Electricity meter changed now costs rocketed

ForestBluebells

I have a strange, non standard meter which has a day and night tariff but is not economy 7. Only my storage heaters are on the night meter and nothing else is connected to it (I only just found this out!).

The clock on my meter broke recently making my heaters stop working. My supplier came out and removed the clock so I could use the heaters (but I manually had to turn them on and off at the wall), later they came out and replaced my whole meter as they couldn't just replace the clock for some reason. They have since installed another non standard meter but this time a telemeter.

Can all storage heaters work with this type of meter as my heaters are now boiling at all times of the evening and they used to be Luke warm in the evening and my latest energy bill was 2000kw over what I spent last winter. I'm worried the new meter isn't compatible with my setup

Also is it worth just asking them to swap my meter to a real economy 7 meter so I can actually heat my water and use the dishwasher at night etc?

ForestBluebells

This was my previous clock meter, I'm not sure if maybe this didn't heat all night?

CashStrapped

It sounds like the E7 was set up so that just the storage heaters benefited from the switch to E7. It was/is quite a common set-up. Did your hot water also benefit from the timer too.

Because the wiring may have been on an independent circuit, whatever they have done may have mucked up the set-up. The heaters may be charging 24/7 if on at the socket!

Getting the whole flat put onto a E7 meter may be the most beneficial solution but... it may not be that simple. This may entail some inspection and re-wiring of your consumer unit. This would be at your cost.

Anything after the meter, you are responsible for. The meter is the responsibility of the energy company.

You may want to get an electrician out to inspect it.

I would also take a picture of the whole set-up. The meter, wiring around it, the consumer unit/fuse box and post the same questions at

https://www.diynot.com/diy/forums/electrics/

There are resident electricians on there who may be able to advise further. They can be a bit grumpy sometimes but don't take it personally. They are very knowledgeable and far beyond my skill level.

If in doubt, and they cannot advise, get an electrician out (I would do this anyway).

ForestBluebells

im not sure whether previously my meter meant my heaters were on for less time, i dont understand from looking at the dials.

Raxiel

So they replaced a mechanical timer with a radio teleswitch?

I didn't think they'd still be fitting them, but if that's what it is it should work the same way the clock did, but it uses a longwave radio signal to determine when to change rates rather than just the turning of the clock.

Sounds like they wired the heaters circuit to the general supply rather than the night rate only.

I agree with Cashstrapped you probably need an electrician to look at it.

MeterMan

Could be wired up incorrectly. Post a picture of it all please but scribble out the meter serial number.

System

I bet the the old timer switch was nt set anywhere near the correct time, was it 8.30 pm when you took the photo ?.After 15 years the suppliers have only just requested meter readers to inform them if these old timer switches are more than 2 hours out. I also find plenty of digital meters with built in timer switches to have drifted more than 2 hours out. Only radio teleswitches stay accurate

Rubidium

Why do posters have to make so many wild assumptions when the facts presented fully explain what has happened.

This is a money saving site and advising that the OP needs to pay for an electrician is ridiculous and an unnecessary expense. The OP is already paying more since the defective timeswitch has been replaced by an accurate radio teleswitch and metering is now correct for their specific heat hours tariff.

The picture shows that the defective timeswitch was displaying 20:30 hrs when the picture was taken at 07:54 hrs which was 12:36 hrs fast and the timeswitch may have stopped on the heat rate, resulting in much lower bills.

The OP needs to decide if their current tariff is actually beneficial for them, by reading their meter regularly and doing simple cost calculations to determine if changing to a more widely available E7 would be cost effective, due to a much wider choice of alternative suppliers. However a change to E7 would require a simple wiring change that may be chargeable although not necessarily as most suppliers want to withdraw these heat tariffs.