How to get my supplier to set up my Economy 7 smart meter properly

catwin1

jrawle said:

catwin1 said:

Thanks all.

An advisor called me back today after enquiring about it again with the smart meter team and they said that if the time switch on my Economy 7 was out by 3 hours then they would take a look at my meter, but not below that threshold... someone at Citizen's Advice had mentioned this 3 hours limit as well. I asked UW for an official regulatory link but they had nothing, just sent a text with the above. I may ask Citizen's Advice if I can bear being on hold for an hour.

I think they're both confusing the auxiliary circuit switch with the Economy 7 rate times again, no? What would be the point of 7 off-peak hours if almost half could be charged full rate? Makes no sense!

The three hour limit almost certainly refers to the amount the E7 timings can be out by. For example, if your region's E7 is supposed to start at 11:30pm, but it is actually switching at 2am, they won't send someone out to adjust the timer (from the days when many people had a mechanical clock that had to be adjusted). This is not the same as the time billing switches and the time the E7 circuit comes live being different. The rules probably don't even consider that as a possibility, as it would not have occurred in the pre-smart meter era (and should never occur).

The trouble with smart meters is that you need smart people manning the support line!

Interesting, thanks - so it's not an appropriate justification at all, as I suspected, and nothing to do with my auxiliary circuit time switch.

Do you know where I can find an official reference to that please? I can't seem to find it anywhere. I think I'll continue with my complaint - if I don't lose my mojo after having switched, that is. I really hope Octopus will be on top of things - the tech advisor I spoke to seemed like he was.

Totally agree with your last comment

[Deleted User]

catwin1 said:

jrawle said:

catwin1 said:

Thanks all.

An advisor called me back today after enquiring about it again with the smart meter team and they said that if the time switch on my Economy 7 was out by 3 hours then they would take a look at my meter, but not below that threshold... someone at Citizen's Advice had mentioned this 3 hours limit as well. I asked UW for an official regulatory link but they had nothing, just sent a text with the above. I may ask Citizen's Advice if I can bear being on hold for an hour.

I think they're both confusing the auxiliary circuit switch with the Economy 7 rate times again, no? What would be the point of 7 off-peak hours if almost half could be charged full rate? Makes no sense!

The three hour limit almost certainly refers to the amount the E7 timings can be out by. For example, if your region's E7 is supposed to start at 11:30pm, but it is actually switching at 2am, they won't send someone out to adjust the timer (from the days when many people had a mechanical clock that had to be adjusted). This is not the same as the time billing switches and the time the E7 circuit comes live being different. The rules probably don't even consider that as a possibility, as it would not have occurred in the pre-smart meter era (and should never occur).

The trouble with smart meters is that you need smart people manning the support line!

Interesting, thanks - so it's not an appropriate justification at all, as I suspected, and nothing to do with my auxiliary circuit time switch.

Do you know where I can find an official reference to that please? I can't seem to find it anywhere. I think I'll continue with my complaint - if I don't lose my mojo after having switched, that is. I really hope Octopus will be on top of things - the tech advisor I spoke to seemed like he was.

Totally agree with your last comment

I'm not sure it is an official position, perhaps more just an accepted practice?

The supply licence doesn't actually have any reference to the time of any off-peak hours for Economy 7 as far as I know, it just says that there should be 7 hours in each 24 period (or 8.5 in Southern Scotland) designated as off-peak and that they can't be between 12:00 and 16:30.

Maybe there's a more general condition on Restricted Metering Infrastructure - which is the category that includes E7, but also three-rate heat tariffs, E10, and other such strangeness.

catwin1

Hello all, just a quick update:
I switched to Octopus on 26 Nov and they reset the ALCS in one day  
My night register is now perfectly in sync with my storage heater circuit.

My complaint with UW is still open, what they're overcharging me isn't that huge (£28) after comparing my smart meter data and my R1 and R2 registers but I wasted so much time on the issue! And with the weather we have now it would have been much more.
The last advisor I spoke to said she's escalated my complaint to the (aptly named) Complaints Escalations Team - we shall see how that goes.

Thanks again for your help