Help! I'm being fleeced by Npower - SuperTariff Storage Heating

Ben27_9

Hello,

Just looking for some advice here as over the past few years my electricity bills have shot up due to npowers price changes and I can't seem to get a straight answer from them.

I live in a block of flats in the North East of England and we have only an electricity supply so rely on electricity to charge up storage heaters and a water heater. The way the billing works is I have a meter with 4 readings (two electricity supply numbers - 2MPANS). The day and night run on a standard e7 rate I believe - 19p per KWh during the day and 10.1 per kwh at night.

The heating then has 2 seperate 'heat' readings on the meter which is the supertarrif, one which never moves. The heaters charge up during the night, and also get a boost during the afternoon. Now, when I moved in around 5 years ago npower were charging around 7p per kwh for heat, so they weren't too expensive to run. The problem is that over the past few years, and ironically around the time the price cap was introduced, this rate has now steadily risen to the point where I am being charged of 15.9p per kwh (the standard npower rate of eletricity!), meaning my heating bills have risen by more than 125% in the space of two years. I'm currently paying £1200 a year to heat a 1 bedroom flat  to the minimal level of comfort which seems astronomical.

My question is - is there anything I can do about this?  I have called npower customer service who seem to have no idea about complex metering, even if you ask to be put through to the dedicated non standard meter team. My standard e7 tariff that runs alongside the supertarrif during the night is 10.1p per kwh but it gets no use during the night as my storage heaters go through the 'heat' reading on the meter. Is it possible for me to utilise my storage heaters on an e7 tariff, i'm assuming I would need to pay npower to fit a new meter to do this? Would everyting need to be re-wired? I also believe i have the option to switch supplier to a single tariff but this wouldn't save much as my heaters would still be charging at an expensive rate + I may end up having to pay two standing charges.

Thanks for any advice in advance

Hasbeen

Is your situation similar to this thread? Have a read.

2 electricity supply numbers ...one meter — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Gerry1

There are many, many existing threads about this, search the forum for terms such as E10, Economy10, White Meter, Restricted Hours Tariffs, THTC, "Comfort Plus White Meter (and similar DTS experiences)" etc.

The problem is that your NSHs may be under dimensioned by today's standards and may be cool by the afternoon.  On E7 you might have to top up at expensive day rates, add an extra NSH or two or get a bigger one.  You could try switching the existing ones off manually after seven hours charging to see how they'd behave on E7.

Restricted Meter Good Practice Guide.pdf

Ben27_9

Thank you for the replies, they have already been very helpful. I have one new style NSH and two old ones, I wouldn't be averse to replacing theother two if it meant I could actually charge them up at a reasonable rate. What is clear is that I need to get off this supertariff charge of 16p per kwh as it is not financially sustainable.

Hasbeen

Ben27_9 said:

Thank you for the replies, they have already been very helpful. I have one new style NSH and two old ones, I wouldn't be averse to replacing theother two if it meant I could actually charge them up at a reasonable rate. What is clear is that I need to get off this supertariff charge of 16p per kwh as it is not financially sustainable.

As per Gerry1 suggestion looking / researching  a more advanced type NSH would be a start.

Many people enthuse about the newer Dimplex Quantum type? Quantum Heater | Dimplex   But look around.

Pretty sure most of what you have is covered in the linked thread

But electric heating is expensive. 

Gerry1

Ben27_9 said:

My standard e7 tariff that runs alongside the supertarrif during the night is 10.1p per kwh but it gets no use during the night as my storage heaters go through the 'heat' reading on the meter. Is it possible for me to utilise my storage heaters on an e7 tariff, i'm assuming I would need to pay npower to fit a new meter to do this?

Don't understand that - if you really do have an E7 tariff then by definition you must already have an E7 meter.  If so, it would be quite straightforward to connect your NSHs and immersion heaters to the outputs from the E7 meter to see how you get on.  That would be quite simple, just an electrician's job.

However, as the NSHs aren't on the E7 meter then what is connected to it?  If it doesn't clock up at night then what is clocking up only during the day?

Ben27_9

Gerry1 said:

Ben27_9 said:

My standard e7 tariff that runs alongside the supertarrif during the night is 10.1p per kwh but it gets no use during the night as my storage heaters go through the 'heat' reading on the meter. Is it possible for me to utilise my storage heaters on an e7 tariff, i'm assuming I would need to pay npower to fit a new meter to do this?

Don't understand that - if you really do have an E7 tariff then by definition you must already have an E7 meter.  If so, it would be quite straightforward to connect your NSHs and immersion heaters to the outputs from the E7 meter to see how you get on.  That would be quite simple, just an electrician's job.

However, as the NSHs aren't on the E7 meter then what is connected to it?  If it doesn't clock up at night then what is clocking up only during the day?

Sorry for the confusion, apologies if I have used the wrong terminology , I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this. I have a non standard meter. It has 4 readings, a day rate and a night rate which all my appliances tv etc go through. The night number goes up extremely slowly as obviously i'm asleep during the night and not using these.
I then have 2 other readings on my meter for heat, one which goes up during the night when the heaters  + water tank are charged and also during the boost they get every afternoon. The other doesn't move at all.

I have attached the details from my bill, hopefully this helps.

danrv

Another thread here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/339266/npower-super-tariff-confusion-please-help

So the ‘heat’ part of the meter is on the single rate SuperTariff together with the water immersion.
Looks like it all needs swapping around although the 
SuperTariff is only active for 5 hrs at night and 2 during the day.

deadwoodftuo

I have electric storage heating with Super Tariff (no gas at all) if any member has been able to transfer to a company that will continue to offer Super Tariff please give details. I have a Horstmann meter (one meter) giving heat day and night readings plus a set of zero's = heat other. I have tried a few companies although not for a while as they come back with excuses such as "we are not set up for Super Tariff". They would provide Economy 7 which is very wasteful (Iv'e had both E7 and S T) there is a world of difference in consumption. Who puts their heating on all night - the system is archaic. The increases that Ben27_9 commented on in December are designed to totally get rid of split time electric heating tariffs. Energy suppliers would like to get rid of electric heating altogether as unlike gas heating there is virtually zero maintenance needed. British Gas alone around 2015 had an annual income of £340 million from domestic maintenance contracts. People feel compelled to have a contract and rightly so, gas is a killer.  You would never know that clean electric is supposed to be the future of energy with the attitude energy companies have to electric heating.  Aside from electric heating anyone buying a car that needs to have the batteries charged is going to be hammered on pricing eventually, as with home electricity the government will allow the energy suppliers to do as they like under the ruling that prices come under a "commercial decision". 
The British public have been treated with contempt by successive governments in continuing to allow the commercial decision which also renders Ofgem useless, the price cap increases for super tariff are staggering in their scale. Has anyone on Super Tariff noticed how on October the 1st when a reduction was introduced under the price cap while their Heat charges increased nearly 13% while the Heat charges (and overnight) on Economy 7 were static. The difference in Heat charges between Super Tariff and E 7 is now nearly 64% . I told you the energy companies were looking to smash split time electric heating, npower is leading the way courtesy of HMG !

stewie_griffin

If you want to keep a tariff/meter with split off peak times then why don't you get an Economy 10 meter?

Ben27_9

Deadwood - I have been able to switch from npower to EDF. They offered me rates of 18p per kwh during the day and 10p for night and also for heat. My heating also gets a boost in the afternoon and they confirmed I would still pay the 10p per kwh for this also. They have a complex metering team who I rang and seemed quite knowledgeable - although maybe my expectations are that low from years of dealing with npower!