Moved into new property - 2 electricity meters but gas provides heating?

holbob

Just moved into our first owned property 3 weeks ago, and our electricity meter has two readings, one for "low" and one for "normal". There is a day/night dial inside the meter also. This would suggest economy 7 heating to me? Except there is a new combi boiler in the property which provides heating and hot water.

Both electric meters are going up. I am unsure of what this actually means and what I will be getting charged for! There is also an old style electric box in the building which we will be getting upgraded to a new consumer unit very soon (hopefully the wires around the house won't need updating - little bit worried about that naturally).

joedenise

You don't have to currently have Economy 7 heating to have 2 meters. If the property has previously had this then there will be 2 meters. You will need to check with your electricity supplier whether or not you are being charged on the Economy 7 tariff or not.

The property wer live in did have Economy 7 meters but because we don't use enough electricity as the right times (the times were split! during the night) the supplier changed our tariff so all units are charged at the daytime rate on a normal tariff.

HTH.

Denise

NeverEnough

Economy 7 is not just for heating - it is a lower charge for electricity used for any household purpose between 11pm and 6am while the units outside of those 7 hours are more expensive. While this may have been used for say, storage heaters in the past, many people now use it to run washing machines or tumble driers on timers at a cheaper rate.

Check with the supplier what meters are being used.

Cardew

It seems that you have a conventional Economy 7 set up.

Normally this means 7 hours of cheap rate electricity in the 9 hours between 11:30pm and 08:30am. The actual times depend of the area in which you live - you need to check when it switches from 'low' to 'high'. In Summer(BST) the times are one hour later

The downside of getting cheap rate for 7 hours is you pay a small premium for the other 17 hours electricity. The 'break even' point where Economy 7 is financially advantageous is between 20% and 40% consumption of total electricity at cheap rate - depending on tariff.

With a combi(and hence no heating of water by electricity) it will take quite a bit of effort to use more than 20% - 25%.

It is possible with some companies that inspite of an Economy 7 meter that you are on a single rate tariff. They add the totals from each meter and treat as one total. e.g. 3000kWh an day(high) meter and 1000kWh on night(low) meter is treated as 4,000kWh.

Either way there won't be a huge difference in electricity costs if you choose your tariff wisely - Scottish Power are cheapest for E7 for most people.

Terrylw1

Cardew wrote: »

It seems that you have a conventional Economy 7 set up.

Normally this means 7 hours of cheap rate electricity in the 9 hours between 11:30pm and 08:30am. The actual times depend of the area in which you live - you need to check when it switches from 'low' to 'high'. In Summer(BST) the times are one hour later

The downside of getting cheap rate for 7 hours is you pay a small premium for the other 17 hours electricity. The 'break even' point where Economy 7 is financially advantageous is between 20% and 40% consumption of total electricity at cheap rate - depending on tariff.

With a combi(and hence no heating of water by electricity) it will take quite a bit of effort to use more than 20% - 25%.

It is possible with some companies that inspite of an Economy 7 meter that you are on a single rate tariff. They add the totals from each meter and treat as one total. e.g. 3000kWh an day(high) meter and 1000kWh on night(low) meter is treated as 4,000kWh.

Either way there won't be a huge difference in electricity costs if you choose your tariff wisely - Scottish Power are cheapest for E7 for most people.

When meter settings are created, the supplier has to specify whether they are set to BST or GMT. To get them to then change, they have to add in a change based on the date it would change hence you see this with some radio teleswitch metering but not time switch metering as its not possibly as the last Sunday date moves.

Some more modern metering can switch with BST.

In terms of adding units together, customers should be wary of this and get their supplier to confirm the meter is allowed to operate this way and that their Profile Class (PC) will be updated from 02 to 01 with the distributor. If they can't change the PC, they must physically change the meter otherwise when you switch, your new supplier will tell you your old supplier acted non compliantly to save on paying for a meter change.