Fight on our hands - electricity £100 per week

SAC2334

SkyChild said:

Hi everyone, thanks for the input. So I phoned SSE who had added my actual meter readings ON to their estimated ones. (at move-in point and then every couple of weeks) She sorted that out for me there and then. Phew. 

SAC2334 said:

My freind up in Aberdeenshire was on 2 meter system on  a legacy meter called THTC one which used to be impossible to move away from with SSE .paying 25 p kwh night rate and 42 p day rate .

 He s now broken free of the hostage of SSE paying highest nigt rates in UK and switched to EDF who I think have about the lowest night rates in the UK paying 10 p kwh for the night rate . Some areas are down to around 8 p kwh for night rate .

So my advice is switch away to EDF asap as you are going to halve your night rate at least .  You will get nowhere with SSE ( Ovo run the customer service and billing now by the way ) He was trying for years until EDF came up and took over the 2 meters one of which was a Radio Teleswitch meter , so it can be done .Get switching !

As a former meter reader recording 2 rate meters for two decades , you need to first establish which of the 2 rates is the night rate and more importantly find out when it starts and when it stops. The meter itself will be registering in some way when its active. The small red light will start to flash when previosly it will have been not flashing at all. 
Get to grips with how many kwhs you are using daily on each rate then you can work out your spring and summer usage  which will be  mostly without the night rate active at all in summer. 
Once you have done that you can then tell the supplier what your usage is .You do not need a supplier telling you what your weekly/monthly usage , you will know better than them .

Yes that THTC looks familiar, I think that's what we are on. I'm phoning the tariff team today to ask if we can get switched over to Economy 7 or 10 and then will be looking for other suppliers. Good to know EDF are the cheapest (how do you know these things?)

We have also got the electrician down to check the meter and to help out with the water heater (my husband had it on all the time, rather than off-peak supply - that can't have helped)

So all in all, we seem to be making some progress. Direct debit is £250 at the moment which should hold things off until we get it settled, and we'll be looking to switch further down the line. Thanks everyone for the replies, sorry to be in a panic!

If you are on THTC it will tell you in your account details with SSE . Its a waste of time phoning SSE to move from it , we tried it many times.Best they could come up with was to wait until the RadioTeleswitch is ended ( 2025 latest ) becuase the Total Heat Total Control meter relies only on Radioteleswith .  They would not fit a smart meter because in their words there were none available .

SSE control the on and off timings which vary according to , electric price and the weather , and in winter you could get up to 12 hours low rate.

Problem is the low rate is very expensive if you are running 4 or 5 night storage heaters. 

My freind in Aberdeenshire tried to switch a few times and they all ended in failure when the gaining supplier could not handle the THTC meter .

Last ditch attempt last Dec to a switch with EDF surprisingly ended with success but you have to phone them to talk to people who understand legacy meters.
My friend was overjoyed with 10 p/kwh night rate so much that he sent me as a gift  a special camera I like ( large format film ) as a present for my efforts in helping him .

THTC is a legacy tariff used up in North Scotland and South Scotland only .

I know about EDF prices because the energy forum members have posted EDF s full tariff details on here in the past .There was a lot of discussion about the new bargain Eco 7 rates . I havent seen the latest updates on April rises/falls though 

Swipe

SAC2334 said:

I know about EDF prices because the energy forum members have posted EDF s full tariff details on here in the past .There was a lot of discussion about the new bargain Eco 7 rates . I havent seen the latest updates on April rises/falls though 

The new rates are in this PDF: https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/dm1903_pl1_rate_card_builed_aw4_v1.pdf

SkyChild

@SAC2334 and @Swipe
Thanks for the replies. I'll just go straight to EDF then - save shopping about!
I'm relatively new to the forum so haven't seen the energy discussions, will go and have a look

RedFraggle

SkyChild said:

@SAC2334 and @Swipe
Thanks for the replies. I'll just go straight to EDF then - save shopping about!
I'm relatively new to the forum so haven't seen the energy discussions, will go and have a look

