Economy 7

monroe7986

I moved into a house with Economy 7 3 tears ago
Didn't really know much about it until recently I have noticed that my storage heaters kick in at 10.30 pm
I rang Scottish power who is my provider and they told me the cheaper rate is from midnight
I have a teleswitch meter for the heaters ans can not change the times on the meter to set them to come on at midnight
I have asked for the meter to be changed to come on at midnight and I have booked for an engineer to attend to do so but they have failed to attend on 4 occasions now
I have asked if it should be coming on at the time if the cheaper rate why is it coming on 1 1/5 hours earlier
I was told that even if it kicks in at 10.30 it will still be the cheaper rate
The heater have their own meter which feeds off the main meter , Would this be the case of it being a cheaper rate at 10.30pm and not the midnight i have been informed is the cheaper rate in my area
I have read it may be a faulty meter on other posts or the timings set wrong
I am still waiting for the meter to be changed but need to know should I be challenging the activation times if it had been at a higher rate
Thanks in advance

tberry6686

When your storage heaters kick in, look at which meter is increasing. If it is the lower rate one then all is good it is just the teleswitch is a bit out.

footyguy

monroe7986 wrote: »

I moved into a house with Economy 7 3 tears ago
Didn't really know much about it until recently I have noticed that my storage heaters kick in at 10.30 pm
I rang Scottish power who is my provider and they told me the cheaper rate is from midnight
I have a teleswitch meter for the heaters ans can not change the times on the meter to set them to come on at midnight
I have asked for the meter to be changed to come on at midnight and I have booked for an engineer to attend to do so but they have failed to attend on 4 occasions now
I have asked if it should be coming on at the time if the cheaper rate why is it coming on 1 1/5 hours earlier
I was told that even if it kicks in at 10.30 it will still be the cheaper rate
The heater have their own meter which feeds off the main meter , Would this be the case of it being a cheaper rate at 10.30pm and not the midnight i have been informed is the cheaper rate in my area
I have read it may be a faulty meter on other posts or the timings set wrong
I am still waiting for the meter to be changed but need to know should I be challenging the activation times if it had been at a higher rate
Thanks in advance

Lots of issues raised by your post. I will attempt to address most of them, but forgive me if I miss out something. Feel free to ask again.

Are you sure you have E7 and not a legacy tariff?

With E7, you get 7 hours of low rate electricity every day. These times are set by the local DNO, and are controlled either by a self contained timer on your meter, or via a teleswitch.
If it's via a self contained timer, you should be able to read the current time on the timer and compare it to the actual time. It usually doesn't matter if the clock is wrong, you will still get 7 hours cheap rate per day, but the start and finish times may be not what you expect - you have to allow for the clock time error.
Suppliers don't usually respond to requests to change the clock time, even if it's wrong. Note also, the low rate time changes when the clocks change - i.e. it is set to GMT (UTC). This will definitely be the case if it's a self contained timer.

Your heaters will either be controlled via a self contained clock (which may be remote from the meter itself) - in which case it's up to you to ensure it comes on dyuring the cheap rate.
Or, more usually, the heaters are wired to a circuit that only becomes live during the cheap rate, essentially automating the timing for you.

With E7, you get all the electricity used during those 7 hours at cheap rate.

Your mentions of a teleswitch (which you have no control over) switching the heaters independent of the meter, together with the indication the heaters have their own meter, suggests you do not have E7 at all, but rather you are on a legacy tariff.
Details of these tariffs vary by supplier & region, but typically you have about 10 hours low rate, but that only is for heating hence the meter for heating only. You may also have another meter, and so in total up to 3 seperate registries.

You should be able to get full details from your supplier if this is the case, but you need to ideally deal with a specialist who knows exactly how these lagacy tariffs your supplier provides actually work, and the appropriate prices; your standard phone jockey who answers the call initially probably won't have a clue (but won't admit that to you).

If you are on a legacy tariff, then please do not attempt to switch supplier (and your existing supplier probably only offers 1 tariff for that metering arrangement) - attempts to do so invariably end in tears.

In regards to missed appointments, you should be able to claim compensation for that. Follow the suppliers complaint procedure.

Edit:
monroe7986
Posted: Today 11:15am
Last Activity: Today 11:15am
Join Date: 16-10-2011
Previous post: 16-10-2011, 7:31 PM

'nuff said! :cool:
Good luck!

Richie-from-the-Boro

24 of them, prove that more than 7 were at the cheaper rate and you are getting extra cheaper, prove that less than 7 of them were at the cheap rate and you complain.