Stuck Night meter-Economy 7

bluemorphs

Hi hope for some advise.
I had realised lately that I had been paying lot more for my Electricity from SSE.Iam on economy 7 with 2 meter readings-day and offpeak.When I went through my online bills my night meter reading has been the same since last Aug when I switched supplier.I do submit readings on telephone and also online and failed to notice that one of the reading has not changed.

My bill was always in credit with the previous supplier.
I have been staying awake at night and I see that that the day meter wheel spins but the night meter doesnt.

If I mention this to the supplier am I going to end up with a higher bill or would I get my money back as I have been paying on higher rates even during off peak hrs.

Has anyone here had the same experience and how was it resolved?

Many thanks

Wolf3

If you are on an Unrestricted tariff or your property is not heated by off peak storage heaters it probably wont make much difference to your bills, as you need to be using a considerable amount of night usage to make an E7 tariff worthwhile. If however your tariff is Economy 7 or you have night storage heaters, i would speak to your supplier

bluemorphs

Thanks Wolf3.

Iam on economy 7 tariff.I dont have a storage heater.My a/c used to be on credit with my previous supplier.The bills have gone nearly doubled since last sept.

I do washing during off peak hours.

Will the supplier take more money off me now or will I get some money back?

Thanks

Wolf3

hi Bluemorphs

I would definitely speak to your supplier and report the fault with your timeswitch. They can either do one of two things,

1. They can arrange an appointment to fix the faulty timeswitch at which point they will deem (estimate) your usage on the night rate based on the previous meter read history from your old supplier.

2. Or they can leave the timeswitch alone and you can ask them to rebill your account on the same tariff as an unrestricted meter.

This should reduce your bills either way, as in the first instance you havent had any electricity usage been billed at your cheaper night rate or in the second instance the pence per unit charge on the Day E7 rate is generally higher than the Unrestricted rate

as you don't have any major appliances on during the night i would expect an Unrestricted tariff would be the better option for you anyway, you have to be using a considerable % of your total energy consumption during the night time hours (midnight to 7am) for an E7 tariff to be beneficial for you.

Hope this helps

macman

If (with the meter working properly) you are not using about 30% on night rate (which is unlikely without storage heaters) then you should be on a single rate tariff, not E7.
Why not check your old bills to see what the approx split used to be?

Terrylw1

Wolf3 wrote: »

2. Or they can leave the timeswitch alone and you can ask them to rebill your account on the same tariff as an unrestricted meter.

They can't use this option as they would be failing to investigate a fault.

They will replace the meter and revert to estimation. They can't see the previous suppliers details, but they will have a forecasted value for the 12 months post switch date so if the night rate was moving then, it could be used but this doesn't sound since a switch has no relevance so its likely it was faulty prior hence the forecast will be incorrect.

The most likely solution to billing will be monitoring from installation of the new meter.

Wolf3

Sorry if i wasn't clear with the 2nd option and your right the MOP would need to investigate the fault, however the faulty timeswitch could just be physically removed if you so wish and billed on an unrestricted tariff.
Plenty of timeswitches have been removed from E7 meters if they are not needed and a zero consumption is registered on the night register.
Problems due arise if the supplier has the reads transposed and the zero consumption is showing on the Day register.

With regards to the records, during the transfer the new supplier will request the previous meter read history from the previous Data Aggregator. They won't be able to see the bills from the previous supplier but should have a reasonable record of the meter read history available to them. Part of these records are the EAC (Estimated Annual Consumption) it is from this they should be able to deem a reasonable Day/Night ratio.

Terrylw1

Wolf3 wrote: »

Sorry if i wasn't clear with the 2nd option and your right the MOP would need to investigate the fault, however the faulty timeswitch could just be physically removed if you so wish and billed on an unrestricted tariff.
Plenty of timeswitches have been removed from E7 meters if they are not needed and a zero consumption is registered on the night register.
Problems due arise if the supplier has the reads transposed and the zero consumption is showing on the Day register.

With regards to the records, during the transfer the new supplier will request the previous meter read history from the previous Data Aggregator. They won't be able to see the bills from the previous supplier but should have a reasonable record of the meter read history available to them. Part of these records are the EAC (Estimated Annual Consumption) it is from this they should be able to deem a reasonable Day/Night ratio.

The new supplier is sent the EAC by their Data Collector which is derived from the reading history obtained from the previous suppliers Data Collector. The old supplier is also allowed to send the last EAC from their Data Collector to the new supplier.

Considering the time switch in modern digital meters are internal, which MOP's are breaking the seals onsite to do this? Even with old mechanical with external time switches this should not be done.

The distributors Line Loss Factor (LLF) determines the charging structure to the supplier and they differ between single rate standard and E7. So, via this method, the charging would be incorrect.

I have seen this done years ago and it was dodgy. Don't seem to see it much these days. Who's doing it?

One register not advanced is a clear timeswitch fault for investigation so this type of practice is counterproductive.

Wolf3

Its not done as regularly now with the internal timeswitches but was a cheap and quick way for engineers and of course the independent electricians who removed the timeswitches themselves without customers knowledge and leaving the meter without any seals!!!

dogshome

As you don't have Storage Heaters, how do you heat your home ?

GooliesOfFire

dogshome wrote: »

As you don't have Storage Heaters, how do you heat your home ?

Maybe he uses a gas heater? I do