Scottish Power Comfort Plus Control

fraserw91

Hello.

I need some advice on electric heating, water, and tariffs.

My wife and I moved into a two-bedroom flat that is all-electric powered and I am looking to work out how I could save money on electric bills, as it looks like it could be about £130 for one month.

First of all, we have storage heaters. There are three storage heaters in the flat (living room, hall, and kitchen) and two instant heaters in the two bedrooms.

Just now, only the living room gets used. This is slightly different from the other two. This doesn't have an input and output, it just has a dial that says room temperature with 1 to 5. I have it on around 2 and makes the room relatively warm in the morning and lasts till the evening.

We don't like the storage heaters and would prefer to get these replaced with heaters that we can get instant heat whenever we want but I have read that these could be more expensive to run but I guess that would depend on how long we have them on for and how warm we have them. We would probably buy ones that have a timer on them so that we can control when the heat comes on.

Secondly, our water is heated with immersion heaters which seems to only heat up during the night. There are two of these on the big tank with two switches. I believe the one at the bottom is the main heater and the top is a boost heater.

Just now I only turn on the main heater and let it heat overnight. The water is hot the next morning and stays hot for 2-3 days, depending on water usage. I'm just concerned that it's wasting money as I don't have much control over this. Under each immersion heater panel, there's a little dial from 1 to 5 which I assume is temperature control but there doesn't seem to be any timer of any sort there.

Thirdly, our tariff is Scottish Power's Comfort Plus Control which I don't understand how it works exactly. There are two meters: one for lights and sockets costing roughly 17p p/kw, the other is for the heaters and immersion heaters, about 15p p/kw.

If we were looking to move supplier, we would need to change meters as nobody else works with the current meter type. Does that cost a lot to do?

I have read that having an Economic 7 meter would benefit us using the immersion heater as it's cheaper during the night to heat the water but seeing as we are looking to get rid of our storage heaters would it be better getting a standard meter put in instead?

Any help would be appreciated. let me know if you need more information and I will do my best to provide it.

renegadefm

Scottish Powers are one of the most expencive out there. £130 is extortionate for a 2 bed flat.

Bulb is the cheapest quote I just had. And I am looking to switch from EDF.

renegadefm

I have economy 7 night storage heaters but only upstairs now. We find we need instant heat in the evenings. So I ripped out the night stores downstairs. EDF do a smart meter for that and it doesn't cost anything to switch but I wouldnt recommend EDF. I got threads about my own experience with them.

[Deleted User]

Hi,


have you got usage figures for both meters, start - now and dates?



Take daily readings about same time each day to try to identify any spike.


By switching water heater on/off every three days means water has to boil up from nearly cold again.

matelodave

Despite the comments above, you have a complex or restricted tariff set up which doesn't easily convert direct to E7 nor even a single rate tariff.
This is an ongoing problem with a lot of restricted metering tariffs that are still around, especially in Scotland. Many consumers are being left with expensive tariffs but are unable to do much about about it.

The energy companies that provide these sort of tariffs and metering systems don't want to continue with them but don't seem to want to do much about helping their customers convert either.

Just search on line for info and the this is the sort of reply that comes up

from the Scottish Power Forum

"They can and have refused to change my meter, despite me getting my local MP involved. It has been an awful experience. I moved to my flat last August. The heating is all electric. I replaced my storage heaters with modern Dimplex Quantum storage heaters and my flat was freezing in winter. I contacted Dimplex and was advised that the Comfort plus tariff is not compatable with my new heaters due to Scottish Power controlling my heating circuit through their Weathercall system. I asked if the Weathercall option could be switched off as they were refusing to change the meter but they refused to do that. My heaters will not work intelligently as I now have to charge them at 25 degrees. Some nights I was only getting 3 hours of stored electricity and some nights 6. I have never had a full charge of 7 hours which is what is required for them to operate intelligently. My winter bills were through the roof. I am so pleased that I found another supplier to take my on with a complex meter. Scottish Power's customer service has been appalling as none of the call centre staff understand the metering arrangement."

Here is some more info - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Energy/Energy%20Consultation%20responses/Restricted%20Meter%20Good%20Practice%20Guide.pdf

You need to speak to the Scottish Power restricted metering team, there's no point in trying to discuss it with the normal "help" desk. If all else fails try having a word with the CAB who might be able to help.

In the end you might need to get an electrician to change some wiring and then request that SP change your meters, but they may well require you to pay for the swap.

Do a forum search on "restricted meters" and you'll see that there are lots of people in the same situation with both SP and several other suppliers with similar metering systems but there doesn't seem to be a satisfactory conclusion.

Cardew

fraserw91 wrote: »

If we were looking to move supplier, we would need to change meters as nobody else works with the current meter type. Does that cost a lot to do?

I have read that having an Economic 7 meter would benefit us using the immersion heater as it's cheaper during the night to heat the water but seeing as we are looking to get rid of our storage heaters would it be better getting a standard meter put in instead?

.

Welcome to the forum.


