Two electricity meters and storage heaters in Scotland

DarTal1

Hello! 

I am having some issues and am hoping somebody could help me. I've done a lot of research and have learned a lot but am still not fully sure what my best options are and exactly what is going on. I have just moved into a new flat which I am renting, where the heating is supplied by one storage heater in the living room (there are two more in the flat but for whatever reason they do not turn on.)  The supply is currently through EDF and looking at how much my meter readings have risen in the week since I moved in, I think I'm in for an expensive bill, so I've been looking at what I can do.

I have two electricity meters with two separate MPANs. One is a Horstmann radio telemeter series 2a with an SSE label (MPAN 1716075776298, number on meter H00C17109) and the other is a much older looking "English Electric" meter (MPAN 1726075776294, number on meter 7411577). Both meter readings are rising, but the English Electric meter is rising much  slower (around 2kWh per day) than the Horstmann which is eating up around 15 kWh per day. I'm living alone and am not using many appliances right now, so I can only guess that the one storage heater I have is using most of that. I'm going away for a day so will turn it off and see what happens with the meters.

I am looking to find out which energy suppliers could accommodate a well priced tariff for this kind of set up. The landlord said that the system is a "standard plus white meter" but they don't seem to know about what is going on with the circuitry so I can't comment at the moment about whether or not the heater is wired through a separate circuit than the lighting and other electrical points, though from what I've read, I expect it to be the case with this kind of set up, unless it was rewired at some point. I will be spending most of my time at home working on my computer and gaming in the evenings.

I tried to transfer to Bulb before doing much research, but after speaking to a CSA, they advised that it may not be the best financial decision to switch to them. I think my options are to try to find a provider that can give me day and night charges with my current set up, or to find a provider that would switch me to a new smart meter and provide something like an economy 7 set up. I began reading about 5-terminal SMETS2 smart meters but eventually got so bogged down I wanted to ask for help. Any suggestions or comments much appreciated, thank you. I can provide photos of meters if needed.

As a side note, I would also really like to know when my storage heater is set to turn on and off. It's fairly warm at all times so I cannot tell. Is there a way to check this?

Neil_Jones

The ""horstmann radio telemeter series 2a" is a devise that will either send a signal to your meter at a certain time to tell it to switch to a different recording rate and/or switch a load to power say night storage heaters."  This implies its most likely Economy 10.

Economy 10 is similar to Economy 7 in which you get cheaper unit rates for seven hours of the day, but unlike Economy 7 (where the 7 hour block is usually anywhere between 11:30pm-8am), Economy 10 is 10 hrs worth dotted throughout the day, typically three hours in the afternoon (somewhere around 1pm), evening (around 8pm) and morning (typically 4am), but these tariffs aren't particularly competitive, and all electricity flats/apartments/houses are going to cost an absolute fortune to run unfortunately regardless of what tariff you're on.

Be_Happy

When your landlord says Standard Plus White Meter, he probably means Comfort Plus White Meter and you'll see various threads on this.  The reason your other two heaters are not working is probably that the thermostat is telling them it is warm enough and they are not needed.  I live in Scotland and don't need to switch on my storage heaters yet, if I did, I would have to turn the input settings up to full before they took in any heat.

EDF do have a tariff for these meters, when I moved in they offered to supply me but I chose to stay with Scottish Power to avoid any problems.

jbuchanangb

I hope you read both meters on the day you moved in and called EDF to open an account with them. If not do so immediately, so that you have a baseline to start from. As them to tell you the name of the tariff, the daily standing charges, and the unit rate on each meter. Make sure you know whether the rates quoted are inclusive or exclusive of VAT. Keep weekly or monthly records of the meter readings and notify EDF at least monthly. Then you can do some more research on how best to make use of your set up, whether any other energy supplier can offer you a suitable tariff.