The Wrong Electric Meter.

yellowpinky123

Hi all.
I moved into my house in 2003 and it had gas central heating installed not storage heaters.
I always thought my electric bills were high.Last month eon rang and told me my meter was running 13 hours out and needed to come over and reset.When I spoke to a sparky on site and told him this we found that I`ve been on an economy 7/10 tariff for over 10yrs.
I rang eon and they came and changed the meter for a normal one and my bill has been cut by 40 a mnth straight away.
I asked about a refund for the last 10yrs as the only loser is the consumer as usual and they said it wasn`t their fault as the person who took the storage heaters out and installed radiators failed to notify them..
Does anyone think I`ve got a case or is it a lost cause
Cheers Phil.

molerat

The suppliers bill according to the type of meter that is installed using information held on the national database. It is up to the user to choose the metering and tariff that is right for them. E7 can work out cheaper for some people without electric heating and having a meter that is 13 hours out of sync can add to that benefit - cheap electric during the day.

Cardew

As said above, you have probably gained by having your E7 meter 13 hours out of sync!


Instead of the cheap period being 7 hours in the 9 hour period between midnight and 9am(depending where you live in UK) you will have got cheap electricity for 7 hours between 1pm and 10pm.

[Deleted User]

It may be a lost cause Phil, I see many like you.. Night storage heaters removed and gas central heating installed, but the old eco 7 meter remains.If you had been aware of the meter and its timings and prices you would have been in a better position to either adapt to the cheap rate electricity timings or replace with a single rate meter. The suppliers are not aware of your domestic arrangements and its not their responsibilty. . Its worth having a go for compensation. I notice last month we have had the first supplier to take an interest in the timings set on on the timerswitch. Scottish Power now request us to take note of what time the switch is set too. This will be a response to "Which " magazine who published an arcticle a few weeks ago saying millions are losing money on incorrect timerswitches

macman

The supplier neither knows nor cares how you heat and hot water your property-on what basis would you be entitled to any refund?
How come you haven't checked your electricity bill in ten years, which clearly shows your tariff and the cheap/peak rate consumption?
However, if a change to a single rate tariff results in a reduction of your DD by as much as £40pm, then what was your DD before the reduction? In a property with gas CH and DHW, your total leccy bill should not be more than £30-40pm-so something is still awry. What is your annual kWh usage?

[Deleted User]

Yes Macman, but as I said in my edited post, Scottish Power have suddenly requested us all (urgently ) to record how far out the analog timerswitches are on eco 7 meters. This will be a response to " Which " magazines expose a few weeks ago saying " Millions are paying too much due to incorrect timerswitches. " As usual in this business, things like this usually take a year or so by the suppliers to do anything so its not really such a lost cause for compensation. If the user is aware of the timer switch error its always a good thing and can adapt and gain., but if they continue trying to shower,use dryers , etc in their cheap rate, when in fact they are on the high rate thats where they lose out. I ve met many who are doing just that.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Phil

Think there's a couple of issues here.

With the faulty time switch, we'll fix the fault and look to see if we've a history of usage before the problem arose. If we do, we'll use this to estimate how much you would've used on the different rates.

If we don't have any history, we'll use industry averages to estimate the usage.

Our specialist Time Switch team will talk to you about this and make sure you haven't lost out as a result of the times being wrong.

The suitability of the meter for your needs is, though, a separate matter.

As others have said, we've no way of knowing how you heat the property and water.

Meters are initially put in at the request of the builder/developer to suit the property in question. Unless we're told of changes and asked for a different type of meter, we'll continue to bill against the meter at the property.

The bills give details of the meter and tariff we're billing to.

Have to agree with macman. Unless you're a particularly high user, a reduction of £40 per month seems a lot. I'd pop your usage in kWh on to one of the comparison sites. Just to make sure your payments are covering the ongoing usage.

Hope this is useful Phil. Let me know if you need any more details as happy to help.

Malc

wavelets

yellowpinky123 wrote: »

Hi all.
I moved into my house in 2003 and it had gas central heating installed not storage heaters.
I always thought my electric bills were high.Last month eon rang and told me my meter was running 13 hours out and needed to come over and reset.When I spoke to a sparky on site and told him this we found that I`ve been on an economy 7/10 tariff for over 10yrs.
I rang eon and they came and changed the meter for a normal one and my bill has been cut by 40 a mnth straight away.
I asked about a refund for the last 10yrs as the only loser is the consumer as usual and they said it wasn`t their fault as the person who took the storage heaters out and installed radiators failed to notify them..
Does anyone think I`ve got a case or is it a lost cause
Cheers Phil.

Low rate periods (especially with E7) tend to be ... well during the low periods of demand i.e. overnight.

If your clock was 13 hours out, you were getting low rate electricity during peak rate demand. Perhaps the supplier should charge you? (They won't)

Any electrical heating or hot water (especially on E10) will usually be on a separate circuit that only comes live when the low rate applies.

After 10 years of being with the same supplier, receiving bil after bill, it surprises me that you do not know whether you are on E7 or E10, as the tariff is specified on every bill.

If you are on E10, why???

If you are on E7, use a comparison site to save yourself some money - is that not the purpose of this site???

Cardew

wavelets wrote: »

Any electrical heating or hot water (especially on E10) will usually be on a separate circuit that only comes live when the low rate applies.

This has been discussed many times.


The majority of properties on E7 have all their electricity at cheap rate for 7 hours i.e. lights, appliances etc as well as Night storage heaters and immersion heater.


There are properties with the houses wired as you suggest,(heating and hot water on a separate circuit and meter) particularly in Scotland - the old White Meter system.


However if you get a meter change to have E7 in your house, then all electricity consumed will be at off-peak rate for 7 hours.

wavelets

Cardew wrote: »

This has been discussed many times.


The majority of properties on E7 have all their electricity at cheap rate for 7 hours i.e. lights, appliances etc as well as Night storage heaters and immersion heater.


There are properties with the houses wired as you suggest,(heating and hot water on a separate circuit and meter) particularly in Scotland - the old White Meter system.


However if you get a meter change to have E7 in your house, then all electricity consumed will be at off-peak rate for 7 hours.

Agreed But I think you may have misunderstood my intent.

For those on E7 with storage heaters, the storage heaters are usually on a separate cicuit that only comes live when the meter is recording consumption at the low rate, so preventing the use of normal rate electricity for such purposes (no matter what the time clock is set to)

E10 comes in varying guises, but again the heating (and hot water) is often on a separate circuit to that which provides normal rate electricity. Some E10 is further complicated in that only certain circuits provide lower rate electricity, and the normal rate circuit may charge normal rate 24/7 (but as you rightly say, this isn't the case for E7 where low rate electricity is provided to the entire house for the 7 hours low rate period)

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused

yellowpinky123

Thanks for your replies..Its my fault I didn`t take a little more time to try and understand meters and tariffs..I just pay the bill every month n never query it even tho I could never understand why I was on an economy tariff and didn`t have storage heaters..I just assumed with the amount of times my meter was read by people they would have queried the rads on the walls with the meter in the cupboard...
I don`t know how long the time was out on the meter so don`t really know whether I benefited or lost out on my bill....
I do know I moved from a 3 bed house paying 30 a month to a 5 bed paying 60 in 2003 and thought it was steep..
I pay a total of 200 a mnth for gas and electric now 160..
My bills are with my accountant at the moment but will post usage when I get a chance to see what you guys think..
I guess the tariffs are fairly similar if I gain or lose only a small amount..it was just my wife saying the bill had gone down 40 after I phoned to query meter so maybe I`ve been paying to much and it was coincidence itcame down at this time...Thanks again...