Economy 7 - two standing charges very expensive

torus

I'm helping a relative change to a better deal for her utilities. Having used the MSE comparison site I decided to opt for OVO. It came out that she would save £593/year but now I've started the switch process the reality is different.

This is because she has night storage heaters (which are very old) connected to an Economy 7 meter. OVO charge 28.77p a day standing charge on all meters so there standing charge would be 86.31p/day as she has to pay it the normal electricty meter, the Economy 7 one AND the gas one. Doing the maths means she doesn't save money at all - in fact it may increase her costs.

I can't see the tariffs for the big energy companies and doing the comparisons isn't helping as it's not dealing with the Economy 7 correctly. Has anyone got any advice on this?

victor2

Economy 7 is normally one meter, so one standing charge, not two.
If you put the annual usage (day and night for electricity) in kWh for both gas and electricity, you should get realistic forecasts from the comparison sites. Ignore the "savings" unless the relative is already on the standard tariff for the current supplier. Just look at future predicted costs, assuming the annual usage remains the same.
If you entered current monetary values for the monthly cost, the figures produced by the comparison sites will be nonsense.

Robin9

There are E7 installations where there are two meters but the standing charge is not per meter is is per supply.

As Victor2 says make sure you are using kWh and take these from two bills 12 months apart where the readings are ACTUAL ones not Estimates.

If the latest bill is an estimate take readings and ring the supplier.

torus

I've put in the actual annual figures but the problem is that OVO insist that the standing charge is per physical meter, not per supply. So that increases the bill per year by 28p/day. She is with E.ON at the moment & is paying 2 Standing Charges for Electricity - one for the normal meter and one for the Economy 7 one. But the Economy 7 one is only 1.3p/day which is a lot less than OVO's 28p/day! But E.ON's unit charge is more.

The comparison sites don't seem to have Economy 7 built into their calculations so don't really help a lot.

There are 2 meters as one is connected just to the night storage heaters, the other to everything else. So if she runs her washing mahine at 2am she pays normal rate.

Owain_Moneysaver

That sounds more like an old White Meter type tariff than a 'modern' E7.

Why has relative got both storage heaters and gas? It's an unusual combination and one that's not usually cost-effective.

Robin9

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

That sounds more like an old White Meter type tariff than a 'modern' E7.

Why has relative got both storage heaters and gas? It's an unusual combination and one that's not usually cost-effective.

Gas cooking ?

Robin9

torus wrote: »

I've put in the actual annual figures but the problem is that OVO insist that the standing charge is per physical meter, not per supply. .

Then eliminate OVO from your choices and look elsewhere

macman

See post 5. Who is the existing supplier and what is the exact name of the tariff? This is not a normal E7 metering if there are 2 MPAN's. Check a recent bill.
If so, few suppliers support such metering, and you need to look at re-metering to E7

Robin9

To quote Wikipedia :

"Although the name suggests that an MPAN refers to a particular meter, an MPAN can have several meters associated with it,[1] or indeed none where it is an unmetered supply."

My interpretation one supply = one standing charge.

EachPenny

torus wrote: »

There are 2 meters as one is connected just to the night storage heaters, the other to everything else. So if she runs her washing mahine at 2am she pays normal rate.

This sounds like a 'special' tariff and not conventional E7.

If you search this board you will see various horror stories of what can go wrong when switching if you have anything other than a standard or E7 tariff (I'll call them 'regular' from here on).

The first thing you need to do is to find out exactly what tariff(s) she is on currently. The second thing (after posting further details on here if you want) is to look at the costs of converting to a regular tariff - this might involve her own wiring system being modified if different appliances are on different meters and timeswitches.

Only once you have an idea of those costs does it make any sense to start doing price comparisons between suppliers.

And as others have said, if she has a gas supply, then why storage heaters?

macman

An examination of the bill will quickly tell us how many MPAN's are linked to the account. OP?
A gas supply doesn't necessarily mean that gas CH and DHW is installed, though it might be the cheapest way to heat and hot water the property.