Related MPANS meter switch

Duckest

Hi, my elderly mother has a Related MPANS meter (1 meter with 3 supply points). She has electricity only and heats the house with storage heaters. She pays sky-high rates as the company she's with (Bulb) don't offer a 2-rate tariff, so she can't get a different energy rate for day and night. So I'm looking to get her meter changed to a 2-rate meter. 

Should I get Bulb to change the meter, then switch supplier, or will a new supplier do this for free at the point of switching? 

Also, is there such a thing as a 2nd Generation Smart meter that does a 2-rate tariff? If so which supplier could I contact to get this please? 

Would really value help, I've been trying to sort this for months and don't know how to resolve this for her. Thank you     

m-holland

Won't be that easy as the storage heaters (and possibly water heater), will need rewired at the consumer unit first.

As for trying to sort this for months, it took me years with Scottish Power to get their billing system sorted with it

yelias

Duckest said:

Hi, my elderly mother has a Related MPANS meter (1 meter with 3 supply points). She has electricity only and heats the house with storage heaters. She pays sky-high rates as the company she's with (Bulb) don't offer a 2-rate tariff, so she can't get a different energy rate for day and night. So I'm looking to get her meter changed to a 2-rate meter. 

Should I get Bulb to change the meter, then switch supplier, or will a new supplier do this for free at the point of switching? 

Also, is there such a thing as a 2nd Generation Smart meter that does a 2-rate tariff? If so which supplier could I contact to get this please? 

Would really value help, I've been trying to sort this for months and don't know how to resolve this for her. Thank you     

Welcome back to MSE @Duckest - your first post in almost a decade it would appear.

Unfortunately, what you have posted is simply not true.

Bulb only offer a 2 rate tariff for those with suitable metering i.e.Economy 7
(Those with a standard single rate meter are obviously given a single rate tariff)

Unfortunately, the metering your elderly mother has is not Economy 7. The metering she has is designed for a legacy tariff that only the legacy electricity supplier is obligated to support, but even then the legacy suppliers that supplied this type of metering are gradually withdrawing their legacy tariffs to the few remaining customers still on them. They all have specialist teams to assist those involved.

Unfortunately, Bulb is not the legacy electricity supplier, and so she is effectively now on her own to sort this out.

There are lots of threads on this forum about this situation, although most involve those still supplied by their legacy supplier.
Don't bother trying to switch back to the legacy supplier, as they are under no obligation to accept back those with such metering.

First of all, she will need to employ a competent electrician to sort out the house wiring to support the type of metering she intends to request. From your post, it would appear she intends to opt for Economy 7 metering.

She may also need to upgrade her current heating system, as the origional storage heaters installed with a legacy metering system would have been sized to operate on more than just recharging in one 7 hour period overnight. If the electrican cannot assist with this (probably not) she will need to employ a competant home heating expert to advise.

Yes, there are smart meters (SMETS2) that support Economy 7.

Only the current supplier to the property can arrange for a change of meter. A charge will probably apply. (The first installation of a smart meter at the supply address will not be charged for)

QrizB

Duckest said:

Also, is there such a thing as a 2nd Generation Smart meter that does a 2-rate tariff? If so which supplier could I contact to get this please?

As yelias says, changing your mother's metering arrangements will involve an electrician to re-configure her consumer units.

All smart meters support multiple-rate metering. If your mother is persevering with storage heaters she may need a five-terminal smart meter; these are less common but are available.

However, E7 tariffs aren't always the best bet. A number of the cheaper suppliers don't offer E7 tariffs but have a single rate that can work out cheaper.

Try a search at one of these two sites and see what results you get:

https://energycompare.citizensadvice.org.uk/

https://switch.which.co.uk/

If you switch to a smart meter you also open up the option of other time-of use tariffs, like Octopus Go, Green Energy Tide or Logicor Advance. One of these could work out cheaper than E7 or single-rate metering.

stewie_griffin

I've never heard of one meter having 3 MPANs. I used to have a dual MPAN meter that had 5 registers (Heatwise). This was replaced by a 2 rate meter (E10) and no internal rewiring was required. You can get both E7 and E10 SMETS2 meters but not all work with storage heaters. The supplier needs to make sure they fit a 5 port one (I think that's the correct terminology).

MWT

stewie_griffin said:

You can get both E7 and E10 SMETS2 meters but not all work with storage heaters. The supplier needs to make sure they fit a 5 port one (I think that's the correct terminology).

The 5-port meter is the most elegant solution but it is not the only solution, even the standard 4-port SMETS2 meters offer a control signal wire for an external contactor to switch the night rate circuit for storage heaters/immersion heater.