Arguing with energy companies over E7 meter query

jungle_jeff

In December 2012 I had gas central heating installed so decided to change from an E7 tariff to a dual fuel gas/electricity one. At this point I was on quarterly billing with npower, with my last bill being in October 2012.

At first npower said I would have to have a new meter installed. When I queried this - I had heard of other people simply adding the day/night rate to arrive at the units used, I was told that it would be acceptable to keep my old meter.

My next gas/elec bill was due in January 2013. It didn't arrive so i contacted them. They assured me it would arrive shortly. After another 3 months waiting for a bill and me re contacting 4 times to ask for my quarterly bill, I finally decided to go elsewhere and changed to EDF (npower wrote to me confirming my E7 tariff prices were changing despite having left that tariff last year...:mad: )

Via Uswitch I changed to EDF. I was able to select a dual fuel account but was required to put both day/night meter readings in the switch. I noticed in the small print today (got sent the letter 10 days ago) that EDF have put me back on E7 as well.

After a phone call I was told that I would have to get my meter changed to be able to have a non E7 tariff. I didn't think this was the case and that my day/night readings could again be used but they say I have to wait for the change over from npower and then they will change my meter in a month.

So my question is: does anyone know for sure whether I have to get my meter changed or am I just banging my head against a brick wall?

And just why are npower so crap at emailing a bill - I actually want to pay so that I don't get into debt!

Any help appreciated.

macman

If you select a tariff and the meter number is registered as an E7 meter, then you will by default be placed on an E7 billing-it's still the same tariff version.
There is no hard and fast rule on metering. Some suppliers will combine the two readings from an E7 meter, some won't. EDF do not.

jungle_jeff

Time to change the meter then!

Thanks

chanz4

as most are on the same system now, it wont support this like suppliers old systems used to.

lstar337

Surely it would make sense to start having meters capable of doing both, which could be (by authorised personnel) selectable by a switch?

Wouldn't that save a lot of meter changing hassle?

chanz4

Its not the meters, but suppliers billing systems

lstar337

chanz4 wrote: »

Its not the meters, but suppliers billing systems

That's what is causing problems, yes.

But with some suppliers allowing 2 readings added together and some not, and some forcing meter changes.

Surely a meter with the capability to show two individual readings, and combine them into a single reading, would save a whole lot of messing?

That way the end user just chooses if they want E7 or not, and the company accepts either one, or two readings. The problem of meter changing every time somebody wants to do a fairly simple switch, is gone.

As an example, I use night storage and overnight immersion heater. In the winter E7 makes perfect sense because the ratio of off-peak /peak usage works in my favour. In summer, I can switch all the storage heaters off, which hits the ratio hard.

If I could have E7 in the winter, and flat rate in the summer, it would save money. Swapping meters around every 6 months would make that prohibitive.

Wywth

jungle_jeff wrote: »

In December 2012 I had gas central heating installed so decided to change from an E7 tariff to a dual fuel gas/electricity one. At this point I was on quarterly billing with npower, with my last bill being in October 2012.

At first npower said I would have to have a new meter installed. When I queried this - I had heard of other people simply adding the day/night rate to arrive at the units used, I was told that it would be acceptable to keep my old meter.

My next gas/elec bill was due in January 2013. It didn't arrive so i contacted them. They assured me it would arrive shortly. After another 3 months waiting for a bill and me re contacting 4 times to ask for my quarterly bill, I finally decided to go elsewhere and changed to EDF (npower wrote to me confirming my E7 tariff prices were changing despite having left that tariff last year...:mad: )

Via Uswitch I changed to EDF. I was able to select a dual fuel account but was required to put both day/night meter readings in the switch. I noticed in the small print today (got sent the letter 10 days ago) that EDF have put me back on E7 as well.

After a phone call I was told that I would have to get my meter changed to be able to have a non E7 tariff. I didn't think this was the case and that my day/night readings could again be used but they say I have to wait for the change over from npower and then they will change my meter in a month.

So my question is: does anyone know for sure whether I have to get my meter changed or am I just banging my head against a brick wall?

And just why are npower so crap at emailing a bill - I actually want to pay so that I don't get into debt!

Any help appreciated.

I can confirm that if you want a single rate electricity tariff from EDF you will need a single rate meter.
Fortunately for you, EDF will not charge you for such a meter change

macman

But that would require more expensive dual-register meters to be fitted to the 90% of properties which never switch between single rate and E7. It would also require an engineer call to switch the meter between the two, rather than a simple billing switch (where permitted).

lstar337

macman wrote: »

But that would require more expensive dual-register meters to be fitted to the 90% of properties which never switch between single rate and E7. It would also require an engineer call to switch the meter between the two, rather than a simple billing switch (where permitted).

Wouldn't the initial cost be outweighed by the fact that you would only need a meter change if there was a fault?

If the meter had 3 readouts, night, day, and combined, then no engineer is needed. Just report the relavent figure and hey presto.

Richie-from-the-Boro

lstar337 wrote: »

If I could have E7 in the winter, and flat rate in the summer, it would save money. Swapping meters around every 6 months would make that prohibitive.

- the averaging over 12 months is the deal for both consumer & supplier
- do you really think suppliers will allow switching in and out of the averaging model ?
- essentially a non E7 core price summer contract, and an E7 winter re-contract
- this would reduce their profits, and increase their costs they'd notice and stop the practice
- free meter changes from the few that do it free would disappear, or ;
- penalty charges would increase for the leaving / re-contract / meter change etc to pay for the practice

I would hope that 100% of all of the costs to the supplier are levied / targeted against those individual households that carry out this practice, and not sprayed across all E7 customers who would be made to absorb the cost.