Old 3 meter setup RHT heatwise EON nightmare

Jibber123

I've jus spent 4 hours on the phone trying to get my mums electric supplier sorted. She received a letter a couple of weeks ago saying her tariff would have to change as her tariff was no longer supported. She has been battling with EON for over a year with this as they keep telling her she has to have her meter changed to support the new style of tariffs, and when an engineer comes out they can't do it because the way the house is wired up and it all goes quite for a few months. They are then back on the case, and try again and it goes round and round. The last letter stated as she hadn't had the new meter fitted her annual bill would go up from £1100 a year to £3800, which is just ridiculous. I've got nowhere with EON they just keep telling me she has to have a new meter which they can't fit. The basic problem seems to be she has and old legacy meter that was called heatwise or RHT and was renamed by EON to Economy 10 I think in 2005, she also has a second standard meter with a dual tariff on peak and economy 7. The house only has electric, no gas, so has 10 large storage heaters plus a large 80 gallon hot water tank with 2 immersion heaters, although she only uses the top one most of the time as she's on her own. The 10 storage heaters and 1 of the immersion heaters are feed directly from the RHT Economy 10 meter via a separate consumer unit, and come on for 3 hours in the afternoon 1-4pm and then at night 11pm to 6am (10 hours hence economy 10). The rest of the house, lights, sockets, a couple of convector heaters and towel rails in the bathroom and toilet and the other immersion heater are all connected to the 2nd dual tariff meter, via a 2nd consumer unit, which changes across to cheap rate at midnight till 7am (7 hours hence economy 7). EON have basically said she will have to go on to full price 16.18p/Kwh for all 3 meters where as she currently has 3 tariffs 8.93p, 16.18p and 7.01p /kwh. they have also said they will charge her 65p per day standing charge per meter which is nearly £500 a year. she currently pays £60 standing charge for both meters.
We looked at chaging to gas / oil about 15 years ago but unfortunately the cost of getting gas to the property or and oil tank installed and then getting wet central heating fitted is just huge at around £20,000.
We've also had a couple of independent electricians to look at options and they have all pretty much said the same thing, the storage heaters she has are designed to work with the afternoon boost of economy 10 and will more than likely be cold by 5pm without it so she will be forced to use full price electric and convectors to heat the house in the evenings when you need it most. The quotes to change the storage heaters to more modern ones that will hold heat for longer were in the order of £12,000!

The problem with keeping the old storage heaters is they don't have build in timers they rely on the meter's timer turning the supply on and off. The new meter they want to fit does not have a build in time clock so the existing heaters would be on all the time using full price electricity. Or alternatively she would have to remember to turn all the heaters on and off manually every day at the correct time, and she would not be able to leave the heaters on low if she went away for a few days. The electricians all said there is nothing currently on the market capable of switching the 100A load from the 10 existing storage heaters.

I understand the setup is not the most efficient especially as she is in a big house on her own, but why should she now be forced to pay 3 nearly 4 times as much for her heating because EON decide to change something.

I've managed to find SSE still take customers with these kind of setup but they only have a small department who understand the complex setup and are snowed under at the moment.

I am going to contact OFGEM but when i last spoke to them back in the summer they wer not very helpful and they basically told me it was an instruction from the government to energy suppliers to replace all the old legacy meter setup so that everyone can compare and change suppliers every year, and she would have to update her electrical systems to accommodate the new meters.

As a pensioner in her late 70's she just want's things to stay the same, she's prepared for her bills to go up a bit each year but to ask her to suddenly find an extra £3500 a year just for electric is, in her words "totally unacceptable".

I don't know what else to do to help her, has anyone else had any issues with these old legacy meters she can't be the only house left in the UK with them?

Robin9

With the installation she's got £1100 a year is remarkably low.


This sounds like a very big house - does she use all the rooms?

Jibber123

It's 3 bedrooms with a loft conversion which makes it 5 bedrooms. She only uses 1 bedroom but the other rooms have the storage heaters on the lowest setting to keep the chill off and stop them getting damp.Unless she has family, friends and the grand kids to stay when obviously they get turned up if the rooms are being used. But normally only a few nights a month.

It's also very well insulated, cavity wall insulation, ground floor floors have all been insulated and the loft was re insulated when the loft conversion was done back in the 90's. It's also got fairly new double glazing and doors only about 15 years old. The rooms shes uses Kitchen lounge bathroom and her bedroom are always comfortably warm. It's always amazed me how little electric she uses. She only really uses her TV and radio for a few hours a day a phone charger,washing machine once a week, lights in the rooms she in and electric for cooking. Her annual consumption is now just over 10,000 Kwh down from 15,000Kwh about 5 years ago. As a comparison our family of 4 in a poorly insulated house which is never that warm use over 6000Kwh of electric plus 15,000Kwh for gas and we've got 2 log burner 1 of which is going nearly 24/7 in the cold weather!

Back to her dilemma, she is very annoyed at EON for they way they have treated her and from what we have found she can't just change suppliers like everyone else due to her setup so she's stuck with a massive price increase which doesn't seem legal. Why can't EON just leave her tariff alone and just put her unit rates up a small amount each year. Incidental while looking back over the last 10 years or so her day electricity unit rate has nearly doubled since 2010 from 9p/kwh to over 16p/kwh. So despite the fact she used less and less her bills keep going up! and now this. I don't think large companies should be able to treat elderly people on pensions like this as she said she has been a loyal customer for over 20 years, something that would have been rewarded years ago, not penalised!

jbuchanangb

I think you need to start a formal complaint process, keeping everything in writing.

