Can you switch electricity supplier on a dual tariff meter?

rebeccaderrington

My query is for a friend of mine who lives in a small 2 bedroom bungalow.with 3 storage heaters which are the only source of heating apart from an open fire and back boiler for a water heater.  They have lived in that property since the late 1950's and it has a very complicated meter situation which I think would make it very difficult to switch? There is one meter and two tariffs with two feeds and two readings - Economy 7 and something called Super Tariff -  which originated with Northern Electric or its predecessor but recently moved from Npower to Eon with all sorts of confusion and increase in costs to include a standing charge on both tariffs with Eon next now.  It was probably the most economical system in the day but now seems very outdated. Bill was £500 for the quarter from Dec 2020 to Feb 2021 and £384 for following quarter to May 2021.

We are currently waiting for a better tariff offer from Eon Next but not overly impressed with the advisers so far.

I would really appreciate some advice on what would be the best option now, but comparison websites don't seem to be compatible. Many thanks.

Gerry1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6274290/electricity-meters

You can certainly have a single rate tariff with an E7 meter.  Many companies offer this, they just charge the same rate for each register, but a few such as Bulb are awkward and won't play ball.

Probably the best solution would be to get rid of the non-E7 meter and move the heating circuits to the 5th terminal output on the E7 meter.  Then add another storage heater or two if it gets chilly in the evenings (or top up occasionally with a convector at day rates) : the legacy tariffs were designed around primitive storage heaters which were of lower capacity than today's ones.

Having just the E7 meter and tariff would then allow a switch to the supplier of their choice.