We have had many queries over the years about Scottish 'Legacy' tariffs.


Unfortunately it is not always a simple case of changing the meters and it might mean changes to the internal wiring within the flat. You would need to get an electrician to check, or ask neighbours within the block of flats to see if they have any knowledge.


Without doubt storage heating, for all its drawbacks, is the cheapest way to heat an all electric property. If you can get 'proper' Economy 7 bear in mind that all consumption in the 7 hours off-peak is at the cheap rate, but you have to pick you tariff very carefully. 17p and 15p/kWh is crazy.


Post crossed with the one above.

PurpleViking

fraserw91 wrote: »

Hello.

I need some advice on electric heating, water, and tariffs.

My wife and I moved into a two-bedroom flat that is all-electric powered and I am looking to work out how I could save money on electric bills, as it looks like it could be about £130 for one month.

First of all, we have storage heaters. There are three storage heaters in the flat (living room, hall, and kitchen) and two instant heaters in the two bedrooms.

Just now, only the living room gets used. This is slightly different from the other two. This doesn't have an input and output, it just has a dial that says room temperature with 1 to 5. I have it on around 2 and makes the room relatively warm in the morning and lasts till the evening.

We don't like the storage heaters and would prefer to get these replaced with heaters that we can get instant heat whenever we want but I have read that these could be more expensive to run but I guess that would depend on how long we have them on for and how warm we have them. We would probably buy ones that have a timer on them so that we can control when the heat comes on.

Secondly, our water is heated with immersion heaters which seems to only heat up during the night. There are two of these on the big tank with two switches. I believe the one at the bottom is the main heater and the top is a boost heater.

Just now I only turn on the main heater and let it heat overnight. The water is hot the next morning and stays hot for 2-3 days, depending on water usage. I'm just concerned that it's wasting money as I don't have much control over this. Under each immersion heater panel, there's a little dial from 1 to 5 which I assume is temperature control but there doesn't seem to be any timer of any sort there.

Thirdly, our tariff is Scottish Power's Comfort Plus Control which I don't understand how it works exactly. There are two meters: one for lights and sockets costing roughly 17p p/kw, the other is for the heaters and immersion heaters, about 15p p/kw.

If we were looking to move supplier, we would need to change meters as nobody else works with the current meter type. Does that cost a lot to do?

I have read that having an Economic 7 meter would benefit us using the immersion heater as it's cheaper during the night to heat the water but seeing as we are looking to get rid of our storage heaters would it be better getting a standard meter put in instead?

Any help would be appreciated. let me know if you need more information and I will do my best to provide it.

I would advise you to contact your supplier and get them to explain your current metering and tariff to you.

It really is hard to envisage how you have looked at changing it when you do not even understand it.

Of course, if you decide to change your heating system, that itself is often a reason to look at alternative tariffs.
The tariff you are currently on is designed for those with storeage heaters, and is exclusively in an area of Scotland where mains gas is often not available.

Lots of threads on here about changing storage heaters designed to maximum use of cheap rate overnight electricity, to electric heaters that use peak rate electricity, so I won't reiterate it here.

PurpleViking

renegadefm wrote: »

Scottish Powers are one of the most expencive out there. ...

On the other hand, they can also be said to be the cheapest for the OP

Be_Happy

I'm on SP comfort plus control and find it very easy to understand and cheap to run. A lot depends on good insulation.

I have a one bedroom flat with 1 large storage heater in the living room, a small one in the bedroom (never have to switch on) and wall convector heaters in the kitchen and bathroom (both never needed to have on). Living room and bedroom are both fairly large - 21ft by 10 ft each. Kitchen and bathroom small.

My monthly DD is set for £40 and I am running in credit even in winter. I was lucky, however, to get a 3 year fix in 2018, so will expect an increase in 2021. Rates are SC of 25p, Standard rate of 16p and control rate of 9p (all incl VAT). Neighbours are paying around £60 per month.

System is easy to understand. One 'control rate' meter for anything that heats air or water (all things on this meter are wired in at sockets). Standard rate meter for everything else in the house. Both meters run for 24 hours. So if I need a boost of heat in the evening I can switch on the 'boost' of the storage heater or switch on the convector of my focal point electric fire at the cheap rate. The storage heaters and the hot water boiler are radio time controlled by Scottish power - something like 10 hours for the storage heaters and 4 hours nightly for the water boiler.

I keep a weekly check on the usage and use around 4 units daily for the boiler (all year) with an extra 5 units daily for the storage heater in mid winter on the control rate meter, plus around 4 units daily on the standard rate meter.

Have seen neighbours having problems where they have relocated storage heater unknowingly on to standard rate socket, or made other changes to wiring. Also problems where the readings for the 2 meters have been accidentally transposed.

NOTE there is another form of SP Comfortplus called Comfortplus White Meter, which has 3 rates. This has two meters one cheap rate running 24 hours for all heating and hot water time controlled as before, but the second meter has a day and night rate for everything running on the same basis as Economy 7 ie one rate for day use and a cheaper rate for night use.