Two electricity meters, why?

dodger1

Just moving in to a housing association flat and found that there are two meters for the electricity (no gas in the property. One is a key meter and one is a "normal" multi rate meter. The supplier is Opus energy who apparently don't supply direct so I've got to get another supplier to take over. I've given them the two readings from the normal meter but they've no idea why the key meter is there. There is a credit on the key meter. I've phoned the housing association about this and someone will phone back in due course but until then anyone had anything similar.

Ich_2

The key meter will probably be being used for debt collection

chanz4

One is your time switch, or maybe an offpeak

misterbarlow

can you post a photo or provide more info???
ie what does the outgoing tails for each supply???

geevirus

dodger1 wrote: »

Just moving in to a housing association flat and found that there are two meters for the electricity (no gas in the property. One is a key meter and one is a "normal" multi rate meter. The supplier is Opus energy who apparently don't supply direct so I've got to get another supplier to take over. I've given them the two readings from the normal meter but they've no idea why the key meter is there. There is a credit on the key meter. I've phoned the housing association about this and someone will phone back in due course but until then anyone had anything similar.

OK I'm an Electrician.....I guessing you have this set up in your electricity cupboard which is a Economy 7 electricity supply..

Supply-meter1 and meter 2 is then after the first, these are joined by the supply 25mm cables. (Sorry not allowed to post a link to an image I found for comparison.) I may pop you it in a private message.

At a guess, There is or was electrical heating systems in your home and the economy 7 system is used for storage heaters for over night charging when the electricity is at a cheaper rate. If this is the case then I would say nothing to the electricity company if those heaters have been removed or they will take out the meter and charge you full price for electricity after midnight.

geevirus

Sorry just got something to add from energyhelpline.com which may help explain what economy 7 is.......

"Do you want to know more about economy 7? Fair enough. Energy is one of the biggest household expenses. You will have noticed energy prices rising rapidly over the past few years. Knowing more about gas and electricity will enable you to reduce your bill.
energyhelpline.com can help you compare energy prices and switch to the cheapest supplier, which could save you hundreds of pounds. If you’ve got any questions, you can phone our call centre which is UK-based and free to call.

Economy 7
Economy 7 is a tariff offered by UK electricity companies. With Economy 7, you pay a different amount for your electricity according to the time of day. Economy 7 customers pay a cheaper rate during the off-peak night time, which a 7 hour period, hence the name of the tariff. The discount hours are usually 12pm to 7am during winter, and 1am to 8am in summer, although this can vary by supplier and region, so it is best to check with them directly.

• Can I cut my bills with Economy 7?
• How does Economy 7 work?
• How do I switch to Economy 7?



Can I cut my bills with Economy 7?
To cut your bills with economy 7, you will need to schedule at least 20% of your energy consumption during the cheap night time period. Economy 7 users often set their boilers and night storage heaters to automatically switch on during the cheaper night-time period. With economy 7, it is also wise to operate appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers during the night.
How does Economy 7 work?
Households using the economy 7 tariff require a special meter which shows two different readings - one for the day and one for the night. The wiring in the house does not need to be altered – but you may have to get the special economy 7 meter fitted. To save money with economy 7, your appliances require the intelligence to turn themselves on and off at the right times.
How do I switch to Economy 7?
If you are already on an economy 7 tariff, you could save money simply by switching to a different supplier. You can compare economy 7 tariffs using energyhelpline.com. If you don’t have an economy 7 meter, you’ll need to have one installed, and then you can compare rates with energyhelpline.com and switch online."

Terrylw1

Are they both multi rate? Is the PPM connected to the credit meter?

If they are both multi rate and the PPM is connected to the credit meter, its known as a "collector". It occurs where a PPM can't be fit to the flat direct e.g. height after ground level regulations. The collector gets around this by being the main meter near the supply.

You need to post more info really as its not fully clear but I'm guessing it will be this.

Bare in mind that if your E7 has been removed and you don't plan your heating to be at night, you won't benefit from an E7 set up. By not having gas though it should be the case that you still have E7.

Meters don't get connected together as per the above post unless they are "collectors" or sub meters. You never fit a standard meter plus an off peak meter and connect them together, because they are seperately recorded supplies on different MPAN's and are independant of each other.

Terrylw1

Something I should add, is that there are certain regions such as Yorkshire board where they used to be Token+Token off peak. However, as Token was phased out in place of Key, this couldn't be supported due to missing industry data that suppliers couldn't be bothered to create. This has left a situation where you have a Key+Credit off peak.

It doesn't sound like this is your issue but without more info, you never know!

On another note, Opus are purely business supplies aren't they? If so, I'm betting they will want to charge you business rates. Don't accept this. There is an Ofgem Standard Licence Condition (SLC) that states they have to offer you a domestic contract.

Let me know if you need to have a read of it and I'll post the links and SLC numbers for you.

misterbarlow

are the meters co-located or in seperate areas...
we used to have setups here where customers in flats wanted paygo but did not have access to the communal meters, so a paygo was put in series in the flat as a method of payment only and was a silent meter and never read, and the normal meter was read and back office calculations used to create an accurate bill...

this was done because the supplier/mop are responsible for the tails up to the meter and if the original meter was removed and a paygo put in the flat then they would have to adopt the remaining cabling into the flat....

dodger1

Thanks for the replies. Both meters are in the same cupboard and I should have mentioned that the rent includes a heating charge which the normal meter may be for, unfortunately the floating managers (sheltered housing) have no idea if this is so. I'm waiting for the HA manager to contact me about this.

I've also started a test and both the storage heaters and immersion heater are showing that they are connected to the "normal" meter. I'm going to leave a couple of lights on tonight to see which of the meters they effect.

t0rt0ise

I'm guessing that one is the landlord's meter and the other is yours. We have the same here. The landlord's (also an HA) meter is simply for the light in the entrance hall which serves both halves of the house. In my case I can still move suppliers with my meter so you may want to look into that eventually.