Help! Strange meter and i dont know how to change!

xxemmax

So we moved into a house a couple of years and and it has a Scottish power prepayment meter in it.

But the issue is it is a 3 rate meter being used as a 2 rate meter.
We have storage heaters which is the reasoning behind it.

So I currently have 2 rates on the meter , standard and control. Only the storage heater go through the controlled rate.

We are currently paying in just under £200 a month and tbh the house isn't that cosy. So I figure there must be someone cheaper I can go with so this leaves me with a couple of questions...
Ive looked online and some places have economy 7 showing as a day rate and a night rate, is this the sort of meter I have?
Also is having this 3 rate meter being used as a 2 rate meter going to cause me any problems trying to change?


On the last "bill" I can see on my SP account its showing my useage for a year as being Control - 6567kwh and Standard 4102kwh?

Sorry for the long post it has me baffled!

Carrot007

Are you sure it is a 3 rate meter (if you pm my some details I can check unofficially but only if you want to) ,as opposed to 2 rates with a total. In fact mosrt modern meters are prograamable and can be whatever rates are set up, but again we do not know what you have.


Are you in Scotland? There is no E7 up there. Well they still call it that for some reason but it is 8.5 hours!


£200 seems reasonable to me for say a 3 bedroom house on electric only. I pay £130 for electric/gas and obviously electric heating is more.


But again we do not know enough yet to comment.

xxemmax

Hi, thanks for the reply. What info do you need from the meter? Im purely going by what SP are telling me.

Yep we are in Scotland. Electric only, 2 bedroom property, we have 4 storage heaters downstairs currently only using 2 of them. Upstairs are electric wall heaters we don't use them at all unless it is absolutely freezing! 2 adults and 1 child in the house, we both work fulltime and my sons at school so generally for 4 days a week there is no one in during the day.


Current rates on my meter are day 16.51 control 11.74 and the standing charge is 2.34.

Carrot007

xxemmax wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the reply. What info do you need from the meter? Im purely going by what SP are telling me.

Yep we are in Scotland. Electric only, 2 bedroom property, we have 4 storage heaters downstairs currently only using 2 of them. Upstairs are electric wall heaters we don't use them at all unless it is absolutely freezing! 2 adults and 1 child in the house, we both work fulltime and my sons at school so generally for 4 days a week there is no one in during the day.


Current rates on my meter are day 16.51 control 11.74 and the standing charge is 2.34.

To check the meter serial preferably! It all goes to finding that out" Yes it will give me (or anyone capable ok looking it up) your address, which is why I recomend a PM. Like I say up to you if you want me to have a look but it might at least clear up what you are currently on (or not if records are bad!).

xxemmax

Oh wow, I didn't know all that was available from the serial number! Goof thing you said or I would have posted it on here. Sent you a wee pm...

Carrot007

OK, I have had aa look. You are indeed on a weird meter setup even if it is not being used. You have 2 mpans. Moving is not recomended unless you get his changed, no one should take you but if they do it will just cause more issues.


One mpan is just stated as 24/7 standard. This will be the non storage heater one as you state above.


The other mpan (they would have probably had sperate meters too long ago, but not usualy these days), I have had to look up as I am not familier with the tarrif! This is indeed a single register too, so I guess it is easy to get confused with E7 (8.5 Scotland). It is called "8.5 hour WM Heating" according to my documents. not much more info but I guess as you have seen it is just for heating and should provide 8.5 hours, though when they are I do not know. It is meant to be teleswitched, so It could be that odd Scottish tarrif where you get up to 8.5 hours depending on the weather. Switching is done via radio signals (R4 I believe but I cannto remember!) and if it is the one I think they define a number of hours based on the weather at some point (the day before?).


Since it is nearly a E7(S 8.5) tarrif, I see no reason you would not be better off on a standard e7 meter, which would get everything cheap rate in the off peak and enable you to switch supplier easily.


However of course this will probably cost. Not a lot from you supplier, but I am assuming you probably have aseocnd consumer unit for the storage heaaters currently and this would need to be changed by your electrician if you did go down tht route.


If there is any other question pleaase do ask! I can try to answer them if I know anything!

Carrot007

xxemmax wrote: »

Oh wow, I didn't know all that was available from the serial number! Goof thing you said or I would have posted it on here. Sent you a wee pm...

Yes, it is eaasy to leek details that can identify you these daays. Admittedly only to people with access to the systems to check, but you never know! Which is why I always advise to PM it.


Hope some of my info makes sense!

Benight

xxemmax wrote: »

So we moved into a house a couple of years and and it has a Scottish power prepayment meter in it.

But the issue is it is a 3 rate meter being used as a 2 rate meter.
We have storage heaters which is the reasoning behind it.

So I currently have 2 rates on the meter , standard and control. Only the storage heater go through the controlled rate.

We are currently paying in just under £200 a month and tbh the house isn't that cosy. So I figure there must be someone cheaper I can go with so this leaves me with a couple of questions...
Ive looked online and some places have economy 7 showing as a day rate and a night rate, is this the sort of meter I have?
Also is having this 3 rate meter being used as a 2 rate meter going to cause me any problems trying to change?


On the last "bill" I can see on my SP account its showing my useage for a year as being Control - 6567kwh and Standard 4102kwh?

Sorry for the long post it has me baffled!

The solution is simple...

Get a sparky in and have the place rewired.
Take advise on what new/replacement appliances you may need
Get your supplier to install a nice single rate meter (they may charge for this) - one that doesn't give you any cheap rate electricity

Then you can switch to any supplier you like

xxemmax

Thank you for the replies...

Yes we have a separate box with timer which controls when the storage heater input etc.. This is the second meter in the house as after we moved in we had massive problems and had to get the ombudsman involved as there was a fault with the meter overcharging. I did point out at the time that we had a 3 rate meter but were only getting 2 rates but they put the same type of meter back in again. So going forward I would be best to ask SP to change the meter then this would allow me to change providers?

Unfortunately the house belongs to a housing association so I cannot change the heating system etc.. Very much wish I could as storage heaters really aren't very good. The house is hot from the middle of the night until mid morning then cold again..