How best to switch from prepayment electricity meter to credit meter

macman

If he has NSH's then he simply needs an E7 credit meter, rather than a single rate meter, whoever you spoke to is talking nonsense. Spark, aka 'the landlord's friend' have history with this sort of misinformation and obstruction. Much better to switch away from Spark on the PPM first, as they are very expensive anyway, as they specialise in gullible tenants and offer bungs to LL's and LA's.

reheat

macman said:

If he has NSH's then he simply needs an E7 credit meter, rather than a single rate meter, whoever you spoke to is talking nonsense. Spark, aka 'the landlord's friend' have history with this sort of misinformation and obstruction. Much better to switch away from Spark on the PPM first, as they are very expensive anyway, as they specialise in gullible tenants and offer bungs to LL's and LA's.

Did wonder that.

Seen this thread ...

 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3373714/changing-electricity-meter-tariff-means-storage-heater-hot-water-may-not-work

... which seems to suggest there might be an issue for properties having a separate night storage circuit, wired into the one E7 meter. My son's house is wired this way, two sets of tails out of the one meter, heaters only coming on during the night rate. But surely there must be credit E7 smart meters designed to cope with the same twin-output wiring arrangement - it's hardly unusual.

bucksbloke

My aunt was on prepayment. I signed her up to Octopus on a direct debit plan and they sent someone out to change the meter automatically.

Girlisgettingthere

reheat said:

Girlisgettingthere said:

@reheat I work for an energy company. Your son can switch to any supplier he wishes with his prepayment meter and once on supply with them can arrange a credit meter straight away. They cannot arrange the appointment to change the meter until the supply starts with them. Changing to another supplier takes around 18-21days. I hope this helps

That's great! In which case you may know the answer to this: My son tells me that his current supplier, Spark Energy, said they would change his meter for free, but they can't do it because of him having night storage heaters. We can't fathom the logic of this - is it legit do you think? Is there some technical issue that makes it a problem, possibly even for a future supplier?

No that's not correct he can have a credit meter equivalent of economy 7 rather than ppm. Thats very strange. I would recommend he moves to another supplier first then once suplly is switched to arrange an appointment for a credit meter. Regardless of storage heaters he can have the same type of meter as a credit meter. 

reheat

Girlisgettingthere said:

No that's not correct he can have a credit meter equivalent of economy 7 rather than ppm. Thats very strange. I would recommend he moves to another supplier first then once suplly is switched to arrange an appointment for a credit meter. Regardless of storage heaters he can have the same type of meter as a credit meter. 

There is this MSE thread which suggests that maybe not all suppliers have access yet to the right meters?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/smart-meters/

For instance in the table it says that British Gas could not supply if you have E7 and NSHs. I get the impression that as Smart meters are being rolled out, the ones with two supply outputs (the extra one being so the meter can control the heating-only supply) are not yet available from all suppliers. 

See the table "Will my energy supplier install a smart meter for me now?" 2/3 down the page.