Octopus Energy Economy 7 and Smart meter issue

durantd65

I have just joined this forum and hope someone can help with this issue?

I have an Economy 7 electricity tariff with Octopus Energy and a SMETS 2 Smart meter. Octopus Energy says that the night rate period is 0130-0830 (BST).

Since the tariff increased on 2nd April this year, I have been taking more notice of the billing.

I use a lot of electricity during the night, so I was concerned to find out that the night rate period was actually 0140-0840. I can only programme the appliances to start on the hour or half hour. So I can't take advantage of the entire 7 hour period. The 10 minute "error"  for the night rate to start might seem small, but can add up over time.

I have sent photos of the meter and times to Octopus Energy. They tell me that the meter is synchronised, but the hours sre still 0140-0840.

Has anyone else seen this happen, and can anything be done to change the night period to the correct times?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Why not offset the clocks on the appliances by 10 minutes?  Or power them from a circuit switched by the meter.

MWT

durantd65 said:

I have sent photos of the meter and times to Octopus Energy. They tell me that the meter is synchronised, but the hours sre still 0140-0840.

Has anyone else seen this happen, and can anything be done to change the night period to the correct times?

There has always been an allowed variability on E7 so that thousands of homes don't all switch on their high load heating devices at the same moment, so 10 mins is perfectly reasonable.

Just do as Gerry suggests and set your timers clock to run at -10 mins from the real time.

durantd65

OK, but I think it misleading for an energy company to advertise the hours to be 0130 -0830 if that is not the case.

One item has it's own 32 A circuit and cannot be used with a time switch. The item's own internal timer only works on the half hour. I have now set it to come on at 2am.

If I hadn't discovered the time was not as described and left the item to come on at 0130, the 10 minutes of the day rate makes a difference of £133 / year..

I just thought others might be interested to know that.

QrizB

durantd65 said:

OK, but I think it misleading for an energy company to advertise the hours to be 0130 -0830 if that is not the case.

The energy company don't necessarily know when your particular meter switches (this is more often a problem with dumb meters than with smart ones). All they can tell you is the nominal times, but individual meters can and will vary from those.

One item has it's own 32 A circuit and cannot be used with a time switch. The item's own internal timer only works on the half hour. I have now set it to come on at 2am.

It is normal to connect high-load devices to the E7 circuits which are switched directly by the meter, rather than relying on an internal clock which may not be synchronised. This avoids this problem completely.

What sort of appliance is this?

Gerry1

durantd65 said:

The item's own internal timer only works on the half hour. I have now set it to come on at 2am.

Unless it has a radio controlled clock, presumably you can shift the clock's time setting by 10 minutes?

durantd65

We programme most of the devices to come on during the night. Washing machine / tumble dryer, dishwasher. The high consumption item is a swim spa which uses about 20kW to heat. Before they went bust, we were with Avro Energy, which was affordable. Now we are watching the costs more closely.

Scrounger

QrizB said:

It is normal to connect high-load devices to the E7 circuits which are switched directly by the meter, rather than relying on an internal clock which may not be synchronised. This avoids this problem completely.

You would think so but sadly this is not always the case.

If the E7 smart meter billing schedule and E7 ACLS schedule are out of sync this can still result in overcharging. 

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79142684#Comment_79142684

Scrounger

QrizB

Scrounger said:

QrizB said:

It is normal to connect high-load devices to the E7 circuits which are switched directly by the meter, rather than relying on an internal clock which may not be synchronised. This avoids this problem completely.

You would think so but sadly this is not always the case.
If the E7 smart meter billing schedule and E7 ACLS schedule are out of sync this can still result in overcharging. 
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79142684#Comment_79142684
Scrounger

Agreed, but you're a special (and very rare) case

durantd65 said:

The high consumption item is a swim spa which uses about 20kW to heat.

Can you get the spa heater circuit moved to your E7 consumer unit, so it's switched with the E7 ALCS? (I assume you have an E7 CU but it's possible you don't.)

Scrounger

durantd65 said:

The high consumption item is a swim spa which uses about 20kW to heat.

Surely that isn't on a 32A breaker?  ( 20kW/240V = 83.3A )

QrizB said

Agreed, but you're a special (and very rare) case

Or one of the very few to notice (let alone investigate the cause).

Scrounger

Gerry1

Scrounger said:

durantd65 said:

The high consumption item is a swim spa which uses about 20kW to heat.

Surely that isn't on a 32A breaker?  ( 20kW/240V = 83.3A )

Scrounger

@Scrounger @durantd65

Presumably the OP meant '20kWh'?