Electrician to check wiring

Rubidium

manchestermargo wrote: »

I have been advised by E.on before I have my meter changed from Economy 10 to a normal rate meter I need to have an electrician check my wiring, to make sure the heating and immersion heater will still work with a standard rate. My question is will any qualified electrician be able to give me y
this info or do I need a specialist. Thanks in advance for any help.

MM

lstar337 wrote: »

Looks like suppliers are dammed if they do, and dammed if they don't in this regard.

So long as it is only a suggestion, I think EON are very sensible to do this.

The OP was told that they needed to get an electrician to check their wiring even after stating that the NSH had been removed.

It seems that different eon employees inform their customers differently.

manchestermargo

Thanks so much everyone for all your posts.


I think I have a better idea now how things work. My heating is electric radiators heated by water. I can programme my rads to come on whenever I like, there is no need to wait for offpeak times. Similarly the immersion heaters can be programmed whenever I want it to come on. Obviously at the moment I use it when the cheap rate tariff applies. However most of my heating needs occur when the highest rate tariff is operational. So I think I will be OK just having the meter changed to the basic rate tariff. Hope this makes sense and again many thanks for taking the time to explain things to me. MM

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Rubidium wrote: »

Yes E10 is non standard but a cynic would say that the energy companies tell their customers that they need to pay for an 'electrician to check the wiring' to frighten them off from changing away from this extortionate tariff.

The supplier already knows if their customer has a single multi-rate meter or a dual MPAN meter set-up, so why do they advise that their customer needs to get their wiring checked when they already know!

Hope my reply to MM (post 20) makes this a bit clearer Rubidium? You're right, we do know the type of meter our customers have but there's no way a supplier can understand what happens after the meter. This is down to the variations I mentioned earlier. As I said, we do have a duty of care to make customers aware of the potential impact a meter exchange might have. This should help them make an informed decision as MM has.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Because they know what their 'side of the tails' is, but have no idea how your side of the tails is wired. Some are all electricity for 10 hours, other legacy 'white meter' and Scottish Weather watch internal CU's for water and space heating only, and exclude all other electricity.

So no ,,,,, they don't "already know".

That's right Richie. The variations are many particularly, as you say, with meters like some of those in Scotland where the weather has an impact on when the off peak periods are active. This is another reason why we recommend some form of qualified advice with this sort of request. Better to be safe than sorry.

Malc

Rubidium

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hope my reply to MM (post 20) makes this a bit clearer Rubidium? You're right, we do know the type of meter our customers have but there's no way a supplier can understand what happens after the meter. This is down to the variations I mentioned earlier. As I said, we do have a duty of care to make customers aware of the potential impact a meter exchange might have. This should help them make an informed decision as MM has.

Malc

It is simply not necessary to put the onus onto your customers to employ an electrician to check.

You could suggest sending in a photo of the meter/consumer unit wiring rather than frightening off customers who desperately want to save money but can't afford to employ an electrician just to check. You already know if they have one multirate meter or two meters and their location from your records. The situation is no different to changing from E7 to a single rate tariff.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

footyguy wrote: »

I can assure you there is no cynicism of behalf of the suppliers involved , at least not in regards suggesting a customer seeks expert electical advice.

This board is littered with examples of those who were on a legacy tariff and attempted to switch supplier. Attempts to do so (with existing metering) invariably end in tears.

As metering for most legacy tariffs is complex, so is the wiring (and possibly the suitability of appliances too), so I too would support the supplier's suggestion in getting expert advice before changing the meter.

Legacy tariffs are not 'extortionate' and if used as intended can actually often represent very good vcalue for money.
No suggestion of a particular electrical expert is ised, so there can be no suggestion the supplier is going to benefit themselves by making such a suggestion.
I would suggest the customer uses a locally recommended one (but one who has some experience of these things). The customer can even go and get some quotes first from various sources for such a survey.

I know what you mean footyguy. Only this morning I was advising a colleague dealing with a customer who had had an Economy 10 meter replaced with a conventional single rate. Although advised as above, they had gone ahead with the exchange without qualified advice and now have heating/hot water problems. This is something I've consistently come across over the years. I think it's right to let customers know about the potential pitfalls so they can make an informed decision. As you say, we've nothing to gain from an electrician attending but, potentially, the customer might have quite a lot to lose.

