Edf meter suddenly gone an hour early economy 7 and charging full rate

Cazella

Just a query and heads up to anyone else on edf e7.live in East Midlands area and e7 time summer is 2 to 9 then winter 1am to 8 am.so my mission everyday lol is to get virtually everything cooked washed etc on night rate .however this morning I noticed I was being charged 36.50 a unit at 8 .15am(fixed July 24)I switched a storage heater on to check if they’d done the time change early and the light came on so obviously outside meter says I was on e7 timing but hdmi being charged 72 p! So turned it off then back on at 9 am and it went off at 9.03 as it should be .il wait till tmrw to check my night rates should be 16.99 in the morning and to check if the countdown clock has also changed.funny enough that wasn’t showing this morningmaybe it’s just the hdmi but that’s a heck of a charge if I hadn’t notice.hopefully it will sort itself out but will make sure I do everything by 8 and if not will have to get them out to sort it.

mmmmikey

Morning @Cazella welcome to the forum 🙂

There are quite a few different types of E7 meter and also different ways of turning the storage heaters on and off. Rather than go through all the different permutations and combinations it's probably worth checking what type of meter you have first. Then any further information provided can be more specific.

If you can post a photo of the meter then great but I think there might be restrictions for new users,, so perhaps you could let us know:

1. How many cables go to the meter (4 or 5)?
2. Is there an external time clock? (Usually fairly obvious but if not just ask).
3. If you look at the last page of your EDF bill does it show your E7 times and if so what are they shown as there?

Worth understanding this so you can have some confidence in the switching times.

Netexporter

IIRC an E7 timer is regarded as being correct if it is within 2 hours of the actual time. This is to allow for GMT/BST plus another hour to allow for the shortcomings of mechanical timers. If it outside that tolerance then you should inform your supplier, who should send somebody to adjust it.

dunstonh

Smart meters check in and refresh the time periodically and its unusual for them to go out of sync.   
Non-smart digital meters were notorious for going out of sync.   Both of our previous non-smart digital meters would see the time jump every few months.   It got to the point when our off peak time was  8.15am to 3.15pm.     I was hoping it would shift into the evenings but we needed a smart meter installed and it put paid to that.

When I read the meter each month, I would check the time to see if it have moved again and if it had, I would adjust the timers on the devices to match it.

We need more detail on your meter type.  And whether you system and devices are controlled by timers or circuit switching.

Scot_39

Check both device switching and applied tariff rate - so actual peak off peak register accumulation carefully at start and end of e7 times if you can - a bit of a pain I know given timings.

Their have been a couple of posts in past suggesting they can become out of sync - so rare - so tariff and time switched power supply no longer match.

That is not the same as timer drift - common on analogue mechanical and even non RTS digital - in mins per year for some -  but the two staying in sync.

E.g. recent example 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6464845/eon-next-economy-7-metering-issue

Although that one also might have involved a supplier change, at least one of the others IIRC just appeared after a regular over the air update without a tariff or supplier change.

Millions would have had new configs sent over last couple of days for October cap update.

Gerry1

Cazella said:

live in East Midlands area and e7 time summer is 2 to 9 then winter 1am to 8 am.

E7 times don't usually extend after 0830 BST, although some timers can drift.

Cazella said:

outside meter says I was on e7 timing but hdmi being charged 72 p!

Do you mean the IHD, the portable In Home Device?

Cazella

Thanks for some input.looks like 5 wires.smart meter don’t have any timers except cellar which I change twice a year and the water cylinder as well just for half hr each day.had storage heaters for 30 plus years and this is the first time ever the meter has shown this.has been 2 to 9 winter since installation of smart meter 2 years ago.when the actual meter swapped from night to day the heaters went off as they are supposed to but maybe the hdmi is suddenly out of sync.is it worth turning it off and it might align again.or wait till actual time change and see if it corrects the hdmi.and do all my useage before 8 am instead of 9 to be on the safe side as many people say the hdmi isn’t the actual readings used anyway.Trouble with the monitor only gives total useage and not the split which is a pain as the meter is about 8 foot on the wall outside the main reason I had the smart .pricing didn’t need updating as I’m a fixed 1 year deal but I have checked monitor night and morning to check since Sunday .will read the other post and get in touch with edf too.many thanks 

Chris_b2z

dunstonh said:

Smart meters check in and refresh the time periodically and its unusual for them to go out of sync.   

My EDMI Smart meter has been out of sync for at least 8 months. Like you, I was benefiting from off-peak rates between 8am and 3pm while on an E7 tariff.

I only found out by checking the hourly usage stats online and then figuring out how to navigate through the archaic menu system on the meter. I have no idea how widespread this problem could be.

victor2

Just a little note @Cazella - as has already been stated, it looks like you are referring to the IHD, or In Home Display. HDMI means High Definition Multimedia Interface, commonly referred to in data cables, and is something completely different.

Cazella

Yikes yes ihd.not had enough coffee today .sorry 🫣

Cazella

Went on edf website and it suggested leave two weeks as it should correct itself so will be patient and keep an eye on it every day or reset ihd but I’m not very good with gadgets so will see what happens .thanks for your inputs.first time I’ve posted so am new to all this 🙂