Complex meter, how to switch

forever.insane

Hello,

Last weekend I tried switching electricity supplier (no gas) via the ukpower comparison site. I got offered a quote of £360 less per year what I'm paying now. I'm with edf and the new quote was with eon. Perfect I thought.

1 phoned them 2 days ago as I was worried as to why I had not received a welcome pack, to be told that I had been accepted and the welcome pack had been sent the day before. Today they call me to say that they cancelled it because I have a complex meter, which the chosen tarrif wasn't compatible with. They told me to phone their sales line.

So I phoned up sales and after the guy got his head around the fact that I have 4 different readings (day, night, evening/weekend and heating) gave me a quote of over £1500, which is more then my personal projection from edf of £1100, before price hike. After the hike, it is still less then £1500.

Eon said that it's because ALL my energy will be charged under 1 rate, to make it simple. Their 1 rate was 17.??p per kWh, marginally cheaper then my 17.??p per kWh the edf change for my day rate, the highest rate. Even the heating and night rate would be charge at the the high rate even though I currently pay around 6.??p per kWh for each. The guy agreed that in better off not switching.

My question is, how do I pay less? I can't seem to get a comparison site to take into account my extra readings and I don't want to be on the phone for hours explaining to all the power companies how my meter works. I was on the phone with eon sales for 40 minutes. I'm only a tenant so changing the meter (however it's done) isn't an option.

Our electricity bill is £80 per month, which covers myself, my partner and my 1 year old. A lot of money imo.

Thank you.

molerat

It is unlikely that you will be able to switch with that metering as these are generally only supported by your historic regional supplier, what exact tariff name are you on with EDF and what area do you live in ?

You have 2 options.
1) Have your meter replaced with an E7 one which your supplier may charge for. This may also involve some wiring modification by an electrician at your cost.
2) Change to a single rate, as has already been offered by E.On but currently not all suppliers offer this option. From September all major suppliers must offer this so a much larger market will open up to you.

The problem is that if you have electric heating a single rate will probably not be economical.

You need to put your consumption into a comparison and see how a single rate tariff and an E7 tariff compares to what you are currently paying. For the E7 you will need to calculate your % split between daytime use and off peak.

In all honesty £80 is not, depending on the size and age of the property, a huge bill if you are keeping warm and have plenty of hot water.

The 17p per unit is a bit steep though !

forever.insane

I'm from Worthing, west Sussex. Our tariff is standard variable - warmwise e/w/n, while the heating is standard variable -warmwise heating.

When we moved in, they charged us £49 month for a while as then came and read our metre. They charged £747 to our account and made us £479 in debt and raised our monthly payment to £144 but I phoned and said we can't afford this. They reduced it to £70 but warned it might not cover our previous underpayment so could go up in future. I've worked out we're using £80 a month, so still underpaying. I've been making one off payments to help reduce our debt, £100 here and there.

I just feel hard done by that I can't seem to compare.

If I compared, adding up all my annual consumption (day, night, heating and evening) and selected a non economy 7 meter, would this maybe be a more accurate result, if it will all be charged on 1 rate? If this makes sense.

Thank you

molerat

Yes that is the way to do it, total consumption across all registers.

E7 may be more economical if you have storage heating (do you have storage heaters or something different - underfloor maybe where day heat is required ?). Add all your heating up then the day use and get the % split, I assume your warmwise is where all use other than heat and water is charged at day rate.

forever.insane

Well I also have a slightly cheaper evening and weekend rate, at 16p per kWh. And yes, storage heaters. Unfortunately.

As far as I'm aware my, my better is already an e7 meter, it just also counts heating and weekend. Edf confirmed to me that my e7 hours are 12-7. Surely I can join an e7 tariff without a new meter?

Thank you.

Edit:

Day: 1,796 kWh
Evening/Weekend: 1,910 KWh
Night: 695 kWh
Heating: 4,209 kWh

I just add them all up (8610 kWh) and then get the night and heating percentage (57%)? Economy 7 would definitely be the better tariff. Thank you.

Shavuot

forever.insane wrote: »

Hello,

Last weekend I tried switching electricity supplier (no gas) via the ukpower comparison site. I got offered a quote of £360 less per year what I'm paying now. I'm with edf and the new quote was with eon. Perfect I thought.

1 phoned them 2 days ago as I was worried as to why I had not received a welcome pack, to be told that I had been accepted and the welcome pack had been sent the day before. Today they call me to say that they cancelled it because I have a complex meter, which the chosen tarrif wasn't compatible with. They told me to phone their sales line.

So I phoned up sales and after the guy got his head around the fact that I have 4 different readings (day, night, evening/weekend and heating) gave me a quote of over £1500, which is more then my personal projection from edf of £1100, before price hike. After the hike, it is still less then £1500.

Eon said that it's because ALL my energy will be charged under 1 rate, to make it simple. Their 1 rate was 17.??p per kWh, marginally cheaper then my 17.??p per kWh the edf change for my day rate, the highest rate. Even the heating and night rate would be charge at the the high rate even though I currently pay around 6.??p per kWh for each. The guy agreed that in better off not switching.

My question is, how do I pay less? I can't seem to get a comparison site to take into account my extra readings and I don't want to be on the phone for hours explaining to all the power companies how my meter works. I was on the phone with eon sales for 40 minutes. I'm only a tenant so changing the meter (however it's done) isn't an option.

Our electricity bill is £80 per month, which covers myself, my partner and my 1 year old. A lot of money imo.

Thank you.

