Reading an economy 7 metre

mhoc

This might be a daft question but here goes.

We have economy 7 metre which has just 1 or 2 on it, not the old low and normal.

We are trying to figure out which is the day rate and which is the night. We have taken readings and obviously the reading will increase now for whatever number is the day rate.

So I boiled the kettle and nothing happened, just wondering now if it just updates once an hour. Although as its digital you would have thought it would update constantly.

We have googled to try and find photos and can't find anything.

We have just switched from eon to Scottish power and I took the initial reading on change over date but I suspect that I put them in the wrong order ie the low rate as the normal and the normal as the low rate.

So we are now waiting for a dial to move.

David_Aston

I've just had a look at our meter. The number 2 is flashing on and off, while 1 is static. So I'm guessing 2 is the day rate. (It is certainly the largest number, of the two.) Have a look at yours and see if the same is happening.

mhoc

it gets odder.

1stly the total went up from 41960 to 41961 - but the other
figures did not move ie the total was more than the other figures .

So I put a wash load on and the number one figure which is the smaller one has gone up by just one. so our metre seems to be

normal
low

Anyway I am going to give it a while and see what else happens

Ours are not bigger or flashing, just the same

David_Aston

If our meters are similar.
Ours goes through four stages. One is a page which appears to show every permutation which the screen could be programmed to show. One shows the combined total of day and night units used. Then the last two seem to represent the day and night individual used units. These last two are numbered 1. and 2. Either the 1. or 2. goes on and off, as you watch, and I do believe this shows which tarrif is being used at the time. Sorry, can't add any more!

[Deleted User]

Normally Rate 1 is daytime use and Rate 2 is night time use with meters on Eon energy.
This applies to an Economy 7 meter.

mhoc

Deleted_User wrote: »

Normally Rate 1 is daytime use and Rate 2 is night time use with meters on Eon energy.
This applies to an Economy 7 meter.

Yes this seems to be right,
rate 1 daytime

but on the page where you input your readings I've just noticed it says rate 1 nightime and rate 2 day time rate
I am more confused than ever

GolfFoxtrot

usually the higher reading on the meter in an electric only property (due to night storage hearers) would be the higher overall reading.

For example on my meter I have a rate 1 reading and rate 4 reading.
*rate 1 - 31258
*rate 4 -59861

My rate 4 is my night rate and rate 1 the day rate.

[Deleted User]

Eco 7 digital meters can vary. I have seen rate 1 day, and next door rate 2 day. the one that is active either defaults to be displayed when viewed, or the curser blinks or the 1 or 2 blink. If there is an old analogue timerswitch controlling the switchover times, the cheap night rate can be so far out of time that the night rate is on in the evening or daytime

matty17r

mhoc wrote: »

This might be a daft question but here goes.

We have economy 7 metre which has just 1 or 2 on it, not the old low and normal.

We are trying to figure out which is the day rate and which is the night. We have taken readings and obviously the reading will increase now for whatever number is the day rate.

So I boiled the kettle and nothing happened, just wondering now if it just updates once an hour. Although as its digital you would have thought it would update constantly.

We have googled to try and find photos and can't find anything.

We have just switched from eon to Scottish power and I took the initial reading on change over date but I suspect that I put them in the wrong order ie the low rate as the normal and the normal as the low rate.

So we are now waiting for a dial to move.

Your post has really got up thinking. We changed from npower to eon in december. With npower rate 1 was day/normal and rate 2 was night/low. Went to give our meter reading online to eon this afternoon and it seems to have reversed. Rate 2 is day and rate 1 is night. The day meter has moved 2 units since we read it this afternoon. But our figures look opposite. Someone please try and help and explain - really baffled. Mhoc this is worse than working out glitches at asda!

savetilibleed

Which ever way around the numbers are, if you look at the meter during the day, then whichever of the two numbers shows without pressing the button that changes it, is the one for the day rate which shows as 2. You have to press the button twice to display 1 which is obviously the night rate. The correct one is clear if you have the previous readings.
What is confusing is when you phone to give your readings, the automated voice asked for unit 1 or day reading. So I always have to get through to a person to give the appropriate day and night readings. If you give the readings online, it just has DY for day and NT for night, so even that isn't super clear.

SwanJon

matty17r wrote: »

We changed from npower to eon in december. With npower rate 1 was day/normal and rate 2 was night/low. Went to give our meter reading online to eon this afternoon and it seems to have reversed. Rate 2 is day and rate 1 is night. The day meter has moved 2 units since we read it this afternoon.

Changing supplier won't change how your meter works - but different suppliers may have set up their systems differently.

If you can, ignore the rate 1/rate 2 as this doesn't really help.
Use the day/night (or normal/low). If your meter has an old mechanical timeswitch it is possible for this to slip and change rates at the wrong time.

If you are not sure, take 3-4 readings 4 hours apart and note which one is moving. If you get 7 hours cheap, no more than 2 readings could be on the cheap rate. If you have the same read moving on three reads then that would be the more expensive rate. (If you want I suppose you could do it more frequently.)

If you have recently changed suppliers it is possible that they have got the readings the wrong way round when setting the account up. It is worth finding this out early on as it'll stop any debt/credit building up