Off Peak Tariff

JonathanAspro

I have a 7 hour "off peak" tariff which gives me cheaper electric from (Sumer) between 1.00 am and 8,00 am each day. BUT the switch (contactor) which switches off the "off peak" devices (Night store heater and hot water ect..) does not switch at the same time as my tariff changes. It over runs by 9 minutes, so, for 9 minutes, I am paying the high price for things that should be disconnected. 
OK its only 9 minutes, but in these times of "every Penny counts"  it's adding to the problems. The electricity company would not even listen to my complaint. 
Is yours doing the same?

MWT

What type of meter do you have and how is the contactor controlled?

With older mechanical systems you often find the timer is controlling which register is recording the consumption as well, so even if the time is wrong the off-peak use is still recorded on the off-peak register.

Swipe

If your storage heater is on its own off peak circuit you can't be charged at peak rate. Most people's contactors are skewed by a few minutes + or -

Scrounger

JonathanAspro said:

Is yours doing the same?

Yes, but in my case by exactly 30 minutes (5-port smart meter installed 6 months ago by Scottish Power now switched to EDF).  Storage heaters switched by the smart meter ALCS.

They are listening to my complaint but the latest is that it needs an engineer's visit - but the flat is 200 miles away!

I only noticed when I was checking the Bright app on 30-minute billing and noticed a large spike in cost during the last 30 minutes of E7.

My bet is that loads of E7 customers are being overcharged like this (its taken me 6 months to notice and I'm pretty savvy).  Something needs to be done about this.

Scrounger

[Deleted User]

JonathanAspro said:

oI have a 7 hour "off peak" tariff which gives me cheaper electric from (Sumer) between 1.00 am and 8,00 am each day. BUT the switch (contactor) which switches off the "off peak" devices (Night store heater and hot water ect..) des not switch at the same time as my tariff changes
OK its only 9 minutes, but in these times of "every Penny counts"  it's adding to the problems. The electricity company would not even listen to my complaint. 
Is yours doing the same?

Hi,

so, what about the 9 minutes of cheap rate you get at the other end of switch over?

If you've got a problem with a 9 minute delay, then, heh Jo, you've got problems.

MWT

Scrounger said:

They are listening to my complaint but the latest is that it needs an engineer's visit - but the flat is 200 miles away!

The ALCS is remotely configurable, no engineer visit should be required.

Scrounger

MWT said:

Scrounger said:

They are listening to my complaint but the latest is that it needs an engineer's visit - but the flat is 200 miles away!

The ALCS is remotely configurable, no engineer visit should be required.

That's what I keep telling them! 

I've suggested that they change the E7 peak/off-peak schedule to half hour later (to match the ACLS settings) as this would suit me better.  Still waiting to hear back.

The cheap rate starts at 00.000GMT but the heaters don't kick in until 00.30GMT so that's also half an hour of cheap power missed at the start.

Anyway, I'll be there next week and switching the heaters off for the summer.

I have remote cameras and will be setting up a neon indicator on one of heater fused spur outlets so check progress (if any).  Otherwise I won't know if its been sorted or not.

Scrounger

Mobtr

Don’t think they will be able to change this. Sounds like you’re on the 151 SSC which is midnight to 7am. It’s the SSC that determines when your night rate kicks in and tends to be set and not variable. May change in the future but not yet

Swipe

Scrounger said:

MWT said:

Scrounger said:

They are listening to my complaint but the latest is that it needs an engineer's visit - but the flat is 200 miles away!

The ALCS is remotely configurable, no engineer visit should be required.

That's what I keep telling them! 

I've suggested that they change the E7 peak/off-peak schedule to half hour later (to match the ACLS settings) as this would suit me better.  Still waiting to hear back.

The cheap rate starts at 00.000GMT but the heaters don't kick in until 00.30GMT so that's also half an hour of cheap power missed at the start.

Anyway, I'll be there next week and switching the heaters off for the summer.

I have remote cameras and will be setting up a neon indicator on one of heater fused spur outlets so check progress (if any).  Otherwise I won't know if its been sorted or not.

Scrounger

Unless it's really cold, most of my heaters have been switched off by the heater's thermostat before the last 30mins

Scrounger

Swipe said:

Unless it's really cold, most of my heaters have been switched off by the heater's thermostat before the last 30mins

Check your Bright report to be sure.

This is my Bright report for this morning (2 storage heaters on their lowest settings)

Scrounger

Scrounger

Time of use rates

Scrounger