RTS shutdown and Restricted meters.

Ectophile

Looking at those prices, the "cheap" off-peak rate is only about 2.3p cheaper than the standard rate.  That looks like a terrible deal compared with normal Economy 7.

vim_fuego_1965

If she has a new meter - can you tell us the model - and any chance of redacted photos of meter (no serial numbers etc) and the meter tails at the bottom and any isolator / connection blocks for the CU feeds - and photos of her fuse boxes / consumer units to identify power distribution (so open so can read label clues like lighting, ring main, nsh by room, immersion heater etc if the fuses / mcbs are labelled )

Hi Scot39

yes a new meter has been installed replacing RTS meter - model is aclara 1422-B 

here is a photo of the meter 

i will get a photo of the fusebox tomorrow night when i visit mum.

Her boiler is a Thermaflow TH12 with two switches 

SP are telling me (i think) that the small white switch is the one that cant be controlled and to switch this off ourselves or get a timer put on this to switch it on and off at times we set?...

anyway, i've paid the bill and i've got her switching this switch off when not needed (eg overnight) and got her using her heating albeit sparingly and reluctantly for december to see what the bill is at the end of the month...i hope to try and speak to some work colleagues who are electricians to see if fitting some sort of timer is easy or not and what one to buy.

Its a nightmare for me let alone a 82 y/o to get to grips with - i will write to ofgem/SP and even perhaps the local MP as it just feels so unfair to be in this position..there must be 1000's of affected folk

vim_fuego_1965

Ectophile said:

Looking at those prices, the "cheap" off-peak rate is only about 2.3p cheaper than the standard rate.  That looks like a terrible deal compared with normal Economy 7.

agreed, i cant work it out?...as idlhund said previously the RTS signal must have logged a 3rd set of data on thsi Economy 2000 deal based on something like time/weather but that seems to be lost now??..

totally lost and confused to be honest

Ildhund

Ectophile said:

Looking at those prices, the "cheap" off-peak rate is only about 2.3p cheaper than the standard rate.  That looks like a terrible deal compared with normal Economy 7.

This isn't a system that would work with Economy 7 - there's no real heat storage involved. SP's Economy 2000 plan is described here: Electric Heating | Gas and Electricity Company | ScottishPower, indicating that there are 18 hours 'offpeak':

This tariff is intended for medium capacity storage boilers providing space heating or both space and water heating. Electricity for all other purposes must be taken on Domestic Tariff.
The Economy 2000 supply is made available for periods at ScottishPower's discretion totalling 18 hours per day, but with the proviso that no interruption will exceed 2 hours. Typical off times are 08.00-10.00, 16.30-18.30 & 00.00-02.00. It is important, therefore, that the boiler has a sufficient thermal store to supply space (and possibly water) heating requirements for 2 hours.
Direct acting boilers without storage capacity are not permitted to make use of Economy 2000.
Rate 1 records daytime domestic use, Rate 2 records night time domestic use and Rate 3 is Economy 2000 and records boiler usage only.
Some installations may have 2 X single rate meters i.e. 1 for domestic and 1 for Economy 2000.

It looks like the best Vim can hope for on the standard tariff is to have the boiler running at the lower rate for those 18 hours. 

QrizB

I suspect Vim might be better served by something like Cosy Octopus, a "smart tariff for heat pumps and electric boilers":

https://octopus.energy/smart/cosy-octopus/

This would depend on whether adequate performance can be achieved by setting the boiler to heat primarily during the "cosy" period, and trying to avoid heating in the evening peak.