Totally understand, with only one Economy 10 tariff, it isn't an attractive proposition but savings can be made by using the off peak periods to the best effect. Also understand, some of these periods aren't at particularly sociable times (unless the customer's a night owl) so things like timers could help here. We're happy to give both customers and non-customers energy saving advice. There's also information on our website to help people save money by saving energy.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Rubidium wrote: »

The current supplier obviously does know about their metering set-up.

.
This thread is about an eon customer wanting to change to a standard tariff, not about switching suppliers and not generalisations about the possible E10 metering variations due to it being a b@stardised E7 tariff.

Hopefully Rubidium, MM now has the information to make a decision about a meter exchange. If they opt to go ahead, we'll be happy to make the arrangements. Also, if they have an older three rate Economy 10 meter, we'll swap it for free. There's a charge for replacing the more modern two rate Economy 10 meters (currently £64.76). With the later models, all 10 off peak hours cover all usage whereas it was only the 5 night hours on the older meters. The remaining 5 hours were for heating/hot water going through the dedicated circuits only.

As I mentioned to footyguy above, savings can be made with multi-rate meters if used to the best effect and we're happy to help with this too.

Malc

lstar337

Rubidium wrote: »

It is simply not necessary to put the onus onto your customers to employ an electrician to check.

Why? What is after the meter is of no concern to the supplier. Where does it end, should the supplier regularly check the homeowners appliances too?

Perhaps you think the more sensible option is to just let the homeowner do whatever they want without any checks at all?

Screw them if nothing works afterwards! :rotfl:

I think you will find looking back through this very forum, that if anybody so much as mentions swapping out a meter, posters will suggest that getting in an electrician to check out the wiring is a sensible idea.

Rubidium

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hope my reply to MM (post 20) makes this a bit clearer Rubidium? You're right, we do know the type of meter our customers have but there's no way a supplier can understand what happens after the meter.
Malc

Of course there is and you are like most other posters showing your lack of metering knowledge and giving incorrect advice on behalf of your company.

If an electrician can see simply by looking, why can't eon allow their meter change contractor to take the necessary steps to replace the E10 meter with a standard meter, it really is not rocket science!

I understand that call centre workers and people like yourself who post on forums simply do not understand metering but you could redirect customers to somebody in your company who does understand , rather than making glib scaremongering comments like "better to be safe than sorry" and "you need to get an electrician to check your wiring".

This thread is about the removal of an E10 meter, the meter is either supplying everything at rate 2 or heating circuits only are at rate 2 depending on the meter currently fitted.

If everything is supplied rate rate 2, the meter will have four cables and swapping to a single rate meter takes minutes, as a single rate meter is identical wiring.

If the existing meter has an internal contactor to supply only heating circuits at rate 2, it will have five cable connections and the two live load cables, heating circuit rate 2 and the all other circuits rate 1, are simply commoned together when the new meter is fitted.

You state that there is a charge for removing certain E10 meters and this charge on top of paying for an unnecessary electricians visit, is holding customers to ransom when they simply want to save money by switching to a more competitive tariff. Do you tell these customers that you will charge £64.76 for their meter change? How often have your E10 tariffs last dropped in price like all other tariffs have done recently.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Rubidium wrote: »

The Government are no longer forcing suppliers to maintain these tariffs e.g. eon tariff withdrawal here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5441146

Suppliers sub contract meter changes and there is no reason why two circuits cannot quickly and easily be connected together using a Henley block to the new meter if this is required.

We're still supporting complex meters like Economy 10 Rubidium. We are, though, looking to simplify things. As Helena says in the thread you've linked to, quite a lot of these meters are fairly old and coming towards the end of their guaranteed shelf life. As a result, we're looking to replace them. We're offering customers a choice of continuing with a restricted hour meter (2 rate Economy 10) or going for the more conventional single rate or Economy 7 option. This gives customers a choice so they can opt for the type best suited to their circumstances. There's no charge for these replacement meters.

This also takes into consideration that many of these older meters may have been installed when circumstances were quite a bit different from now. A lot of our legacy meters were fitted at the request of builders or developers at a time when things were considerably different. Many were designed mainly for all electric properties with storage heaters and immersion heaters. As with MM, there have been lots of cases where storage heaters have been replaced with alternative forms of heating. Customers might want to review their metering in line with such changes. This new initiative gives them the opportunity to do this.

Hope this explains.

Malc