Just be aware their customer service is awful. 

dunstonh

SkyChild said:

@SAC2334 and @Swipe
Thanks for the replies. I'll just go straight to EDF then - save shopping about!
I'm relatively new to the forum so haven't seen the energy discussions, will go and have a look

I switched to EDF earlier in the year. I was E7 with bulb previously.    Our off peak use is around 68%.  So, that favours a supplier with the lowest off peak rates.    If your ratio is lower then there comes a point where the off peak rate is better if its a bit higher and the day rate a bit lower.    So, check your ratio first.   

EDF service iis not great.   They made a mistake on our switch by transposing the peak/off peak rate but to be fair to them, they corrected it within 48 hours of me raising it.   Their billing method is antiquated compared to the more modern suppliers.  I used to like Bulb with its monthly billing and tracking of monthly reads.   EDF do 6 monthly billing and don't track usage even if you give interim reads.  You have to wait until the billl is due.

However, at 8p (this quarter) for off peak, I will take that.

SAC2334

RedFraggle said:

SkyChild said:

@SAC2334 and @Swipe
Thanks for the replies. I'll just go straight to EDF then - save shopping about!
I'm relatively new to the forum so haven't seen the energy discussions, will go and have a look

Just be aware their customer service is awful. 

If you are on a THTC or similar legacy meter then  we found that EDF are the only supplier to manage the meter and arrange a switch which is successful. Other suppliers don t offer such low Eco 7 night rate deals 
.Shopping about has gone anyway for the moment . It may return from July when rates are due to take a big dip . 

You have to phone EDF to get their correct team ( its published )  who can understand these sorts of meters which will baffle normal customer service personell. 
As for Cust Service, virtually no supplier has much of a good record nowadays except maybe Octopus (  I was lucky to get onto their Tracker rate )  are no great shakes but there are  worse ! Try Scottish Power 

SkyChild

I used to work for BT and generally distrust all big companies and their customer service. That said, not sure 6 monthly billing will work for us at all, we really hate surprises! 
Will try EDF and my cousin recommends Octupus so will give them a shout as well. 
Thanks everyone  

pochase

EDF also has 6 month billing cycle.

MattMattMattUK

SkyChild said:

I used to work for BT and generally distrust all big companies and their customer service. That said, not sure 6 monthly billing will work for us at all, we really hate surprises! 
Will try EDF and my cousin recommends Octupus so will give them a shout as well. 
Thanks everyone  

The six month (with random extensions sometimes) billing is annoying, but the reality is that it is very easy to keep track of your usage and payments so there should be no surprise. You could choose variable/whole bill monthly, which means your bill will be issued monthly based on a submitted reading or smart meter read, it will be lower in summer and higher in winter, but there will be no surprises. 

EssexHebridean

This is a good time of year to switch to Whole Amount Monthly (Variable) DD billing as it gives you time to get yourself in a good position ahead of higher winter month bills. 

For those who may not be sure how they should work their budget for this method of energy billing: The key thing is to work out your actual annual consumption and then work your annual costs from that. In usual circumstances I'd say add 10% on to allow for increasing prices, but at this specific point in time that may not be necessary due to the expectation that prices will fall from July - personally I'd still be wanting to do things that way to add an extra layer of security though.  Once you know your annual cost, divide it by 12, and then stash that amount away each month into a savings account specifically for the purpose. When your bills come in, you pay them by transferring money from that account - and if your calculations are correct, starting at this stage in the year you should start to see a credit building before bills start to increase again due to heavier use in the autumn. The fact that you have started the savings at the lightest use (and so cheapest bills) time of the year *should* mean you have enough credit built up to then see you through next winter, too. 

SkyChild - remember to ask your cousin for their referral code for Octopus if you end up joining them. Personally I would prefer to avoid touching EDF again even using someone else's barge pole, their customer service is truly dire!