Southern electric - faulty timer

cookies_and_crem

Hi all,

Would it be possible to get some help/ advice?

Facts: 1 bedroom, economy 7 flat. Immersion water system, storage heaters, 2 full time worker occupants (as in flat empty most of the time). Electric system about 20 years old.

Problem: so I have complained over the years to the electric company about high bills only to be fobbed off. We have always paid around £100pm which I understand to be high for the above detail and the company have just asked for a £25pm increase.

I had been asked to try some 'tests' including taking a meter reading 2 hrs apart which I did this afternoon (day off).

Both the low and normal readings had increased. I was asked to take a timer reading (dial thing not digital) and it showed the timer as being 7 hours behind.

The company are going to use a meter accuracy thing to measure the accuracy of the meter - they will not change/ repair our meter until later on.

Now my worry is - will I owe the electric company money once the meter is fixed? Ive been complaining about high bills for 6 years and the thought of a 6 year correction is scaring me. We must have been consuming more electric at the higher rate due to the machine breakdown?

If someone could give advice of what will happen/ what I should do I'd be grateful. Many thanks.

Wywth

cookies_and_crem wrote: »

Hi all,

Would it be possible to get some help/ advice?

Facts: 1 bedroom, economy 7 flat. Immersion water system, storage heaters, 2 full time worker occupants (as in flat empty most of the time). Electric system about 20 years old.

Problem: so I have complained over the years to the electric company about high bills only to be fobbed off. We have always paid around £100pm which I understand to be high for the above detail and the company have just asked for a £25pm increase.

I had been asked to try some 'tests' including taking a meter reading 2 hrs apart which I did this afternoon (day off).

Both the low and normal readings had increased. I was asked to take a timer reading (dial thing not digital) and it showed the timer as being 7 hours behind.

The company are going to use a meter accuracy thing to measure the accuracy of the meter - they will not change/ repair our meter until later on.

Now my worry is - will I owe the electric company money once the meter is fixed? Ive been complaining about high bills for 6 years and the thought of a 6 year correction is scaring me. We must have been consuming more electric at the higher rate due to the machine breakdown?

If someone could give advice of what will happen/ what I should do I'd be grateful. Many thanks.

Probably not, but do expect to pay a lot more for your energy in future if you no longer continue to get the cheap rate you have been getting during the daytime. (If changed, your 7 hours low rate will be only available at night in future)

cookies_and_crem

Would my electric go up? My home is normally empty during the day until 7 pm. And I've been charging things and washing/ drying off peak hours for years which must have been on peak hours if the timer is 7 hours behind? I'm working out that my cheap rate must have been from 6am until1pm.

7 hours low rate after midnight would be fine - my immersion heater heats up at that time I think - I'll check tonight to see what time the light is on for it.

I pay £1200 pa btw - £100pm all year around.

Any advice on what would happen in relation to the previous 6 years?

Wywth

cookies_and_crem wrote: »

Would my electric go up? My home is normally empty during the day until 7 pm. And I've been charging things and washing/ drying off peak hours for years which must have been on peak hours if the timer is 7 hours behind? I'm working out that my cheap rate must have been from 6am until1pm.

7 hours low rate after midnight would be fine - my immersion heater heats up at that time I think - I'll check tonight to see what time the light is on for it.

I pay £1200 pa btw - £100pm all year around.

Any advice on what would happen in relation to the previous 6 years?

As I said, typically nothing will happen about the last 6 years.

Usually, with most E7 installations you have additional separate circuit(s) that will only come live when you are on a cheap rate.
Typically Night Storage Heaters and the main immersion heater would be wired to this

If you have appliances manually timed, then it's up to you to time them to come on to make best use of the low rate supply period (whatever that may be)

Electricity that you currently pay perhaps 6-8p per kWh for during the day will now cost about 14-18p per kWh depending on your tariff if your meter timer is changed.

Have you ever checked if you are better on on E7 compared to a single rate tariff anyway?

