Storage Heater Meter

MelmoJ

Our house used to have storage heaters but now we've changed them to modern, electric radiators (we don't have central heating and can't afford to have it installed).

Our electric meter has day/night tariffs/readings.  Would a smart meter and a different tariff help now that we don't have storage heaters?

Our DD has done from £213 to £415!

MattMattMattUK

MelmoJ said:

Our house used to have storage heaters but now we've changed them to modern, electric radiators (we don't have central heating and can't afford to have it installed).

Our electric meter has day/night tariffs/readings.  Would a smart meter and a different tariff help now that we don't have storage heaters?

Our DD has done from £213 to £415!

Yes, if you had day/night rates you were probably on Economy 7, which has lower night rates but higher date rates, this is of benefit when you have storage heaters and heat water at night, but if you are running your heating during the day as you no longer have storage heaters this would likely cost you considerably more. 

Robin9

MelmoJ said:

Our house used to have storage heaters but now we've changed them to modern, electric radiators (we don't have central heating and can't afford to have it installed).

Our electric meter has day/night tariffs/readings.  Would a smart meter and a different tariff help now that we don't have storage heaters?

Our DD has done from £213 to £415!

I think this is an "why did you get rid of the storage heaters"    - and are the modern ones filled with magic dust or snake oil ?  And yes daytime heating will cost your more

Yes change to a single tariff - some suppliers will combine the two readings without changing the meters.

Are you on E7 or E10 ?


PS A smart meter by itself won't save you money  but it will help knowing where the energy is being used

Northern_Wanderer

EDIT what I posted seems to no longer apply as guidance has changed for the good it seems! Thanks to @Gerry1 once again! But it was a real PITA before, I can assure you.

If you were on THTC (Total Heating Total Control (sic)) there may be electrician costs to have the consumer unit wiring moved to the single rate meter. Some old skool meter changers will do it for you as part of a meter change/ removal  but SSE told me to get an electrician. I requested an SSE inspection report to tell me exactly what was required by an electrician, luckily I got an old skool guy and he said he would look out for the job and pick it up. I was told back then I'd have to wait about 6 months for THTC meter removal (they were concentrating on fitting smart meters) and had to complain, I told them no way was I going to pay THTC extortionate rates for another 6 months after installing gas CH.

It may or may not be cheaper for you on single rate....I'm sure someone here will know though.

Gerry1

Sadly you've made a massive mistake: you've chosen the most expensive form of heating it's possible to have.  Almost certainly you need to switch to the capped single rate, just do the sums.

@Northern_Wanderer The OP doesn't need a meter change (and they don't have to pay two standing charges).

Restricted Meter Good Practice Guide

Victory: 2 MPANs but one SC

Ofgem: RHT must offer single rate

pochase

What about hot water? I assume you are using an immersion heater? How long are you using it every night?

Are there other things you do at night, e.g. dish washer, washing machine or tumble dryer?

What is the current day/night use, and what are the rates.

I am not so sure you can just say you are saving money with a single tariff without really going into more detail here. 

Northern_Wanderer

Gerry1 said:

@Northern_Wanderer The OP doesn't need a meter change (and they don't have to pay two standing charges).

No posts on this thread refer to illegal double SC charges so I don't know why you have mentioned it.

Thanks though Gerry, I see things may have moved on in metering terms that I wasn't aware of...I clearly still have a trigger when it comes to THTC and extortionate rates which were certainly made worse when the price cap was introduced.

Gerry1

Northern_Wanderer said:

Gerry1 said:

@Northern_Wanderer The OP doesn't need a meter change (and they don't have to pay two standing charges).

No posts on this thread refer to illegal double SC charges so I don't know why you have mentioned it.

It's just general factual information which may be relevant to the OP and may be relevant to other readers.

What possible harm is there in that??

Northern_Wanderer

Gerry1 said:

It's just general factual information which may be relevant to the OP and may be relevant to other readers.

What possible harm is there in that??

It might confuse people even more? I do appreciate your fountain of knowledge however.

Gerry1

Northern_Wanderer said:

Gerry1 said:

It's just general factual information which may be relevant to the OP and may be relevant to other readers.

What possible harm is there in that??

It might confuse people even more? I do appreciate your fountain of knowledge however.

I'm genuinely confused by your reference about having to re-wire to get single rate with RHT meters.  The info to which I linked suggests that suppliers only need to add up the readings from all the registers and bill the total at the single rate: I haven't seen any references to moving meter tails etc.  (I doubt that there are many suppliers with fewer than 50,00 customers now.)

gld73

I'm in a similar situation to the OP. Got new electric heating through the house (there had only been 2 old storage heaters downstairs and the house was rarely warm when I wanted it to be warm).

I've tried to change to a smart meter several times as SSE kept sending me the info with my bills - but whenever I tried, they saw I had 2 meters and said they couldn't do it. The same thing happened when I tried switching to other suppliers, they didn't want to deal with the 2 meters (apparently it's not a normal Economy 7 or Economy 10 set up). I asked the electrician who did the work for the heaters if it could just all be done to 1 meter and he said it needed the provider (SSE) to deal with it. 

No gas at the house, and I don't use the immersion heater as the shower is electric and it's not worth heating a tank of water to just wash a few plates (might as well just fill the kettle a bit more). 

It's pointless having 2 meters when one of them was just for the immersion heater and storage heaters and is now redundant. From the wording of the OP's post though, sounds like they might have just 1 meter that does different day/night readings, so hopefully they'll have more luck than me if they do try and change. 

(No point in telling the OP they were wrong to get rid of the storage heaters; if they were as ancient and poorly performing as mine, it doesn't matter how cheap they are to run if they don't actually heat the house!)