Standing Charge?

wyattnorm

Had a conversation with young lady from Scottish Power about coming off Economy 7 and she led me to believe that as we only use the washing machine twice a week during the E7 hours, this would be beneficial. She mentioned that having a new meter fitted (£54) would be a saving?

Is it more expensive having E7 lightly used, than just having a single rate?

If my memory is correct, she did say that they could do away with the standing charge, do we not all have to pay a standing charge?

Scottish Power tried to raise our DD from £44 to £58, but backed down when challenged, but this has now gone up to £58 with our latest bill. I'm not too bothered, but will be watching future bills having read forum posts.

Norman

lithopsian

Daytime units are more expensive on an Economy 7 tariff so if you don't use a lot of electricity at night then your bills will be higher. You can have a standing charge or not. If you don't then the first so many units that you use will cost more. The end result is that you pay an extra amount each month approximately what the standing charge would be. If there are times that you use virtually zero gas or electricity during a billing period then you would benefit by not having a standing charge.

macman

wyattnorm wrote: »

Had a conversation with young lady from Scottish Power about coming off Economy 7 and she led me to believe that as we only use the washing machine twice a week during the E7 hours, this would be beneficial. She mentioned that having a new meter fitted (£54) would be a saving?

Is it more expensive having E7 lightly used, than just having a single rate?

If my memory is correct, she did say that they could do away with the standing charge, do we not all have to pay a standing charge?

Scottish Power tried to raise our DD from £44 to £58, but backed down when challenged, but this has now gone up to £58 with our latest bill. I'm not too bothered, but will be watching future bills having read forum posts.

Norman

So how do you heat the house and hot water? If that's not on Economy 7 too, then its most unlikely to be of any benefit by staying on it-typically you need to be using around 30% of your units on the cheap night rate to make E7 pay. All your day units are charged at a premium rate.
Look at your annual statement and calculate the % of kWh used on each rate: day and night.
NSC or SC tariffs make virtually no difference to your bill unless you are a very low user, because an NSC tariff charges higher unit rates.

HappyMJ

Just be careful with switching to a standard rate with ScottishPower. In my region the day rate is cheaper than the standard rate. You can go onto a comparison site selecting your existing tariff and check both unit rates with and without the Economy 7 button ticked to see which one offers the better combined rate for your night usage.

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/PDF/L201202_StandardDomesticPrices.pdf

Terrylw1

They may not have been straight with you.

There are a lot of E7 meters that are allowed to switch between standard on 2 registers billed to 1 charge. This would save you the fee.

They need to check if the Standard Settlement Code (SSC) for your meter allows for this. If so, they can simply change your tariff and update the registration record held by the distributor. If they can do that and just wont, they acting in a non compliant manner under the Balancing & Settlements Code (BSC)

Scottish_Power

Hi wyattnorm

It is not possible for me to confirm if you would make a saving by changing your meter without checking your consumption. Please email me at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and i can look into this for you

Thanks
Lee-Anne @ ScottishPower

wyattnorm

Many thanks for taking the time to reply...I actually understood the info...you made it very clear. Will let you know how I get on.

I love forums!

Regards.

Norman

Terrylw1

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi wyattnorm

It is not possible for me to confirm if you would make a saving by changing your meter without checking your consumption. Please email me at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and i can look into this for you

Thanks
Lee-Anne @ ScottishPower

You may not need to change the meter.

Many E7 meters can operate on Profile Class 1 & 2. If so, you can change the tariff and update MPAS with the PC change.

So, if needed, this would avoid the customer (and your company) paying for a meter change (plus the cost of taking time off work)

As long as the PC is held in the Market Domain Data that Elexon manage and the MTC is available, you can do this.

wyattnorm

Lee-Anne from Scottishpower put me in touch with Phillip who phoned me and did some calculations and worked out I would only save around £3 per year in changing to a single tariff. When you take into account the cost of a new meter I'm going to leave it as it is.

I did print out my consumption history and getting the calculator out, I noticed that my 2011 total was less than 2010. I contacted Phillip who agreed and lowered my Direct Debit by £8.

All in all, I am content with SP.

Again many thanks for your help.

Norman

Terrylw1

wyattnorm wrote: »

Lee-Anne from Scottishpower put me in touch with Phillip who phoned me and did some calculations and worked out I would only save around £3 per year in changing to a single tariff. When you take into account the cost of a new meter I'm going to leave it as it is.

I did print out my consumption history and getting the calculator out, I noticed that my 2011 total was less than 2010. I contacted Phillip who agreed and lowered my Direct Debit by £8.

All in all, I am content with SP.

Again many thanks for your help.

Norman

They may be able to do it without any cost to change the meter. Did they check that?

wyattnorm

The SP rep went through it all and said that there would be a charge. There is only so much that you can go on asking, you get to the point that you have to take what they say as correct.

I am pleased that they actually contacted me, so often it is hard to get hold of anyone.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Norman

I just love forums...have a question, someone knows the answer!