Economy 7 problems / removal

Sully88

Any help welcome!
Started a small cafe business in a small cottage type building, very small, very manageable so I thought. Signed up for the best electric provider I could find at the time BES utilities. Thought the set up already here couldn't be bad, economy 7 metre night & day rates, did not put much thought into it at the time but figured with fridges etc needing to be kept on 24hrs it must be ok. I know iv been wrong here as I don't have storage heaters or any major power used in night. Anyway already signed contract. 3 years ouch.

Going on 2.5 years it's become evident I've ended up in a very expensive situation with electricity costing around 3x the cost of gas which is the primary fuel used for cookers heating etc. For daytime prime user like me it's a bad tariff to be on.
THE POINT: Have noticed there is nothing clocking up on the night rate. At all. 0 change. The metre has been fixed on 1 number for 2 years now! At 1st I was thinking this has to be good if there is no cost! But the day rates coming in expensive at 15p per kWh as all my prime daytime usage. I'm now wondering if im actually getting charged for the nightrate in the daytime rate, is that possible? BES doesn't seem to care or notice that nightrate has not moved as I guess they are getting a great deal out of the higher day rate that I don't need to be on? !
I must admit I've never taken on household bills b4 this business and I'm clearly not very educated in funding the right deal but I'm learning sharp! Somethings up and I have obviously been naive. It's a lot to get head round at times.
I've spoke to BES and they can't give me any answer to why the night metre is not clocking up but they were going along with the tune that im probably lucky not to have to pay for it. Hmm? They said they won't be able to downgrade it aswell as this is the set up fitted.
All very strange. And definitely expensive. My gas cost here is around £70 per month and electricity at £250 per month. Even though it's gas fired heating, cooker etc. My coffee machine definitely kicks out power but is the only real source of electricity use.
Any advice welcome.
Faulty metre? Faulty set up?
How can I challenge my energy company? I thought they would be noticing these issues and giving advice on how to fix it.

cranford

If you re being charge £250 per month for electricity then I would make sure you have an up to date bill with an actual readings rather than an estimate. This charge also represent an annual use of 20,000 kwh. The average UK house uses 3200 kwh per year so you are using more than 6 times more than this. Wheres your gas use seems about right. I would also check if possible that you bill corresponds to the readings on the actual meter - ie you are being billed for the correct meter.
A typical fridge would use less than 200 khw per year, a fridge freezer would use less that 400 kwh per year so even if you were being charged at the night rate the savings for being on economy 7 would be minimal, ie about 60 kwh per year for a fridge at the night rate.
Having checked your bills are correted if it was me I would send a signed for letter to Customer Services director (whos name you can find on their web site) asking you let you know what 7 hours are your night rate for and why your reading is zero.
Tell him you were fobbed off by his team.

cranford

PS if you move/repost this to the energy section of the forum you may get more replies

Sully88

Hi Cranford. Thanks for your reply. How do I move the post? I'm newbie here.
Also when u say send a letter to consumer services..is that something I can find within my energy provider (at BES)? or is that a seperate service elsewhere ?

cranford

If you look on the BES website they has a section for complaints.

https://www.besutilities.co.uk/complaints/?gclid=CMW-8vm-z8sCFYZuGwodpIgBBg

You could email them as they suggest with your concerns about no night usage and high use during the day. But at the end of the day I think you may need to send a signed for letter to the people in charge who you can find on their management team page- either the customer services boss or the metering and complaints boss.
If you do this take copies of the letter and any bills that you send them. A signed for letter is about £1.

I have since seen a posting where the E7 meter did not register any night use and the reason was that the previous tenant had illegally fiddles with the meter.