Am I on cheap rate electricity?

[Deleted User]

valiant24 said:

Deleted_User said:

I have several facts and figures on this, as do several recent threads on the site.  I would suggest you start by looking at EdF's rates if you are such a heavy night-time user, as they reach down below 7p in at least two regions.  To save you searching unsuccessfully, they can be found here:  

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/government_energy_price_guarantee_prices._standard_variable_deemed_and_welcome._credit_meters.pdf

I would suggest a little less accusations of disgrace and a little more research.  You can, as I said earlier, switch.  Try giving someone a call.  Nobody is stopping you.

Thank you for this.  It's very helpful
I see from the EDF link that you sent me that their night rate is about 1p/KWh less than BG's.
Last year Dec-Mar we used about 3,200 KWhs at night, so switching to them could save about £34/qtr switching to EDF, less (1,300 * .75p) = £8.30 day so a total of about £22.  (I'd be way better off switching to PAYG but don't know how to do that!).

I just went to the EDF website and got this:
"We’re sorry we can’t offer you a quote online today. Due to ongoing energy market volatility we don’t have any fixed energy tariff deals available. It is more than likely that you will be better staying with your current energy supplier right now".  Yes I suppose I could call but I don't see why it would be any different.

I still maintain that's it's quite ridiculous how difficult it is for a consumer to find out exactly when his/her night rate kicks in.

Cheers
V

It would be different, because that's how people have been successfully switching.  It's to do with not accidentally making a customer worse off by letting them switch without talking to anyone.

PAYG is prepayment if you have a smart meter, like topping up a mobile phone.  They'll do that on the phone if you ask as well, but of course then you don't get the "spread over 12 months" thing working for you.

SAC2334

valiant24 said:

Deleted_User said:

I have several facts and figures on this, as do several recent threads on the site.  I would suggest you start by looking at EdF's rates if you are such a heavy night-time user, as they reach down below 7p in at least two regions.  To save you searching unsuccessfully, they can be found here:  

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/government_energy_price_guarantee_prices._standard_variable_deemed_and_welcome._credit_meters.pdf

I would suggest a little less accusations of disgrace and a little more research.  You can, as I said earlier, switch.  Try giving someone a call.  Nobody is stopping you.

Thank you for this.  It's very helpful
I see from the EDF link that you sent me that their night rate is about 1p/KWh less than BG's.
Last year Dec-Mar we used about 3,200 KWhs at night, so switching to them could save about £34/qtr switching to EDF, less (1,300 * .75p) = £8.30 day so a total of about £22.  (I'd be way better off switching to PAYG but don't know how to do that!).

I just went to the EDF website and got this:
"We’re sorry we can’t offer you a quote online today. Due to ongoing energy market volatility we don’t have any fixed energy tariff deals available. It is more than likely that you will be better staying with your current energy supplier right now".  Yes I suppose I could call but I don't see why it would be any different.

I still maintain that's it's quite ridiculous how difficult it is for a consumer to find out exactly when his/her night rate kicks in.

Cheers
V

Its not "ridiculous " because meter clocks /timers vary so much .Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time..Even the digital ones will drift . When I was meter reading I would find digital meters up to 2 hrs drifiting from the correct time and that was in GMT . They also do not change over automatically in BST and you have to factor that in .In my area the night rate would be active until 8.30 am in BST if the clock was correct and later if it had drifted as many do 

There are still plenty of old 24 hour analogue timer switches around and the night rate start could be anywhere in the 24 hr period with these old meters .The analogue displays of the two readings will show a little arrow pointing to the active rate .
Other posters have told you what to do in checking the meter now and again at various times from , say midnight to see if the night rate has started.  over a few nights you will track it down..Then add 7 hrs to that time to get the end of night rate.

A lot of digital meters default to show the active rate on the screen or the active rate will pulse. There will be some way of showing the active rate in progress.
Smart meters should be just about perfect in the day and night times and so is Radioteleswitch metering 

DingerUK

With my glowmarkt.com account and their bright app I can see my economy 7 times

valiant24

[Deleted User] said:

It would be different, because that's how people have been successfully switching.  It's to do with not accidentally making a customer worse off by letting them switch without talking to anyone.

PAYG is prepayment if you have a smart meter, like topping up a mobile phone.  They'll do that on the phone if you ask as well, but of course then you don't get the "spread over 12 months" thing working for you.

1. As I say, a someone who never calls suppliers if I can help it, it simply isn't possible to switch.
2. I'm quite cash rich/time poor so don't care about spreading my payments.  But British Gas don't support smart meters on economy 7 in my area so am I not clear that EDF will.  Worth a call I suppose.