[Deleted User]

normally a timer fault like you ve got is to the benefit of most eco 7 people as it skews their expensive day units into a cheaper time, but night storage users end up owing some money. I have said many times on this forum that nearly all the analogue timers I see are well off the correct time, nine out ten approx. The suppliers are nt bothered and neither are the distributors as it all costs to put them right. Fight your corner to the hilt and you will get the extra payments scrubbed. Make sure you mention that the meter readers should have spotted this fault . We have a drop down list of faults to report on our handheld data collecters and faulty timer is on that list

Atidi

sacsquacco wrote: »

normally a timer fault like you ve got is to the benefit of most eco 7 people as it skews their expensive day units into a cheaper time, but night storage users end up owing some money. I have said many times on this forum that nearly all the analogue timers I see are well off the correct time, nine out ten approx. The suppliers are nt bothered and neither are the distributors as it all costs to put them right. Fight your corner to the hilt and you will get the extra payments scrubbed. Make sure you mention that the meter readers should have spotted this fault . We have a drop down list of faults to report on our handheld data collecters and faulty timer is on that list

How do those on night storage heaters end up owing money??? :huh:

I think your drop down list has dropped off most meter readers hand held devices. Our timer has been wrong for 20 odd years, and as you say no one cares ... and we certainly don't, being able to take advantage of the cheap rate electricity during the day :beer:
(the timer is not faulty - it is just incorrectly set ... and always has been)

cookies_and_crem

Thanks for the responses - it seems that we wont be billed for the past 6years.

I dont see how my bill will go up though - our main usage would be from 7pm until 11 pm and the rate then and now would still have been day time. The low rate would have been from 6 am until 1 pm when our home is empty. So all we would have saved on is me boiling the kettle for tea, 10 minutes of shower time and 5 minutes of a hair straightner! But we will save on the washer/dryer, things charging. Assuming my heaters/immersion were heating up 6am to 1pm.

Surely 1 bedroom flats wouldn't use more than £125 worth of electric in a month anyway. How would people afford that? I was paying £150 a month for a while and i felt that!

The accuracy test will start next friday so I guess I'll just have to wait for that and if we do end up paying more I'll think about switching, and if that doesn't work I'll have to forgo even more of our disposable cash towards keeping us clean and warm!

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

yes you are right Atidi, the night storage people will be the ones who will have money owed. I have reported thousands of "faulty " incorrectly set timers and nothing is ever done about it, I have even reported this lack of action to OFGEM. This is just one of the mess ups the privatised energy is to blame for, no one can be bothered to do their job properly if it costs them money, meantime the energy producers will be the ones picking up the bill for all this cheap rate energy people are getting , night rate tariff at 6 pm peak hours etc

Buzby

Can you clarify - by timer do you mean the Supplier's time clock? Or some home device used to control use following the switch to Off Peak?

The clock needs to be set to GMT and is allowed to drift b an hour before it is classed as faulty. If they do not fix it, you can argue for compensation if your useage is unfairly penalised.

We currently use a TeleSwitch - not a timer. It switches to OP at 0000 and back to P at 0830 daily, even after the BST/GMT switch. It was provided on request to our supplier.

Fire_Fox

£100-£125 year round would absolutely be high, but it's not a great comparison since tariffs vary. You might be best forgetting that and looking at your total usage (add low and normal together) in KWH and comparing that to other people in one bedroom flats.

Quite often people who are out all day use far more energy than they think, longer power showers, tumble dryer, laundry at higher temps or more often than necessary, poor insulation, leaving storage heaters on higher outputs when nobody is home. You could only be out of the house at work about a quarter of the week, it's not necessarily 'most of the time'.

[Deleted User]

its not "the suppliers " timers, they are only the billers and customer services. they dont own any meters or timers. The old analogue timers are mostly in a mess and not fit for purpose and havent been for years. I am talking only about the time switch which controls when the meter switches to day and night