I'm sure you can draft a concise letter for you mother to send, detailing her full co-operation with their request to install new meter(s), their failure to install after however many visits, and emphasising that it is their failure to install the required meters, not her lack of co-operation that has created the current position.

She should then firmly express the view that whatever tariff they propose to cope with the existing metering arrangement, is should not represent a quantum increase of of over 200% on energy costs.

Once the complaint in the system, she may get some acceptable resolution, or if not she should obtain a deadlock letter, and refer the matter to the Energy Ombudsman

See this website for details

jk0

Could you not just re-wire the storage heaters to the Economy 7 meter, and have the other one disconnected?


It's only the rooms mum is occupying that will need an evening boost. Does she have a fireplace perhaps?

matelodave

Have a shufti at this - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Energy/Energy%20Consultation%20responses/Restricted%20Meter%20Good%20Practice%20Guide.pdf

If you can get any sense out of Eon than perhaps a chat with the CAB with a copy of this in your hand might help

Jibber123

Unfortunately putting her storage heaters onto an economy 7 meter would result in them running 24/7 as her storage heaters don't have builtin timers as they use the timer on the economy 10 meter to turn the supply to them on and off at the correct time. No she doesn't have a fireplace either. We did try Citizens advise back in the summer and they told us to contact OFGEN, who told us it was a directive from the government to remove old legacy meters to make way for all homes to go over to smart meters and it wasn't anything to do with EON. But i think EON are using it as an excuse to drastically increase peoples bills when they have no alternative and can't easily switch suppliers, which in my eyes amounts to legalised extortion by EON. They've got her over a barrel, and she's got no alternative but to pay the increased prices.

thorganby

Jibber123 wrote: »

Unfortunately putting her storage heaters onto an economy 7 meter would result in them running 24/7 as her storage heaters don't have builtin timers as they use the timer on the economy 10 meter to turn the supply to them on and off at the correct time. No she doesn't have a fireplace either. We did try Citizens advise back in the summer and they told us to contact OFGEN, who told us it was a directive from the government to remove old legacy meters to make way for all homes to go over to smart meters and it wasn't anything to do with EON. But i think EON are using it as an excuse to drastically increase peoples bills when they have no alternative and can't easily switch suppliers, which in my eyes amounts to legalised extortion by EON. They've got her over a barrel, and she's got no alternative but to pay the increased prices.

This is rubbish.

You need to request that the RHT meter is removed now and eon will sort out the wiring to ensure that the storage heaters/water heater will come on automatically.

The meters are eon's responsibility and if you request that the RHT meter is removed now, they should then bill you on your requested tariff if they are unable to change the metering now i.e. they can't say that they do not have the necessary meter etc.

How they do it is not your concern i.e. fitting an E7 meter with a built in contactor or by fitting a separate 100A contactor but it will cost you nothing.

There have been many threads on this subject if you search the forum e.g. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6059912/e-on-restricted-tariffs-no-longer-supported

You need to take control now and then when on the industry standard E7 metering you will have the choice of the best tariffs available across the whole market.

eon have to comply and sort out their mess!

Jibber123

Thanks or the link Thorganby, this was my understanding back in the beginning but EON have visited the house numerous times and on 1 visit they have 4 engineers in the meter cupboard under the stairs for 3 hours, only for them to say it wasn't possible to change the meter. I think the problem is not impossible but expensive and they don't want to have to pay for it. But when ever you speak to them they says it's your fault for not having the meter changed.
Ofgem tell me to speak to EON, citizens advise tell me to speak to OFGEM and EON are no help, where do i go to next?

thorganby

Jibber123 wrote: »

Thanks or the link Thorganby, this was my understanding back in the beginning but EON have visited the house numerous times and on 1 visit they have 4 engineers in the meter cupboard under the stairs for 3 hours, only for them to say it wasn't possible to change the meter. I think the problem is not impossible but expensive and they don't want to have to pay for it. But when ever you speak to them they says it's your fault for not having the meter changed.
Ofgem tell me to speak to EON, citizens advise tell me to speak to OFGEM and EON are no help, where do i go to next?

As already stated above, you need to raise a formal complaint (keep it concise - just the facts) and demand that your mother is charged at the E7 rate from when you first request the removal of the RHT meter.

Currently eon are non compliant and are as you say holding her to ransom, as she cannot switch to a competitive supplier until eon sort out their metering mess.

It sounds like you could now request a deadlock letter from eon to take this to the ombudsman if this had been going on for some time.

You need to take action to get this sorted ASAP.

Jibber123

Just to update you after nearly 4 hours on the phone with EON I've finally got put through to the "Simpler metering team" formally call the "Legacy metering team" up to September 2019 and before that the "Complex metering team" before May 2019. How on earth your suppose to keep up with this and know what to ask for or who to speak to, when the company your dealing with doesn't even know what their department is called because it's changed names so many times?

Anyway they have agreed to send and engineer out to swap her 2 meters for a single Economy 10 meter that will do the whole house including the storage heaters. I'm sceptical but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If on the day they say again they can't fit the meter. I will ask them to confirm in writing why they can't fit it. I can use this as evidence with OFGEM that she has been forced onto a higher tariff with no alternatives. Resulting in a unacceptable increase of over 200% in her annual bill and that she can't switch suppliers because EON can't change the meter. Hopefully this will mean she can go back to her old tariff of they will put her on a better tariff that only results in a more moderate annual increase of say 10%