Electricity - are First Utility giving me the !!!!?

aliC

Hi - I am with First Utility who tell me my night rate electricity is set from 00.30 to 2.30am only! The rest is day rate.

They say this is due to my meter and cannot be changed.

Is this B.S???

They offered a free smart meter, but this has only one tariff - ie. no day/night rate.

What can be done here? I am in contract for another 5 months.

Thanks

footyguy

aliC wrote: »

Hi - I am with First Utility who tell me my night rate electricity is set from 00.30 to 2.30am only! The rest is day rate.

They say this is due to my meter and cannot be changed.

Is this B.S???

They offered a free smart meter, but this has only one tariff - ie. no day/night rate.

What can be done here? I am in contract for another 5 months.

Thanks

There are 2 types of electricity meter that are universally accepted (i.e. by almost every supplier)

A single rate meter or a dual rate "E7" meter.
E7 provides the consumer with 7 hours of low rate electricity every day.

If your meter is neither of these, then you would have previously been on what is now termed a legacy tariff. Only the legacy supplier is bound to support their legacy tariff... and the bad news for you is that FU are not a legacy supplier.
Dependent on who your legacy supplier is for the property, they may not be willing to accept you back as there is no obligation on them to do so.

It sounds like you may have once had a tariff that say provided a couple of hours low rate in the afternoon, perhaps 5 hours low rate in the evening and perhaps another couple of hours low rate in the early hours of the morning - now you just get the couple of hours in the early morning due to the supplier switch.

Another example, I fear, if yet another was needed to support what I often post here
i.e. Do not attempt to switch supplier with such metering as it invariably ends in tears.

So what option do you have?
(a) Contact the legacy supplier to see if they will accept you back on the legacy tariff.
(b) Contact a supplier who may agree to aggregate your registry readings to provide all your electricity on the same rate despite having more than one registry.
(c) Ask your supplier to fit you a universally accepted single rate or dual rate "E7" meter
(d) If all the above fails, then take the smart meter from FU as offered, then switch supplier to one who who will do (c) above for you.

Before changing metering, consult expert electrical/heating advice over the suitability of your home for a revised meter, and what changes if any may be required if you were to go ahead

molerat

Suppliers are often completely in the dark over off peak timings and will give duff information as it is something that is not set by them and completely out of their control.
There is one way of finding out when your night rate is ................ but it involves a bit of staying up. What time do you get up in the morning ? Is your meter showing night rate then ? What area are you in ? 00.30-02.30 is in fact a time slot where some areas revert to normal rate.
My vote is on FU talking !!!!!!!! rather than a legacy metering issue.
https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/179/~/what-are-the-economy-7-peak-and-off-peak-periods%3F

aliC

Thanks - some great help there.

FU said:
Your night rate is: 00:30 - 2:30 and 19:30 - 22.30. Your day rate is: 2.30-14.30 14.30 - 19.30 and 22.30 - 00:30

FU mentioned they would install a smart meter for free and can put me on an E7 tariff - where I will pay the same throughout the day - so I assume this is a single rate meter.

Would this be the same as option (c):

So what option do you have?
(a) Contact the legacy supplier to see if they will accept you back on the legacy tariff.
(b) Contact a supplier who may agree to aggregate your registry readings to provide all your electricity on the same rate despite having more than one registry.
(c) Ask your supplier to fit you a universally accepted single rate or dual rate "E7" meter
(d) If all the above fails, then take the smart meter from FU as offered, then switch supplier to one who who will do (c) above for you.

footyguy

aliC wrote: »

Thanks - some great help there.

FU said:
Your night rate is: 00:30 - 2:30 and 19:30 - 22.30. Your day rate is: 2.30-14.30 14.30 - 19.30 and 22.30 - 00:30

FU mentioned they would install a smart meter for free and can put me on an E7 tariff - where I will pay the same throughout the day - so I assume this is a single rate meter.

Would this be the same as option (c):

Lol

So the siuation is different to what you wrote in the OP ...:cool:

FU said:
Your night rate is: 00:30 - 2:30 and 19:30 - 22.30. Your day rate is: 2.30-14.30 14.30 - 19.30 and 22.30 - 00:30

Compared to

I am with First Utility who tell me my night rate electricity is set from 00.30 to 2.30am only! The rest is day rate.

My advice was based on the info contained in your OP

Good luck!

aliC

Cheers And yes, I totally forgot about the 19.30-22.30 in my OP!

Any new suggestions....

SammenForLivet2

Most people prefer standard (single) rate, and do benefit from it, unless of timed heating arrangements.

The exact economy seven timings can certainly be found, within the Meter Technical Details, and using TPR Mapping, which are in the dataflows. Finding someone at F.U who a.) has access to Dataflows and b.) understands and has TPR mapping information is likely to be null on impossible.

Good Luck