Clock wrong on electric meter

Brockman38

Hello

I moved in to a new place a short while ago and recently realised that the clock on our meter was wrong. Not a huge problem normally but as I am economy 7 which heats the water tank at night and I try and use the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer at the night rate times...it is...

Now...to complicate things I have changed supplier recently as well. I told the old supplier who offered me £5 on about £240 I owed for a couple of months. I think this is a bit low. The trouble is the initial reading I gave them when I moved in was for the wrong flat. Luckily the previous owner had given them a reading a couple of days before so I said they should take this, which they said they did.

My new energy company cannot fix the clock until mid Oct, which is not ideal. The clock is about an hour 15 behind so I now have to factor this in, though some appliances have no timer so even if I go to bed at midnight and put it on I am still being stiffed.

Does anyone know the law on this and what the duties of the various firms are? Does the £5 off my bill sound right?

Any help appreciated!

[Deleted User]

You did nt really want to fix it. The usual cheap 7 hours is between 12am and 8 am, so if the clocks wrong and the cheap 7 hours is earlier or later , its to your advantage. The suppliers do not guarantee the 7 hours to be exactly as published. The occupiers themselves should be aware of how their clocks are running, they are in the best position. Suppliers are only obliged to view the meter themselves once every 2 years, or 5 years in the case of British Gas.All digital meters with built in timers and Radioteleswitch timers are fixed at GMT and are an hour out anyway when we`re on BST.

lstar337

Brockman38 wrote: »

Hello

I moved in to a new place a short while ago and recently realised that the clock on our meter was wrong. Not a huge problem normally but as I am economy 7 which heats the water tank at night and I try and use the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer at the night rate times...it is...

Now...to complicate things I have changed supplier recently as well. I told the old supplier who offered me £5 on about £240 I owed for a couple of months. I think this is a bit low. The trouble is the initial reading I gave them when I moved in was for the wrong flat. Luckily the previous owner had given them a reading a couple of days before so I said they should take this, which they said they did.

My new energy company cannot fix the clock until mid Oct, which is not ideal. The clock is about an hour 15 behind so I now have to factor this in, though some appliances have no timer so even if I go to bed at midnight and put it on I am still being stiffed.

Does anyone know the law on this and what the duties of the various firms are? Does the £5 off my bill sound right?

Any help appreciated!

Should have kept quiet about the clock, that way your cheap hours can be used while you are awake!

They may not bother to fix it. Our clock at work has the cheap rate smack in the middle of office hours. Which is good for us. I informed our supplier and our DNO and neither wanted to know. In the end I got the supplier to write a letter stating I had made them aware of the clock and that they would not persue us at a later date for any loss of earnings. They obliged.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

coming on later is to your advantage, means you get the cheap rate for a bit later in the morning, use appliances then rather than have them rumbling during the night.

Bark01

Sounds like there maybe nothing wrong.

Meters have a randomisation built into them that could account for the 15 minutes.

The hour may just be a GMT thing so it'll 'fix' itself in October when the clocks change, but it will then 'break' itself when the clocks change again in the spring.

lstar337

Bark01 wrote: »

Sounds like there maybe nothing wrong.

Meters have a randomisation built into them that could account for the 15 minutes.

The hour may just be a GMT thing so it'll 'fix' itself in October when the clocks change, but it will then 'break' itself when the clocks change again in the spring.

Quite right. I misread as 15 hours.

misterbarlow

the clock WILL be behind by one hour during BST, as they remain on GMT all year round...
and as Bark01 said, some have a random offset in them, often to prevent a surge in the area if 100's or 1000's of properties all switch on the offpeak load at once... it sort of staggers it out a bit...

offpeak like e7 is normally 12-7 but is usually stated in t&c's as "any seven hour period between (x) and (y), as defined by the supplier..."