Economy 7 users Beware!

daveonyx

just bought my 1st house, new to all the outgoings! and there's a few of them!!
anyway, i'm on economy 7, which is supposedly 7hrs cheap electricity, anywhere between the hours of 10.30 and 7.30 (i may be incorrect there)
I've been on holiday and have had nothing better to do than watch my electric meter go round, so far, upto now i've had cheap electric from
11.30pm~12.30am monday
11.30pm~12.30am tuesday
10.30pm~12.30am wednesday

Not looking too good really is it??
has anyone else had this problem? and what was the outcome? as over a few weeks surely that's a fair old amount of extra money they've gotten off me!

Any economy 7 users might just want to watch their dials n see what's really being charged!

Terrylw1

If its pattern is between 10pm and 7am, it will be a split differential which means it has a 2 hr burst, then a gap, then the remaining five hours. They can differ per region though.

I'm guessing you've got a radio teleswitch meter. This relies in a nightly signal sent across the BBC signal as managed by the distributors who collectively contract Archiva for the service.

These signals are not always correct.

In some cases customers are getting less hours off peak or more. Where less, you pay more day rate, where more your off peak load is switched on longer where no private time switch is in use.

But there is a way you can check if you want to.

Everyday this timing data is sent to industry management bodies who package it and sent it to every supplier and their Data Collectors (the suppliers contracted agent for meter reading validation).

So, the supplier can look at your Standard Settlement Configuration (SSC) and use your region marker (known as Grid Supply Point - GSP) and study it over X days.

They don't do this, I know. The data flow is the D0029, should you wish to approach them over it. The SSC is kind of like your meters tariff minus the payment type and the signal is sent to all customers on the same GSP in the region as part of the same transaction. You will be lucky to find anyone who knows about that data flow or this issue, its very very niche and I suspect suppliers just don't utilise it.

Its not uncommon for them to be out by say 15 mins due to relay issues, but it can be 30-60 mins.

I've seen meters that don't conform to their tariff and operate a different switching pattern pretty much from one day to the next.

No one seems to have a clue or care.

For instance, you will hear supplier quote Redring boiler tariff as 18 hers off peak, as the reps on this board do. What they don't know is that its been 17.5 hrs that I have seen for years...so maybe it was never 18 hrs?

Suppliers create their tariffs based on these hours, so its all very worrying.

spiro

Terrylw1 wrote: »

I'm guessing you've got a radio teleswitch meter. This relies in a nightly signal sent across the BBC signal as managed by the distributors who collectively contract Archiva for the service.

It looks like this is going to be scrapped soon (whatever that means) because the government whats to sell of the bandwidth that this sits in.

Terrylw1

spiro wrote: »

It looks like this is going to be scrapped soon (whatever that means) because the government whats to sell of the bandwidth that this sits in.

The licence is at an end but until the meters are swapped out, they can't.

There was a steering group with all parties involved where they considered the options to swap them out or extend the licence. The BBC stated the transmitters needed updating though so there would be an added cost.

The distributors are still paying for all this so they stated this should be transferred to suppliers hence a load of analysis started over market share and how to apply this with the churn issues.

They wanted to avoid the swap out programme until smart caught up but at the time there was no agreement on supporting a lot of these tariffs. Also, if they cut the signal off there were a lot of specific meters that had been installed by one supplier that would cut the off peak load off!

Have you heard the outcome?...I'm a bit behind and need to catch up myself.

daveonyx

wow! you seem to know your stuff there Terry.
Things havent changed on the meter front, still only 2hrs thursday and it went off at 12.30 again tonight.
I'll give it until next week so i've got a full weeks readings and then i'll be quoting parts of your 1st reply and mentioning the D0029 if you don't mind.
I understand what you say about the split differential, which is why i'll be having quite a late night tonight to see if it comes back on at say 2 or 3am
Thankyou for the help and advice, it's greatly appreciated.

molerat

I know scottish hydro split the cheap rate period so you probably do get about your full quota.

Terrylw1

Is that every E7 in the HYDE region though?

Gee_Wiz

How much energy usage at night makes Economy 7 viable ?

Over the last few bills mine has been 40 to 50% with no storage heaters but using timers on washer, dishwasher & immersion. Only to realize at same time I have been put on a 2 tier standard rate:(. The day meter is broken down into xy Kwh at rate 1 then ab Kwh at rate 2, with the rates given. The night meter is not broken down, just says xy units = £ab, which always (3 bills) works out as higher rate.

I have gas ch but cannot use boiler to heat water hence immersion.

rogerblack

Gee_Wiz wrote: »

How much energy usage at night makes Economy 7 viable ?

Depends on your area.
Can be only 20 % in some areas.
Others, it needs to be 50%.
Go to a switching site, select economy 7, and enter about your usage to see which is cheapes.t

Terrylw1

Gee_Wiz wrote: »

How much energy usage at night makes Economy 7 viable ?

Over the last few bills mine has been 40 to 50% with no storage heaters but using timers on washer, dishwasher & immersion. Only to realize at same time I have been put on a 2 tier standard rate:(. The day meter is broken down into xy Kwh at rate 1 then ab Kwh at rate 2, with the rates given. The night meter is not broken down, just says xy units = £ab, which always (3 bills) works out as higher rate.

I have gas ch but cannot use boiler to heat water hence immersion.

Were you on E7 before? If so, you should complain about them changing your tariff without your consent.

Gee_Wiz

I only moved in around 4 months ago and I assumed wrongly I would be charged Eco 7 having a meter for it. Have used timers to make use of night rate but has been a waste of time thus far. Do not know how it would compare over winter as more lights on + heating (pumps etc).