Help Please With Night Storage Heaters, Related Meters And Huge Electricity Bills

thorganby

nPower said:

Hello char58, 
It sounds like you have what we call a complex metering site or a multi mpan site where you have two different supplies, one for your day/night rates and the other for your heating. If we installed an economy 7 meter you may lose access to your heating, this is why we recommend getting in a private electrician to ensure your heating is wired to the E7 meter. This responsibility falls with the account holder and not the supplier and does come at a cost. If you have an immersion heater this would run on the cheaper heat rates at all times. Switching to an economy 7 meter may be more costly in the long term. 

If you wish for us to look into your usage please get in touch with us using the contact details on our page and our team will be happy to assist you. 

Thanks
Steven 

Yet more incorrect so called advice from a so called customer service rep who really should not be posting about things that they don't understand.

If the complex metering dual mpan set up is removed and a standard E7 meter with contactor is fitted, the meter fitter would simply connect the customers existing cables to the new meter.

No private electrician is required if this legacy metering set up is removed and it is replaced by a standard E7 meter.

Your new owner eon has done this for their customers at no cost, so why is npower giving incorrect information to their customers!

Switching to an E7 meter would not be more costly long term and would definitely save the customer money.

Another similar thread here where npower have badly let their customers down.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6187083/off-peak-electricity-price-increase/p1

Shocking customer service!

hozza94

And most complex meter swap to E7 meter won't actually requires any electrician input. 
As long as the meter engineer brings the right 5-port meter, then they should be able to install them without too much problem, but knowing it's nPower they would probably screw it all up! 

macman

NSH's are often installed on a separate board to the original CU, but, assuming this is adjacent to the original CU, it's very little more work involved for the meter change team. People tend to get scared off when they are told that all their heating circuits will need 'rewiring'. 
All that is really necessary for the rep to make clear is that any work that is needed downstream of the meter is the responsibility of the customer, and that they can't say what that might be without sight of the installation.

Gerry1

nPower said:

If you have an immersion heater this would run on the cheaper heat rates at all times. Switching to an economy 7 meter may be more costly in the long term. 

Thanks
Steven 

Unbelievably bad advice from nPower.  It may be astounding ignorance because of lack of training and understanding, or it may be nPower's policy to extract as much money as possible from customers locked into legacy meter arrangements, but either way it's completely unacceptable.

Talldave

We've not really got any further on whether it's an immersion heater cranking up the night usage with NSH off? I do wonder if the immersion is powered for 8 hours gently bringing the tank to the boil? If so, it might be worth spending on an electrician to put some form of time control on it, particularly if it receives daytime top ups from solar. Also, check tank insulation. 

Switching to E7 sounds like a no-brainer, urgently. Even a non-E7 tariff from Neon Reef would show significant savings.

tim_p

Gerry1 said:

nPower said:

If you have an immersion heater this would run on the cheaper heat rates at all times. Switching to an economy 7 meter may be more costly in the long term. 

Thanks
Steven 

Unbelievably bad advice from nPower.  It may be astounding ignorance because of lack of training and understanding, or it may be nPower's policy to extract as much money as possible from customers locked into legacy meter arrangements, but either way it's completely unacceptable.

You’d like to think that a representative of a major company, posting on a popular (shouldn’t make a difference really!) forum would have proper knowledge of the basics. Someone’s boss needs a word in their ear as it’s simply not good enough. 

hozza94

nPower was so bad, I left them while still on a complex meter, and got my E7 smart meter installed within 3 months of leaving...

Be_Happy

Allthough what the nPower rep says is very confusing.  I think he is trying to explain that in Comfortplus, etc, the heating is controlled by a radio time switch direct from the supplier, so you would lose this and have to fit an off peak time switch as well as changing wiring.   As far as the 'all times' water heating is concerned, this is correct with Comfortplus.  All heating and hot water fitted to the control circuit is at a cheaper rate 24 hours a day.  You can boost a storage heater, run electric heaters or boost your water heater at any time on the cheap rate.  You would lose this on E7.

The deciding point on changing to E7 is on the tariff rates available.

Gerry1

Be_Happy said:

All heating and hot water fitted to the control circuit is at a cheaper rate 24 hours a day.  You can boost a storage heater, run electric heaters or boost your water heater at any time on the cheap rate.  You would lose this on E7.
The deciding point on changing to E7 is on the tariff rates available.

The existing so-called cheap rate is 16p/kWh which is likely to be more than the single rate of a competitive supplier, so it's not worth having.  The OP has Dimplex Quantum which normally operate with both a timed circuit and a 24h circuit.  If that's what the OP has then minimal wiring changes should be needed, it's just a case of connecting the heating circuit to the E7 cheap rate port.  This should be part of the meter change, or low cost if nPower won't play ball.  In any case, I understand that Quantums can be programmed to work on a 24h circuit but charge up only at E7 cheap rate times, so it's not a problem.  They should be fine unless the OP has bought ones without sufficient capacity to last into the evening from a seven hour charge.  If necessary, they can give a boost if they get cold in the late afternoon or evening although at E7 daytime rates. But as the restricted meter rate is so expensive, it won't be worse than the present situation.

Much the same probably applies to the water heating.  If there's only one circuit it may need to be connected to a 24h supply after the E7 meter is installed and a local timer fitted, but that's relatively low cost.

To summarise, nPower's advice has been very poor and seems to have been taken from an inappropriate script rather than being thought through and fully understood.  The necessary changeover work for optimum benefit should be provided free of charge by nPower or at relatively low cost by the OP's electrician.  Staying with restricted meters is not a cost effective option.

macman

Gerry1 has nailed it. A (sic) 'cheap' rate that is higher than a single rate meter would charge, (average in the UK around 14p),  is beyond pointless. You'd be better off just reverting to a single rate meter, wire everything through that, and be able to use heating or DHW at whatever time of day you wanted.