Moved house and discovered or meter has day and night settings

apmac

We moved house a couple of months ago and i immediately changed our supplier to the long term Npower fixed tariff. After about 6 weeks we got our first bill from the existing supplier(Scottish gas) which was for £230. We thought this was quite steep as we were used to paying about 100 a month in a 2bed semi and this is a 4 bed detached but we don't heat all the rooms. Anyway, I did wonder when I saw there were 2 different rates on the bill but it didn't register until we got a letter from Npower saying they couldn't supply to us as they don't support our kind of meter.
When I went to look at our meter I saw that we have 2 rates : R1 and R2. The cheaper rate currently runs from 12.30 to 8.30am so basically I have been using tumble drier, dishwasher, washing machine etc all at the higher rate without realising.
Basically, what do I do now?! I don't think this meter suits us but I'm not an expert. Any thoughts, bearing in mind the following?

-There is a water tank so I'm assuming it's not a combination boiler (which we're used to)
-the heating is regular gch, normal radiators, not storage
-the previous occupants usually only used the downstairs shower which I'm sure they said was on the mains but it's a mira plastic unit which I thought had to be electric??
-we use the upstairs shower which is electric
-We haven't altered the timings for heating /hot water and now realise that they have both been set to be on for a few hours early every morning.
-we run a bath for the kids every night and there is always loads of hot water, despite the hot water having been off since breakfast.

Thanks, and please excuse my ignorance!

lstar337

Try and move as much usage as you can to overnight, or ask your supplier to switch you to a single rate meter and tariff.

If you stick to E7, search for the cheapest tariff you can.

matelodave

What tariff are you on - it should be on the bill somewhere is it a basic Economy 7 two rate tariff or some strange legacy tariff that only Scottish Power supply.


You need to establish that before you can go much further.


If its an ordinary E7 then you could either try and find out exactly when the high & low rates are on and try to modify your consumption to suit by using appliances, having showers and sorting out the water heater so that it's only on during the off peak rate and make sure that as much as possible is turned off during the higher rate. Monitor your meter (take readings regularly (at least weekly) to see when you are using your power and you can then try and work out whether a single rate tariff would suit you better)


Then if you want you could get the meter changed to get yourself onto a single rate tariff (you'd probably have to get that done by Scottish Power) and then you could change suppliers.


I know you've got gas c/h but are there any storage heaters or evidence of them being there in the past (a second fuse board for instance) to justify why there's a two rate tariff in the house.


They can work if you are out all day and can use the bulk of your electricity during the lower rate but you'd have to be doing your washing, drying and anything else that uses lots of power overnight during the low rate

apmac

Thanks for replies. The house was built in the late 70s and the radiators don't look recent so don't think there have ever been storage heaters. I'm a full time mum at the moment so am often in the house with the kids during the day. House doesn't retain the heat very well - some big windows needing replaced which are a couple of years off ! I can't think of any reason why I would want the 2 rates... The only reason I can imagine the previous owners had it was for hot water as they used the mains shower, which we aren't using,!? Is that enough of a reason to have it?
Would we have to pay Scottish gas to change our meter? The bill just says we are on their standard tariff and doesn't mention e7 anywhere. We get 8 hours of cheap electricity, the times are written by the meter.

lstar337

apmac wrote: »

Thanks for replies. The house was built in the late 70s and the radiators don't look recent so don't think there have ever been storage heaters. I'm a full time mum at the moment so am often in the house with the kids during the day. House doesn't retain the heat very well - some big windows needing replaced which are a couple of years off ! I can't think of any reason why I would want the 2 rates... The only reason I can imagine the previous owners had it was for hot water as they used the mains shower, which we aren't using,!? Is that enough of a reason to have it?
Would we have to pay Scottish gas to change our meter? The bill just says we are on their standard tariff and doesn't mention e7 anywhere. We get 8 hours of cheap electricity, the times are written by the meter.

You'll get 7 hours, there will be an hour of peak rate in there somewhere.

Who is your current supplier? They are who will get you DNO to change the meter, so go through them.

Sometimes you can make E7 work for you if you are willing to use your heavy appliances at night, but in your case (in most of the day), I doubt it would work.

Best to contact your current supplier and get them to arrange to have the meter changed to single rate.

matelodave

I don't know if SP will charge, but even if it cost £50 you will probably save in the long run.

We moved in 3 years ago and there was a dual rate prepayment meter with EDF. We got that swapped for a credit meter (still dual rate though) and then had that swapped for a single rate all at no cost to us whilst we were still with EDF - it took about 3-4 weeks to get both swaps done. As soon as we got onto a single rate meter we swapped supplier to E-on.

Ebe_Scrooge

You say you have Gas CH ? If so I would expect the gas boiler to be heating your hot water, this is far cheaper than electricity. You'll often find the tank has an electric immersion heater as backup ( in case your boiler breaks down or whatever ). If you have an immersion, check to see that it's not been left on by accident.

Richie-from-the-Boro

The bill just says we are on their standard tariff

- standard is an industry euphemism for the most expensive

moved house a couple of months ago

- it is normal practice to put all new customers on the expensive 'standard' tariff

the heating is regular gch, normal radiators, not storage

Go to your SP online account and view your 'My Home Account(s)' page it will give you your tariff name, go to your dashboard and download your last bill as a pdf. When you look at your bill it will give precise figures for E7-day charge and E7-night charge including the counter numbers of both the day and the night registers.

Are you actually on an E7 tariff ?

apmac

Richie, I don't think we have an online account with SP as we haven't registered with them. The paper bill has night rates and day rates and meter reading with the breakdowns but doesn't say 'E7' anywhere. Just 'standard tariff'.

Ebe, I have a horrible sinking feeling that you might be right.... I noticed a switch with a red light on outside the bathroom door a couple of days ago. Keep meaning to speak to DH about it but forgot and this morning I decided to just switch it off and see what happens. I imagine there will still be hot water from the water heater being on this morning but we'll need to investigate. On the plus side - our bills should go down now!

macman

Sounds like you've been heating the hot tank on boost all day-and of course at the peak rate E7 charge. A properly lagged hot tank will stay hot all day.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

apmac wrote: »

We moved house a couple of months ago and i immediately changed our supplier to the long term Npower fixed tariff. After about 6 weeks we got our first bill from the existing supplier(Scottish gas) which was for £230. We thought this was quite steep as we were used to paying about 100 a month in a 2bed semi and this is a 4 bed detached but we don't heat all the rooms. Anyway, I did wonder when I saw there were 2 different rates on the bill but it didn't register until we got a letter from Npower saying they couldn't supply to us as they don't support our kind of meter.
When I went to look at our meter I saw that we have 2 rates : R1 and R2. The cheaper rate currently runs from 12.30 to 8.30am so basically I have been using tumble drier, dishwasher, washing machine etc all at the higher rate without realising.

You say that you've only just noticed that you are on a 2 rate meter, did you not take a meter reading when you moved in?

It may be that the £230 bill is based on wrong entry readings, or has been estimated.