advice economy 7 meter reading round wrong way

happyhero

Hi, I always organise my Mum and Dads energy supplier for them and take their readings for them at they are elderly and find that the easiest for them.

They have ecomomy 7 as they like to run their machines at night and they have a Landis and Gyr digital meter for the electricity like this one

http://www.electricmetersales.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=95&language=en&currency=GBP

It has nothing to press and just cycles through the readings. I Googled it and reading 1 is DAY rate and reading 2 is NIGHT rate. I double checked this just to prove this is the correct way round not that there is a ton of info available. Maybe you can check for us too?

Anyway I just noticed that reading 2 was flashing during the day (the information on the net says the flashing reading is the current active rate). To prove it I waited a couple of hours and noticed that it was the flashing one that was going up during the day and so 2 is acting like a day rate.

So it looks like they are getting all their day electricity at night rate and wasting their time/money putting their machines on at night.

We think this digital meter was put in about 4 or 5 years ago.

How do they set this meter up, is it when it was originally installed that they could get these readings mixed up?

Or can something change over time?

Is it even supposed to be possible for this presumably advanced digital meter to do this?

Checking rates on the suppliers site, shows

Day rate at 13.503 kWh
Night rate at 6.479 kWh
with a day standing rate of 28.770p per day

Their concern now is what to do. Obviously they wouldn't have known if I had not spotted it and if they now mention it maybe they may suddenly receive a massive corrected bill which they are not in a position to cope with well. They are honest people but worried about the implications.

Anybody know how this meter could be wrong?

HappyMJ

Are you sure about that?

Even if the wrong way around most E7 users use half at night and half in the day so it wouldn't make any difference to the overall bill.

If they start using more things during the day instead the supplier might just investigate, find the fault and back bill the usage to the correct figures.

I would double check with the supplier. They can fix it now and adjust the bills. Once you know about the potential fault they can only back bill you 12 months which if you don't adjust your usage shouldn't make any difference at all.

If you fail to tell them and adjust your usage to take advantage of the fault they can backbill further.

kwikbreaks

Economy 7 only makes any sense if you use a really large amount of power overnight and that would only be used by storage heaters not by running a washing machine and dishwasher then.

I know my son's got read wrongly some years back because I'd told him to switch to single rate and we checked his bills and then the meter and it was obvious that had been happening. He got his switched over to single rate. I don't know if they ever spotted the error but he never mentioned a bill.

My advice - check over the usage figures and work out what they would be on a single rate tariff - don't forget that the standing charge will probably be lower too. If it does work out less and probably will call the electricity supplier and get the meter changed. If they do spot the error (if there even is one) then it would be fair to argue that it's their own fault and reject any back charges.

BTW your link is to a single rate meter.

===

As an example of how poor that tariff would be for me and almost certainly for your parents too here is my last bill + reworkings on those rates...

Your tariff is SSE 1 Year Fixed
Standard energy 990.kWh at 8.9p £88.11
Discounted Standing charge 77.days at 21.92p £16.87
VAT5.00% (on charges of £104.98) £5.24
Total electricity charges this period £110.22

Worked out with 50:50 day/night usage split - I doubt even that would be achieved by most people without storage heaters and they'd lose out by even more
495 @ 13.503 £66.84
495 @ 6.479 £32.07
77 days @ 28.77 £22.15
VAT £6.08
Total £127.77

And the approximate break even point
270 @ 13.503 £36.46
720 @ 6.479 £46.65
77 days @ 28.77 £22.15
VAT £5.26
Total £110.52

I seriously doubt anybody would cram over 2/3 of their usage into the 7 hours overnight period unless they were using storage heaters.

Le_Kirk

Economy 7 is, as its name suggests, turned on for 7 hours during the night. The exact is probably different for every meter but it will be about 00.30 to 07.30 or within 15 minutes of that. Mine, for example, is 00.40 to 07.40. If you have a digital meter and you can get it into the cycling mode, one of the readings will be day, another night, another current date/time and a fourth the switching time.

onzey

Hi happyhero

How long have you been doing your parents readings and how did you decide, before noticing the flashing "2", which was day/night? (from previous readings perhaps?)

As long as you have been entering (on the suppliers website or whatever) the reading 2 value as the Day time reading and the reading 1 value as the Night time reading you are ok.

My "2" flashes during the day too (and "1" at night). My suppliers website has two places to put in the relevant readings with

"for the normal / rate 1 or day register"

under one and

"for the low / rate 2 / rate 4 or night register"

under the other.

I just make sure my number "2" reading goes in the one for day register and my number "1" reading goes in the one for night register.

Robisere

onzey is correct. The "1" meter is for night, the"2" for day.

We live in Sheltered Housing under a Social landlord, a housing trust. Until last March, all residents had been fighting for years to have Gas CH. Night Storage Heaters are really for people who are out at work all day. For retired people like ourselves, who are in most of the day, the stored heat is gone by 4 pm.

Since Gas CH was fitted, my energy bills have reduced from around £150 a month, to £64. We changed from a 3-phase day/night meter, to a single phase one-reading meter for electricity. The Gas meter is of course a separate box. The 3-phase had been incorrectly fitted years ago because of the emergency pull cord boxes in each bungalow.

In your position, I would find your parents' energy company, email or phone number and explain the situation. It should be possible to have yourself set up as acting for them. Do your parents own the house, or is it rented? If rented, whether Social Housing or private, you can contact your County Council Environmental Housing department and ask about Gas CH, under the Decent Homes Standard, the heating has to be appropriate to the needs of the tenant. That is the avenue we pursued to have Gas CH fitted. Under new legislation, a tenant has even more rights in regard to the Decent Homes Standard.

surfsister

i had this problem in my case they changed the way round they billed it but my meter stayed the same!! I had a bill for many thousands at the end of the year!!! It took many manyletters/emails to sort it and only did so when I managed to get a meter reader to call and he said straight away know what's wrong the've mxed up the meters!!! lol!!

you can see which meter is running by looking at it when the econmy 7 is on I had storage heters so it was obvious!!

good luck!