Thanks

valiant24

SAC2334 said:

Its not "ridiculous " because meter clocks /timers vary so much .Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time..Even the digital ones will drift . When I was meter reading I would find digital meters up to 2 hrs drifiting from the correct time and that was in GMT . They also do not change over automatically in BST and you have to factor that in .In my area the night rate would be active until 8.30 am in BST if the clock was correct and later if it had drifted as many do 

My complaint has nothing to do with the type of meter.
Until last year when PEP fitted a smart meter - a facility I lost again when they went bust - I had one of those old analogue meters that looked like something from the 1950s.  I was quite capable of working out that it was 45 minutes slow and adjusting my start and end times for the Aga accordingly.

My complaint is that the energy companies and everyone else are unable to tell me the precise time Ecomomy 7 kicks in at my house.  It's no argument at all to say that ".Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time" - they still manage to bill me for Day and Night times, so they must know internally when "Night" and "Day" kicked in.

valiant24

DingerUK said:

With my glowmarkt.com account and their bright app I can see my economy 7 times

Yes, I'd love even a rough idea at my house!

QrizB

valiant24 said:

1. As I say, a someone who never calls suppliers if I can help it, it simply isn't possible to switch.

Claiming you can't switch simply because you can't do it by clicking buttons on a website is absurd.

If you want to switch to EDF right now you can't help calling (for Octopus you can apparently switch by email or Twitter message).

2. I'm quite cash rich/time poor so don't care about spreading my payments.  But British Gas don't support smart meters on economy 7 in my area so am I not clear that EDF will.  Worth a call I suppose.

BG don't support E7 on smart meters anywhere in the UK, period. EDF and Octopus definitely do.

My complaint is that the energy companies and everyone else are unable to tell me the precise time Ecomomy 7 kicks in at my house.  It's no argument at all to say that ".Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time" - they still manage to bill me for Day and Night times, so they must know internally when "Night" and "Day" kicked in.

No, energy companies do not necessarily know when your smart meter switches because they don't need to.

The meter does the switching and records day & night consumption in separate registers, just like your old analogue meter did. It then reports those readings automatically. The exact times that the meter switches are not relevant when billing for a conventional E7 tariff.

DingerUK

valiant24 said:

DingerUK said:

With my glowmarkt.com account and their bright app I can see my economy 7 times

Yes, I'd love even a rough idea at my house!

Sign up and download the app and you can see the info 😉

SAC2334

valiant24 said:

SAC2334 said:

Its not "ridiculous " because meter clocks /timers vary so much .Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time..Even the digital ones will drift . When I was meter reading I would find digital meters up to 2 hrs drifiting from the correct time and that was in GMT . They also do not change over automatically in BST and you have to factor that in .In my area the night rate would be active until 8.30 am in BST if the clock was correct and later if it had drifted as many do 

My complaint has nothing to do with the type of meter.
Until last year when PEP fitted a smart meter - a facility I lost again when they went bust - I had one of those old analogue meters that looked like something from the 1950s.  I was quite capable of working out that it was 45 minutes slow and adjusting my start and end times for the Aga accordingly.

My complaint is that the energy companies and everyone else are unable to tell me the precise time Ecomomy 7 kicks in at my house.  It's no argument at all to say that ".Suppliers cannot be responsible for older meters with incorrect time" - they still manage to bill me for Day and Night times, so they must know internally when "Night" and "Day" kicked in.

I can tell you that they had no idea at all when the day/night times kicked in whatsoever .  This was a subject I brought up at our meetings quite often that the day /night times were getting transposed constantly with day/night rates  getting mixed up. 
  

Its not possible for a supplier to know how any of the older Eco 7 meters in  particular are  performing as they can all differ by quite a lot . ONLY the occupier can know . a meter reader can t be there at midnight or at 7.30 am in the morning to check 

.
They are not bothered neither. Only Scottish Power ever asked us to take a note of if the Eco 7  timings were out by more than two hours .
The cheap rate is only advisory in the  published  hours , so long  as 7 hours are billed at the lower rate that is their remit fulfilled . That is what my boss told me !

Smart meters should have ended all this mess and it was a complete mess too . I used to tell occupiers when their cheap rate times were coming on with the old 24 hr analogue timers  and some were livid that they were waiting till midnight to take a cheap rate shower when they could have had it at 5 pm .British Gas were the worst. Maybe that is why they don t get involved much now with Eco 7 smart meters something they could easily do 

EssexHebridean

EDF are definitely allowing switches over the phone - I did it earlier today.