 is 7/8 hours, though with your arrangement just now, you might find it better to have them off during the day if you are out at work.

You will need to contact your supplier explain situation, and get them to investigate.

Richie-from-the-Boro

juno-eclipse wrote: »

Hello,

I switched my electric a few months ago, i was on economy 7 when i moved in, however my bills have doubled what they were in my last property, i have checked my meter and my neighbours tonight, and my meter only lists units for one rate, I'm on prepayment, so I'm paying 15p a unit for all units I think.

My storage heaters are still working through, I thought they would not turn off if i wasn't on an Economy 7 tariff? They don't seem to cool down at night, so does this mean there on all of the time?

Do they have a thermostat in them, so its just keeping them at that temperature, because if it was using 3.5kw every hour my bill would be thousands wouldn't it? I'm currently putting about £150 a month on, i have 1 large storage heater, and 1 very small one.

Can someone help me get my head round it, im not sure whats going on

As frugalmacdugal has said, in the first instance use the 'fused spur' switch to decide whether your heating & water heating is on or off. Using 5.2kWh stored heat & stored hot water in an uncontrolled way will give you a bill of around £200 each month for the next 4 or 5 months.

When you switched from E7 to your current tariff you moved from 4p+ to 15p+ per unit for both your space heating & your water heating.

Yes they do have stat on them, but even if you were still on E7 you would still occasionally need a~n~other form of electric heating, if there's no gas feed to your property.

grahamc2003

juno-eclipse wrote: »

Hello,

I switched my electric a few months ago, i was on economy 7 when i moved in, however my bills have doubled what they were in my last property, i have checked my meter and my neighbours tonight, and my meter only lists units for one rate, im on prepayment, so im paying 15p a unit for all units I think.

My storage heaters are still working through, I thought they would not turn off if i wasnt on an Economy 7 tarrif? They dont seem to cool down at night, so does this mean there on all of the time?

Do they have a thermostat in them, so its just keeping them at that temperature, because if it was using 3.5kw every hour my bill would be thousands wouldnt it? Im currently putting about £150 a month on, i have 1 large storage heater, and 1 very small one.

Can someone help me get my head round it, im not sure whats going on

Juno, what you are missing at the moment is information, and furthermore information which only you can get from your supplier.

You need to ring your supplier and ask the following

- am I on an economy 7 tariff?

- what price per unit including vat am I paying for day (and night if on e7) units?

- while you're at it, you might as well ask the cheap rate times (e.g. 00:30 to 07:30) if you're on e7 (always useful to know)

yes your heaters have a thermostat in them. However, by their nature, if set high, the thermostat wouldn't click off much during the 7 hour charge, so the big heater would use about 20Kwh overnight in that case, less if the input is set lower. That should cost, at e7 night rates, about £1.20, or, if somehow wired into day rates, about £3 at your 15p/kwh. The smaller one would be about 40p and 75p respectively (if set high).

Each heater should have an on/off switch next to it, so the minimum cost per night would be 0p.

juno-eclipse

Hello,

My friend who cares for me has been down today, and pressing the blue button on my meter, and checking online, it seems they have put me on there standard tarrif, which is 14.784p per kWhand one rate, i should be on two rates of, 18.280p and 5.8p per kWh,

When i moved in, i was using the key from the last person till it switched over, which was on economy 7, the heaters were cooler in the evenings but are now on 24/7, we pluged in an energy monitor to check and the feed for E7 is on through the day.

I thought if they put me on a standard tarrif that the meter wouldnt turn on the E7 feed, but it seems its now constantly on, Its a digital meter so does that mean it can be both standard and exonomy 7? My friend had to have his changed to standard, but it was mechanical with two dials.

Iv checked all my reciepts and since the 14/08 iv put on £480 which is over £180 more than i would have put on the 3 months before, i know it was summer before, but it was still cold so they were on full every night so usage is exactly the same.

Is there a way to have the money refunded? Or will they say theres noting they can do? I cant use a telephone due to my disability, so it depends when i can get someone to call on my behalf, but i dont know what i need them to say.

Thanks for all your help

HappyMJ

If you can't use a phone then send an email or a letter which is actually the preferred and better method of contact anyway.

Owain_Moneysaver

juno-eclipse wrote: »

I thought if they put me on a standard tarrif that the meter wouldnt turn on the E7 feed, but it seems its now constantly on, Its a digital meter so does that mean it can be both standard and exonomy 7?

Depends on the type of meter. Typically the new ones have either a second set of output connections to the off-peak consumer unit, or a trigger wire which operates a contactor which controls the off-peak consumer unit.

I guess that, with the meter set to single rate, it's turning the off-peak consumer unit on continuously.

You need to get set up with an E7 tariff and your key reprogrammed to update the meter, then check your storage heaters only heat up during the night.

juno-eclipse

Thanks for explaining that Owain, its stressing me out alot so prefer to know what im talking about when i can get someone to call.

I thought my bills were high just because Ebico charge more, so i started switching to Scottish Power last week, so when thats gone through hopefully when i put there key in it will go back to Economy 7 and my bills will go back down to under £100 a month, hopefully i will be able to switch to a credit meter in the new year to then im not asking people to top up for me.

Do you think Ebico would compensate me for putting me on the wrong tarrif? Or will they not because im switching to a new provider?

Thank you,

Richie-from-the-Boro

juno-eclipse wrote: »

Thanks for explaining that Owain, its stressing me out a lot so prefer to know what I'm talking about when i can get someone to call.

I thought my bills were high just because Ebico charge more, so i started switching to Scottish Power last week, so when thats gone through hopefully when i put there key in it will go back to Economy 7 and my bills will go back down to under £100 a month, hopefully I will be able to switch to a credit meter in the new year to then I'm not asking people to top up for me.

Do you think Ebico would compensate me for putting me on the wrong tariff? Or will they not because I'm switching to a new provider?

Thank you,

If you are going to SP write to Colin .. .. who is the Senior Customer Relations Advisor at Scottish Power - you can write to him at this address : colin.pensom@scottishpower.com

If you write to him outlining your situation, particularly the fact that you have a carer, and explaining what you need, I'm sure you will get the best advice available.

Additionally if you (1) explain your care package and (2) outline the type of benefits you receive and (3) specifically request to be put on to the cheapest tariff given your circumstances you may get extra help from SP with a discounted tariff.

I hope this helps you juno-eclipse !