Advice Regarding Scottish Hydro Electric Total Heat Total Control Tariff

waltermcculloch

I moved in my current property in 2013 and it was fitted with electric storage/panel heaters.
Two of the heaters were faulty, so I ended up replacing them with heaters from Fischer Future Heat.  Over the summer they are switched off, in the colder weather they are both set to come on for an hour in the morning between 6am and 7am so the house is warm when I get up for work in the winter, then again from 5pm until 9pm in the evening.  Once each wireless thermostat hits the desired temperature, they switch off.   I still have the original panel heaters in my 2 bedrooms, which I haven't need to use as much since the upstairs was internally insulated.  I also still have the THTC water heater in the kitchen, it automatically boosts throughout the day/night and manual boosts can also be done.  

So the heaters that I am using, aren't being used in the way they were originally intended, i.e. charging up overnight and letting the heat out over the course of the day. 

My 1 year fix on my THTC tariff with SSE is nearly up, I phoned them today and the cheapest they could offer me was the following:
Standard Electricity Rate = 19.65 pence per kwh
THTC Electricity Rate = 15.83 pence per kwh (this has actually gone up by 3.26 pence from the rate I was being charged on my 1 year fix)
Standing Charge = 26.60 pence per day.  

I believe if I tried to switch suppliers away from Scottish Hydro that I would lose the boosts on the water heater, am I correct?
I've recently installed an electric shower in the bathroom, so hot water for baths isn't as much of a consideration now.  

I think I would be better staying with two meters, so that I'm getting a cheaper rate for the bulk of my electricity.  Over the last year around 70% of my usage was through the THTC meter, 

I'm not sure if I am able to switch to another supplier or, if I was able to, what the best tariff would be for me.  
Also, what would be the best way of dealing with hot water?
If anyone can advise me I'd be very grateful.  

Gerry1

waltermcculloch said:

I moved in my current property in 2013 and it was fitted with electric storage/panel heaters.
Two of the heaters were faulty, so I ended up replacing them with heaters from Fischer Future Heat.

AAAaaaaarrrrggghhh !  That's by far the worst thing you could possibly have done.  Storage heaters use a cheaper overnight rate and release heat in the daytime.  Some older ones were too small and not well insulated and would be cool by late afternoon, so they relied on a complicated meters and tariffs tariff with an afternoon and / or evening boost.  The energy companies don't want to maintain these systems so they are making them very expensive to drive customers towards Economy 7.  However, you'd need to increase the amount of heat stored, e.g. adding another storage heater or replacing them with correctly dimensioned well insulated ones such as Dimplex Quantum.

Sadly you've opted for the very expensive magic dust heaters which aren't storage heaters and use expensive daytime electricity.  See the thread for the whole sad story, and see what the ASA and CAP say.

waltermcculloch said:

My 1 year fix on my THTC tariff with SSE is nearly up, I phoned them today and the cheapest they could offer me was the following:
Standard Electricity Rate = 19.65 pence per kwh
THTC Electricity Rate = 15.83 pence per kwh (this has actually gone up by 3.26 pence from the rate I was being charged on my 1 year fix)
Standing Charge = 26.60 pence per day.

That's a cripplingly expensive tariff.  Assuming you can't get gas, in the short term you need to switch to the cheapest single rate tariff you can find, probably 12 - 13p/kWh depending on region.   Also see Citizens Advice and the Ofgem ruling about not needing to change the meter.

Depending whether you own or rent, how long you intend to stay you might be better off with E7 and modern storage heaters or a heat pump, but it will greatly depend on your personal circumstances.

waltermcculloch

Thanks for all the information.
To be honest, the heaters and the tariff I've always found confusing, probably just me though.  
I've worked out some figures using my years usage if I was to go single rate tarrif at 13p/kWh (based the standing charge on the 26.60p per day as don't know what other companies could charge).
Including the standing charge & VAT the difference would be a saving of £419.25.  
Would I need to get SSE to remove the THTC meter or would it be a single rate applied to both meters. 
The reason I ask is that I had dealing with an Fischer Energy, the company didn't know what it was doing and I don't think I received a correct bill the whole year I was with them.  I had to calculate it and detail it all out for them to show them, it shouldn't need to be like that!

Gerry1

With Neon Reef single rate I'm paying 12.11343p per kWh and a daily charge of 13.2825p, but your region may vary. If I've understood the info in the Ofgem/CA links correctly, you could keep the THTC meter and have single rate from SSE. Not sure whether you could then switch to Neon Reef or another company and keep the THTC meter, but at least it would be a start. Note that some comparison sites get confused and don't show Neon Reef if you have a multi-rate meter (NR only do single rate), and of course the CEC doesn't show them at all.

If you go single rate for the time being I suggest you read the meter at times as close as possible to your region's start and finish E7 times, and switch the immersion heater off until the E7 start time. You can then do the sums to see whether an E7 tariff would be cheaper in the summer when the panel radiators are off.

Whatever you do, never run those ghastly Fischer money guzzlers on E7 because the day rate is higher than single rate !

matelodave

Be aware that some supplier will charge you two standing charges if you have two MPAN number which is more than likely if you have two meters.
Have a look at this - although it's not Scottish Hydro it's a similar arrangement and will show how how bluddy awkward some of the energy companies are about complex meters and how some people have tried to get it sorted.
https://community.scottishpower.co.uk/t5/My-Energy/Too-Many-Meters/td-p/175

It's not ever so easy to sort out but it seems that you just have to fully understand what you've got and to be able to argue your case with some knowledge - perhaps the CAB can help as they have also written a piece about it
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Energy/Energy%20Consultation%20responses/Restricted%20Meter%20Good%20Practice%20Guide.pdf but you somehow need to speak to a complex metering team rather than the standard customer service team 

waltermcculloch

Thanks again for all the advice.

Fischer Energy were one of those companies who charged two standing charges!