Official MSE Economy 7 Guide discussion

unitetowin

yumzone wrote: »

Hi

I have moved into my flat last week and have found that i am spending approx £5 every 24 hours. I have no idea if that is good or bad?? I live in a one bed flat with a storage heater in my bedroom and a storage heater in the lounge I have only had the heater in the lounge switched on.

just some questions for concern:

• Should i have the heaters on as and when i need the heat or stack it up on a night time tariff?
  Is my boiler eating all my electric? Should i have it powered up at certain times?
  My shower is always powered up? Should i turn it on as and when i use it? i.e. turn of the power switch?

I really have no idea about this but £5 a day seems like a lot to be paying??:exclamati

I'm paying £10 a WEEK! Does this give you an idea of how much you are overpaying? Not really because I have E7 meter which, admittedly, only heats my water tank at night. I don't use the storage rads because they are a waste of time basically.

To be honest it's still too much and you may have faulty heaters or water heater. this can be checked by your landlord engineers. Your water heater element may be faulty or the thermostat - happened to me. Even the lounge heater can be faulty making you use more energy than normal.

We're lucky to have cladding done around the outside walls of our flats which makes the flat warmer and therefore don't have to warm it so much, even in hard winter times.

Cardew

unitetowin wrote: »

To be honest it's still too much and you may have faulty heaters or water heater. this can be checked by your landlord engineers. Your water heater element may be faulty or the thermostat - happened to me. Even the lounge heater can be faulty making you use more energy than normal.

A faulty heater cannot use more energy without producing more heat!

Ditto the thermostat!

Grthji

Eon exchanged my meters, after hours on the phone, they can do no more to help me other than refer me to the Energy Ombudsman, which could take up to 12 weeks for a resolution! :mad:

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Grthji wrote: »

Eon exchanged my meters, after hours on the phone, they can do no more to help me other than refer me to the Energy Ombudsman, which could take up to 12 weeks for a resolution! :mad:

Hello Grthji and welcome to the Forums.

I'm sorry we aren't able to help. What is it you need and what reason have we given as to why we're unable to help?

You mention the Ombudsman. Am I right in assuming you've exhausted our complaints process? If this is the case, we'll have sent a Final Resolution Offer letter to help when you approach the Ombudsman. What is our final position?

Sorry for all the questions. Trying to understand what's happened.

Malc

Joanneauker

It turned out that I had a normal meter and it was set wrong by my previous supplier. I've heard nothing about the refund yet, but fingers crossed it's as simple as the person on the phone said.

Grthji

Hi Malc

I received an email in June telling me my meters were being phased out, in July the meters were exchanged for smart meters the old electric meter had a time switch which switched my storage heaters on at off peak hours and off at peak hours. My Eon Money Saving Expert fixed rate E7 deal was coming to an end In September so I switched supplier for a better deal. In October the storage heaters were switched on for 4 days before I realised a problem they were on charge day (peak) and night (off peak). After hours on the phone back and forth to both suppliers Eon claim that as I am no longer a customer they will not help?

I joined this forum and searched online and found on OVO that storage heaters and underfloor heating are not compatible with smart meters.

I have been through the complaints procedure and all i got was an apology. i now have a deadlock letter and will be contacting the ombudsman.
I need a compatible meter for my storage heaters, I am physically having to switch them on at midnight and off at 7am which is a massive inconvenience.

pineapple

I would have thought that either Eon or the installer should have pointed out that storage heaters and smart meters are not currently compatible. At least it seems they aren't... I was wondering about a smart meter myself and it hadn't occurred to me there might be issues.
That said, I am under the impression that a smart meter is not yet obligatory.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Grthji wrote: »

Hi Malc

I received an email in June telling me my meters were being phased out, in July the meters were exchanged for smart meters the old electric meter had a time switch which switched my storage heaters on at off peak hours and off at peak hours. My Eon Money Saving Expert fixed rate E7 deal was coming to an end In September so I switched supplier for a better deal. In October the storage heaters were switched on for 4 days before I realised a problem they were on charge day (peak) and night (off peak). After hours on the phone back and forth to both suppliers Eon claim that as I am no longer a customer they will not help?

I joined this forum and searched online and found on OVO that storage heaters and underfloor heating are not compatible with smart meters.

I have been through the complaints procedure and all i got was an apology. i now have a deadlock letter and will be contacting the ombudsman.
I need a compatible meter for my storage heaters, I am physically having to switch them on at midnight and off at 7am which is a massive inconvenience.

Hello Grthji and thank you for the extra information.

When replacing meters that have reached the end of their guaranteed life, it's usually done on a like for like basis. This is the same where smart meters are offered. Smart meters do come with Economy 7 and so can be used, provided the customer agrees, when replacing an existing Economy 7 meter. There are, though, certain implications when installing any type of meter at a property with storage heaters and these should be explained. I'm sorry if this wasn't done when we arranged your meter exchange.

With storage heaters, the meter will be wired directly into the heating/water heating circuits at individual properties. As you say, this lets the meter turn the storage heaters on/off to take advantage of the off peak times. The nature of this depends on the type of metering set up originally in place and this varies widely from property to property. I suspect both the meter and wiring needs checking to see why the storage heaters aren't turning on/off automatically. Only the existing supplier can arrange this.

As you've a deadlock letter from us, you can use this to help with your approach to the Ombudsman.

I'm speculating rather a lot here Grthji and sorry if I'm off track. As I say, metering set ups can vary widely between properties and difficult to say exactly without someone visiting.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

pineapple wrote: »

That said, I am under the impression that a smart meter is not yet obligatory.

You're right pineapple. Smart meters aren't obligatory. Customers can turn them down when offered one if they don't want them.

Malc

Steppick

Hi I,m a meter technician (I.e I fit them) the E7 E10 tariffs are know generally ran from a time switch within the meter whether these are the best for you depends how your consumer unit or units are wired up if your heating system is wired to a separate consumer unit ,then your always on electric when doing washing ect overnight. Will have no effect on your bills( you will still be using your always on supply) This is further complicated by the fact that there are still meters out there that don't,t have a separate terminal just to run your storage heating, and with these all the power used overnight on the e7/e10 tariff will be at cheaper rate.If you don't use storage heating anymore(I.e.you,ve changed to gas central heating)then these tariffs are costing you money, as a general rule unless your using 33% plus of your total electric overnight at the stated times it will be costing you more. An example 1000 units at 14.79pence per kWh costs £147.90 a standard tariff(Eon) an E7 tariff 18.19 day by 680 units £123.69 then 320 units at 7.69 per kwh £24.61 total £148.30.The simple calculation you have to do is are you using more than a third of your electric between the hours of 12 midnight and 7.00am ,if not its costing you .The e10 tariff is similar but the same %,s do not apply as there are differing time sets ,some during the day, I really dont, think the bosses/ often understand some of these tariffs, meter setups,heating systems a lot of people will be worse off because of some of Ofgems decisions.