Total Heating with Total Control

kellydrever1

Hi there i am new to the forum but desperately looking for some help with out THTC from Scottish Hydro Electric.
At the moment we are paying £303 per month for our well insulated non drafty modern 4 bedroom bungalow.
We have complained about this to SSE who are reluctant to accept there must be a problem. We have gone to the ombudsman about it as well and they just don't seem to be getting the point. We have had a test meter on our meter since January and the engineer who installed it said that it was pointless as hes sure the meter is fine but thinks we are somehow paying for two feeds in to our house. When he came to our house and seen inside the hydro cupboard he asked if we had a few bungalows in the garden as the set up resembled a 20 bedroomed hotel.(And so does the price!!!) We also are unable to update our meter readings online and also when we call the automated phone line i am always put through to an adviser as their is a "problem" with our account.
Our house is all electricity and we were told that our normal electricity usage like lights sockets etc were pretty normal but our THTC was crazy high.

Our last bill was for the period Sept - Dec 2015 in this time only one of our storage heaters were being used since November but our bill states we have used 3902 units in that time, can this possibly be correct? We have a timer on our water tank which is on for an hour at 7am and an hour around 4pm the only other things on the THTC meter will be our towel rails in 2 bathrooms and one electric shower.

Any help would be fantatsic and also if anyone knows who to go to after being at the Ombudsman as they were very little help.

Thank You


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JJ_Egan

What are your meter readings ???

Cardew

Welcome to the forum

Your £303 monthly DD is of no help in sorting out your issue. Many people get very high and unrepresentative DD when the account is debit, or meter readings have been under-estimated in the past.

I assume you live in Scotland? where there are masses of off-peak tariffs. Is yours?:

as a guide the low rate runs for five hours overnight, three hours in the early afternoon and two further hours in the late evening.

I would be concerned about all the wiring in your Bungalow. Is it a detached property?

You wouldn't be the first to have your electricity fed to another property, or even supplying the street lights. However that would be easy to check by switching off all your appliances lights and check if the meter is moving.

macman

Specifically, you need to post your annual kWh consumption on each register. Without this, all is speculation.

kellydrever1

I have only now noticed these replies. We have worked out that in the past 9 days we have used
472 kwh on our Low rate
1056 kwh on the normal rate
and 1425 kwh on our Total Heating Total Control rate.
Meaning we have used 328 kwh per day this surely cannot be correct.

According to SSE our estimated annual consumption will be 24,9904.73kwh made up of 12,771.56 on THTC, 8574.14kwh on Day energy and 3559.03kwh of Night energy. We are on a Standard THTC Economy Tariff.

macladd

Hi,

I had this tariff years ago and had similar issues to you. They used to call it Total Heating Total Control + Domestic Economy, I believe it is now a protected Tariff meaning you can keep it but no new customers can get it. It was used in the Highlands of Scotland where local Councils had an input in the development of this Tariff to try and lower the energy bills for those that could not get mains gas.

It is a 3 element Tariff consisting of 1 rate for all your heating and hot water 24hrs a day then a day rate and night rate for everything else. In my property I also had 1 wall socket in the living room for a "focal point fire" and 1 hard wired connection in the bathroom for a wall mounted fan heater or towel rail, both of these were wired into the 24hr heating and hot water rate. Due to the complexity of the tariff, and most SSE Electricians lack of knowledge about them they were often wrongly wired causing large bills. I also had a check meter installed which was recording the usage but all that proved was that one of the meters was accurate, there were another 2 meters. If I recall correctly, I had a digital domestic energy meter which had a day and night red light indicator and 2 displays showing the usage alongside a white meter mechanical time switch. There was also a single digital meter with a radio tele switch which measured the heating and hot water usage, the tele switch received a radio signal from SSE to turn on/off the storage element of the heating.

My meters were miswired so that they were all recording all the energy usage at the same time, effectively I was billed 2 or 3 times for the same energy usage, it took them months to figure this out and only did when an Electrician from SSE came and stripped everything out and reinstalled using a wiring diagram. I'm sorry this is so complicated, but it is a complex tariff, I hope this information helps.

kellydrever1

thanks for the rerply. Did you eventually get it sorted? Were you offered any sort of refund? I am so sick fed up with them they seem to refuse to admit theres a problem, did you request the electritian? or did they send one?

macladd

Hi,

I think I called the SSE Head Office in Perth on 01738 456000 - ask for the Executive complaints team or escalated complaints, can't remember what they call the team.

Hope you get it resolved!

