Urgent advice needed re 3 phase meter

vivbob

I now seem to be paying £100 per month for electricity...this seems a lot for two adults trying to be careful with usage. It appears I have a 3-phase meter with 6 digits.

The electricity company is reading all six digits - does anyone know if this is correct? (as opposed to reading the first five digits and excluding the last one which you can see going round).

I'd like to be clear on the issue before I phone them to complain!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

gosh, well a three phase meter is usually for heavy duty stuff, a wee garage or workshop.

If you're in a wee house/ flat you should be on a domestic tariff.

Check it out.

dogshome

Hmm - The one you can see going round is normally 0.1 of a unit, usually coloured red and not counted in the numbers for billing

Advisable that you photo your meter and send it to your supplier with a query letter, but stay on top of it and chase them down if you have not had a reply in 14 days

chanz4

If you have a 3phase meter, it does indeed mean a higher demand. However before complaining about usage, do you have:

under floor heating
electric gates
pool
hot tub

They are correct reading all digits if its a 6 dial meter

utility_csa

vivbob wrote: »

I now seem to be paying £100 per month for electricity...this seems a lot for two adults trying to be careful with usage. It appears I have a 3-phase meter with 6 digits.

The electricity company is reading all six digits - does anyone know if this is correct? (as opposed to reading the first five digits and excluding the last one which you can see going round).

I'd like to be clear on the issue before I phone them to complain!

Post the make and model of the meter.

3phase isnt much different to a normal 1phase meter, usually residential only have them if it was an ex-business property or you have need for more demand.

Terrylw1

In terms of the delivery of your electricity, its no different than a standard single phase meter. They can be fit for allsorts of reasons as above posters have mentioned.

The only word of caution I would add is that back years ago, there was a disregard for the internal data that is critical to suppliers and switches. Meter operators fit meters that shouldn't be on domestics and landlords cut costs on conversions by not getting a three phase supply into seperate single phase meters if splitting a business or farm into several domestic dwellings. So, if you experience problems switching due to your tariff on that meter, its likely to be be a use that phase of meter is not compliant on your tariff. In this as, if you don't need the three phase demand, opt for a single phase meter and the situation will go away. There is another way if you need the demand which means your supplier spends a few months creating the data required to register your meter but its very complex and hopefully you won't come across this.

In terms of the reading, three phase is normal six dials but ask your supplier to check the meter information sent from their meter operator. They get a data flow showing the meter details which includes the number if digits that should be read.

In fact a meter can have up to nine digits I believe.

vivbob

Thank you all. No I don't have anything major like a hot tub ... but the house did used to be bedsits so the 'landlord cutting costs' bit rings true!
Terrylw1, are you saying that the meter is incompatible with the tariff (or vice versa)... I need to talk to them (SSE). Also who is responsible for changing the meter?

Terrylw1

The responsibility for changing the meter lies with your supplier. They book their meter operator in who send out one of their engineers.

In terms of the meter compatibility issue, it all comes down to a three digit code you can see on your bill in your supply number known as the Meter Timeswitch Class (MTC) as it has to state three phase it in. Since three phase is expected fit business only, no real consideration was given to domestics years ago. Over time these MTC's have been expanded to cover three phase domestics where they weren't already there.

Any supplier can easily check this by taking your meters Standard Settlement Code (SSC) which is the meters tariff really, comoaring to your Profile Class (PC) which is 1 for single register meters and 2 for dual rate such as E7 (there are differences if you have such as 3 rate Day/Night/Heat meters), then checking your MTC. They also check your region against these codes. If they do this and the MTCs text description states it can be three phase, you will never have an issue. If it doesn't have that text available, it can cause issues as you switch but the meter change would get rid of it anyway.

Sorry if that's a head batterer...its the check the supplier should make and its a specialist area hence giving you the information just incase.

Just be sure your demand is not three phase or you will have isdues.

Another point...does your meter have quite a few registers e.g. 15 of them? These cause a lot of billing problems as they are frequently misread so worth getting rid of if demand isn't an issue.