You can't compare directly using a comparison site as there is nothing to compare to. Complex metering is not supported nationally, and even though a handful of suppliers may support complex metering (although not necessarily to new customers) one suppliers legacy tariff is not necessarily the same as another.

So you'll need new metering if you want to switch.

More info available here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/economy-7#economy10

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

forever.insane wrote: »

Hello,

Last weekend I tried switching electricity supplier (no gas) via the ukpower comparison site. I got offered a quote of £360 less per year what I'm paying now. I'm with edf and the new quote was with eon. Perfect I thought.

1 phoned them 2 days ago as I was worried as to why I had not received a welcome pack, to be told that I had been accepted and the welcome pack had been sent the day before. Today they call me to say that they cancelled it because I have a complex meter, which the chosen tarrif wasn't compatible with. They told me to phone their sales line.

So I phoned up sales and after the guy got his head around the fact that I have 4 different readings (day, night, evening/weekend and heating) gave me a quote of over £1500, which is more then my personal projection from edf of £1100, before price hike. After the hike, it is still less then £1500.

Eon said that it's because ALL my energy will be charged under 1 rate, to make it simple. Their 1 rate was 17.??p per kWh, marginally cheaper then my 17.??p per kWh the edf change for my day rate, the highest rate. Even the heating and night rate would be charge at the the high rate even though I currently pay around 6.??p per kWh for each. The guy agreed that in better off not switching.

My question is, how do I pay less? I can't seem to get a comparison site to take into account my extra readings and I don't want to be on the phone for hours explaining to all the power companies how my meter works. I was on the phone with eon sales for 40 minutes. I'm only a tenant so changing the meter (however it's done) isn't an option.

Our electricity bill is £80 per month, which covers myself, my partner and my 1 year old. A lot of money imo.

Thank you.

forever.insane wrote: »

I'm from Worthing, west Sussex. Our tariff is standard variable - warmwise e/w/n, while the heating is standard variable -warmwise heating.

When we moved in, they charged us £49 month for a while as then came and read our metre. They charged £747 to our account and made us £479 in debt and raised our monthly payment to £144 but I phoned and said we can't afford this. They reduced it to £70 but warned it might not cover our previous underpayment so could go up in future. I've worked out we're using £80 a month, so still underpaying. I've been making one off payments to help reduce our debt, £100 here and there.

I just feel hard done by that I can't seem to compare.

If I compared, adding up all my annual consumption (day, night, heating and evening) and selected a non economy 7 meter, would this maybe be a more accurate result, if it will all be charged on 1 rate? If this makes sense.

Thank you

Hello forever.insane and sorry we weren't able to help.

Your Warmwise meter is what's known as a complex or restricted meter. It will have two Meter Point Administration Numbers (MPAN) or supply numbers. One will cover general usage like lighting, appliances etc; whilst the second will cover heating/hot water usage going through the dedicated circuits that run the storage heaters.

When switching/quoting these types of metering set ups, we need to apply/quote for both MPANs. I suspect we only did this for the one. This will have caused the switch to fail and trigger the contact you received.

Sorry again we weren't able to help but hope this explains.

Malc

forever.insane

Shavout, thank you for the reply. It's a shame that I'm basically stick with edf, although to be fair they understood that its financially hard for me to pay what they asked and did lower the monthly debit, though this will still go up. I'll just need to try and reduce electricity usage more.

E.on Malc, you make it sound as though the sales person should have looked at both mpans and quoted as such, though the advice given on this thread suggests this isn't possible due to the legacy meter. The sales person spoke to their manager and then totalled all usage and used the 17.xxp per kWh tariff.

Thank you.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

forever.insane wrote: »

E.on Malc, you make it sound as though the sales person should have looked at both mpans and quoted as such, though the advice given on this thread suggests this isn't possible due to the legacy meter. The sales person spoke to their manager and then totalled all usage and used the 17.xxp per kWh tariff.

Thank you.

That's right forever.insane. Both mpans need to be considered. As above, one is for general usage whilst the other is for heating/hot water. Looks like our advisor totalled both sets of usage and gave you a quote based on a single rate tariff. This will be our standard Energy Plan tariff as this is the only one we have available for a Warmwise meter at the moment.

Hope this explains.

Malc

Bark01

Good news, customers on complex meters from any of the main suppliers are being allowed to totalise onto any standard meter tariff offered by any of the main suppliers. You will not have to have a physical meter change and will not have to pay to swap.

Its a new requirement that comes into force later this year as part of the CMA investigation. Think the rule comes into force in September 2017.

Smaller suppliers are not included in the order.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-market-investigation-restricted-meters-order-2016

As a warmwise customer you will be able to swap to any standard meter product offered by the big six. They will add up the consumption of all your registers and charge them at the single rate.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Bark01 wrote: »

Good news, customers on complex meters from any of the main suppliers are being allowed to totalise onto any standard meter tariff offered by any of the main suppliers. You will not have to have a physical meter change and will not have to pay to swap.

Its a new requirement that comes into force later this year as part of the CMA investigation. Think the rule comes into force in September 2017.

Smaller suppliers are not included in the order.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-market-investigation-restricted-meters-order-2016

As a warmwise customer you will be able to swap to any standard meter product offered by the big six. They will add up the consumption of all your registers and charge them at the single rate.

That's right Bark01. This is something we're currently working towards. Don't have all the details yet. I've posted about this on another thread and will keep this updated as and when I receive more information. This thread is below.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5644939

Hope this is of interest Bark01.

Malc