Sasha8

Hello, I recently moved to a house which has the above tariff with SSE. Having worked out my daily usage and comparing scary costs with much better tariffs through other providers, I decided to switch. Supposed to be easy right!? Wrong... even SSE 'friendly advisors' don't have accurate information. Other suppliers don't use THTC - so I want to switch to Economy 7 instead so I can access other suppliers and get a much better rate. SSE told me I have to get a new meter which I was assured was free. They are giving out inaccurate information. A knowledgeable guy from the Scottish Hydro came today. He could change the THTC meter and swap it for an E7 meter at no charge -BUT - he wanted to know was I aware that if he did this I would then lose the electricity supply to showers and other things in the house. He didn't seem surprised that SSE hadn't told me this! In order to get an E7 meter (so I can switch supplier etc), I'd have to pay for an electrician to come and re-configure some of the other electrics first. He thought this would be st least a 3-hr job. I'm pretty angry that SSE don't pass on correct information and that they don't pay for all the work involved in switching from the THTC tariff & meter to the E7 equivalent. I'm surprised this hasn't been raised as a significant issue when we are encouraged to regularly switch providers and thus obtain the cheapest rates for our energy supply. Anyone else had this problem - and solved it without this extra cost involved?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

SSE cannot know what is involved in getting a house wiring changed from THTC to E7. There have been all manner of 'unusual' tariffs offered over the years(particularly in Scotland). Apart from differing timings, different electrical circuits were wired to only work on off-peak supply. Some only had storage heaters connected, some storage heaters and immersion heater; and some modified so that all electric was on during off-peak.

If you are talking about electric showers not working in your new house, I am pretty certain that would have been a later modification to your wiring. If they are showers fed from your hot water tank, then that means there is no supply to the immersion heater.

For over 30 years in England most properties with an E7 meter are wired so they get all their electricity at cheap rate for the 7 hours. However some still only have storage heating and Immersion at cheap rate.

Without a prior inspection it is impossible to know what work is required.

Incidentally at least SSE change your meter for free(so you can leave them!) others charge!

plucko

Hi, I live semi rural and have only Elec available
We have been shackled to SSE's THTC system for 27 years!!!!
On numerous occasions over the years we have tried to SWITCH but with SSE's two meter DTS system it is IMPOSSIBLE to switch supplier!!!!
This monopoly SSE hold in Scotland I have raised with my MSP, Ofgem, CMS (Competition Markets Authority) BBC Watchdog, Martin Lewis and in other forums without success!
My main complaint is we are being deprived of the CHOICE to change supplier as to my knowledge few IF ANY other suppliers will entertain the SSE system!!!!
Currently yet again I have an official COMPLAINT lodged with SSE, this very day they came back and offered to put me on a SINGLE meter (no ref to whose cost)
Am I missing something here, why would one do this and pay a full standard charge for my current THTC element????
Their angle is it would give me 'freedom' to switch'
Check out the Ofgem website for further info, there are a number of reports recognising this dilemma and changes are proposed in April 2017 (too lengthy to go into here)
If no success with SSE the next step is the Ombudsman, though I don't expect any joy there either!
I intend to talk to SSE and ask for an E7 meter but having reads other posts I need to further investigate whether E7 could be a direct replacement for my THTC
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Hope this helps
(Extract)
Information for Consumers on SSE's Total Heating Total Control system following issues raised with the monopoly SSE have which prohibits THTC customers switching supplier

In its final report on its energy market investigation the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) found that 67% of domestic customers on restricted meters other than Economy 7 would be better off if they switched to the cheapest single-rate tariff available. In order to address this, the CMA decided that for these consumers, the following two specific remedies would be introduced to remove barriers to switching and to improve consumers’ access to information and advice. These are summarized below.

Remedy to remove the barriers to switch

Electricity suppliers with more than 50,000 domestic customers will be required to make all their single-rate electricity tariffs available to all (existing and new) domestic electricity customers on restricted meters. These suppliers will also be prohibited from making their single-rate electricity tariffs available to domestic electricity customers on restricted meters conditional upon the replacement of their existing meter.

Remedy to improve access to information and advice

Electricity suppliers will be required to:

• remind their domestic electricity customers on restricted meters, in their regular communications with them, that they have the option to switch supplier or to switch to a single-rate tariff without having to change their meter or incur replacement costs.

• provide their domestic electricity customers on restricted meters contact details for Citizens Advice in their regular communications with them and provide these customers certain information upon request.

• provide, on a timely basis, Citizens Advice with the information it may reasonably require concerning customers on restricted meters in the format specified by Citizens Advice.

The remedy to remove the barriers to switching is expected to promote competition by ensuring that customers have the option of switching to any single-rate electricity tariff offered by suppliers, which should also reduce the cost of switching for these customers. The second remedy is expected to reduce the barriers to accessing and assessing information and to increase the awareness of these customers of their ability to switch.

Both remedies will be implemented through orders which the CMA will be drafting and consulting on during the second-half of 2016 and which will come into effect from April 2017. In the case of the first remedy the CMA will give suppliers three months to make the necessary adjustments to their billing system, before starting to offer their single-rate tariffs to customers on restricted meters. The remedies also have a sunset clause (which means they would no longer apply) linked to the completion of the smart meter roll-out (end of 2020).
We have also announced today our approach to the remedies the CMA has recommended. We will implement these to deliver a more competitive and fairer energy market for all consumers. Those on pre-payment meters, who are among the most vulnerable and least likely to switch, will be protected by an interim price cap which will save them around £75 a year from next April. We will work closely with suppliers to help disengaged customers, who remain on expensive standard variable tariffs, to shop around and save money. In particular we will trial more effective prompts on customers’ bills to encourage them to compare tariffs. Next year we will pilot the database service, which will allow suppliers to offer disengaged customers better value deals. Protecting the privacy and security of consumers’ data remains a priority.