Double Meters

irenemspencer

Are my “ total heating total control” meters now obselete?
No supplier mentions them.
We ve just signed up this morning to change to Bulb- from EDF standard variable.
( house is all electric incl storage heaters )
Is this our best deal ??

Robin9

What actually is your tariff ? You refer "total heating total control" so I would suggest its not E7 but a RHT tariff. Have a close look at your bills - how many meter readings are there - 1,2,3 even 4? Do the heaters have an afternoon boost - perhaps also an evening one ?

What tariff have you with Bulb ?

thorganby

irenemspencer wrote: »

Are my “ total heating total control” meters now obselete?
No supplier mentions them.
We ve just signed up this morning to change to Bulb- from EDF standard variable.
( house is all electric incl storage heaters )
Is this our best deal ??

It depends what you mean by obsolete.

You really should have done some simple sums before switching, as Bulb will charge you a daily standing charge for each of your THTC meters which may wipe out any expected savings.

jcontest

https://community.bulb.co.uk/discussion/9497/do-bulb-supply-thtc

Robin9

jcontest wrote: »

https://community.bulb.co.uk/discussion/9497/do-bulb-supply-thtc

irenemspencer - this is honest comment from Bulb and well worth reading. Contact Bulb before progressing !

scones

Total Heat, Total Control is one of the various older, regional electric heating tariffs that remain available but are not widely supported. It's not completely obsolete and can actually be quite useful for all-electric houses, but it is a barrier to switching supplier.

The core issue is that this kind of setup dates back to simpler times when you didn't have a choice of energy supplier and most such tariffs are supported only by the company that introduced them - typically the traditional 'local' electricity company for the area in question. I believe THTC is specific to the north of Scotland and is supplied by SSE so they are the only people who can be guaranteed to handle it correctly. (Other electricity suppliers offer similar tariffs such as Heatwise, ComfortPlus or TwinHeat elsewhere in the UK - but the features and charging setups vary.)

SSE's website suggests that there are three separate meter readings for THTC that are charged separately:

• A heating rate for charging your storage heaters for between 8 and 15 hours a day (SSE vary the charging period dynamically based on the forecast temperatures)
• One single all-day rate for your normal lighting and sockets
• A further all-day rate specifically for any heaters that are wired into a dedicated all-day heating circuit (for extra top-up heating)

With two different day rates and an off-peak rate, this is a very unusual tariff and it's a bit surprising that EDF were happy to take it on and able to bill it correctly. If you move to another supplier you need to be careful they don't get confused and bill all your storage heater consumption at peak rate or something similar!

I note that despite it not being their own product, Scottish Power does list THTC in their tariffs (click to see the option tables at the bottom of the page). So if you find the features of THTC beneficial and want to use a supplier that can handle it properly, it looks like you can at least choose between SSE or Scottish Power as your supplier.

The alternative is to switch yourself to a standard Economy 7 tariff supported by more suppliers - but you'd need to be sure this suited your circumstances better than THTC does.

One final note is that although not obsolete yet, your metering setup may become so in due course. Typically this setup relies on a radio teleswitch to switch the off-peak heating on and off. However, the radio teleswitching service is itself nearing end of life. Thus SSE will presumably have to update the metering setup of THTC customers in the next few years anyway - it remains to be seen whether they develop a smart meters solution to provide THTC or if they'll just switch everybody to a conventional Economy 7 setup instead.