2 meters - can we use different suppliers?

Rejtan

Hi,

My mother still uses storage heaters as there is no gas in the property. There are 2 meters, one standard, one off-peak (currently 14 hours supply, changing to Economy 7). Both the meters are connected to one 100A supplier fuse coming in on one supply cable.

The meters have separate MPAN nos. When I inquired about switching, one potential supplier said that this was possible as long as the meters are no longer marked as "linked" in the national database. She said that this can only be done by the current supplier, but that this was possible.

Anyone know if this is right? Could I use 2 different suppliers?

The legacy tariff on the 14 hour supply jumped to 15.5p last year and we are now facing an extra £120 charges. We can't invest in the setup as the house will have to be sold when my mother moves out in the next few years.

Thanks for any help.
Richard

System

Rejtan wrote: »

Hi,

My mother still uses storage heaters as there is no gas in the property. There are 2 meters, one standard, one off-peak (currently 14 hours supply, changing to Economy 7). Both the meters are connected to one 100A supplier fuse coming in on one supply cable.

The meters have separate MPAN nos. When I inquired about switching, one potential supplier said that this was possible as long as the meters are no longer marked as "linked" in the national database. She said that this can only be done by the current supplier, but that this was possible.

Anyone know if this is right? Could I use 2 different suppliers?

The legacy tariff on the 14 hour supply jumped to 15.5p last year and we are now facing an extra £120 charges. We can't invest in the setup as the house will have to be sold when my mother moves out in the next few years.

Thanks for any help.
Richard

Welcome to the forum. I would have thought not unless two separate bills are being produced at the moment. Most E7 users get the benefit of low cost energy overnight but pay more during the day.

footyguy

Rejtan wrote: »

Hi,

My mother still uses storage heaters as there is no gas in the property. There are 2 meters, one standard, one off-peak (currently 14 hours supply, changing to Economy 7). Both the meters are connected to one 100A supplier fuse coming in on one supply cable.

The meters have separate MPAN nos. When I inquired about switching, one potential supplier said that this was possible as long as the meters are no longer marked as "linked" in the national database. She said that this can only be done by the current supplier, but that this was possible.

Anyone know if this is right? Could I use 2 different suppliers?

The legacy tariff on the 14 hour supply jumped to 15.5p last year and we are now facing an extra £120 charges. We can't invest in the setup as the house will have to be sold when my mother moves out in the next few years.

Thanks for any help.
Richard

What do you mean by "currently 14 hours supply, changing to Economy 7" ? :huh: :eek:

If you have 2 MPANS then you have metering to support a legacy tariff.

Please follow my Golden Rule:
Do not attempt to switch supplier with this type of metering in place. Attempts by others to do so previously have invariably ended in tears.

Good luck!

trickytree1963

Sounds like they're on an E10 type tariff currently, maybe their current supplier has offered an E7 to them. Personally with storage heaters and no Gas E10 normally would be better sticking with , follow Footyguy's rule though, trying to change always ends up messy

jk0

I suspect you would end up paying two standing charges, which rather defeats what I think you are trying to accomplish.

Autumnella

It would be done by your current supplier, but they would not do this because the meters are linked, unrelating them on the national database would be incorrect and MPAS who process the data would probably reject the request anyway.

Rejtan

Thanks for all the comments and answers.
To explain a bit more background, the legacy tariff called "Off Peak" provides 14 hours a day of power and switches off outside these hours due to a supplier clock between the meter and the supply.
This tariff went up in price to about 15.5 pence last summer from 11.5. So now our bills are £280 / month instead of £175.
So I think we have to move to Economy 7 and if required just top up the heating with portable heaters from the other standard meter. There don't seem to any other options on the market. SSE, our supplier, didn't offer us Economy 10.

I would be quite ok with paying 2 sets of standing charges as that would cost less that £100 /year extra, still leaving us with a huge saving.
It's only a terraced house, but if all 9 storage heaters were powered up at the same time, then the current would easily exceed 100A. I guess that is why the supplier originally put in 2 meters.

Rejtan

Or is it possible to also make the second meter also "standard", and accepting that both meters come from the same supplier? Even doing a 12 month fix with the current supplier would be much cheaper than the 14 hour "off peak" supply.
We would then pay for an electrician to install our own clock or clocks to control the storage heaters.
Could we then change supplier if the current one was too expensive?

Rejtan

Ok. This has clarified itself. The SSE engineer installed the Economy 7 meter and removed BOTH meters. SSE had said on the phone that the other meter would stay, which was the reason for my question. Sorry for wasting people's time.
I queried removing both meters with the engineer, as the total power consumption could be about 130A if everything was switched on. The engineer, who was clearly very experienced, said this wasn't a problem even though the Economy 7 meter is rated for 100A.
Thanks everyone.