edf smart meter charge rates

Aartee

Failing to get an answer from edf about WHEN a smart meter charges off-peak rates.  Used to be when switched over to supply the separate economy7 switchboard and any other main consumption used at the same time.  Unable to find any mention of this on current edf website.  Other energy suppliers give this information freely.
Currently edf insist my off-peak charging period is not the same as power is supplied to off-peak services.  This means I pay peak prices for the 2 hours a day my smart meter is supplying my off-peak storage radiators and water heating.
Smart meter fitted in December and still failing to get sensible answers.

Swipe

If your smart meter is configured correctly, you won't be charged peak rate for off peak energy. You can check this by ensuring that when your E7 time switching occurs, it is writing to the correct on or off peak (rate 1 and rate 2) registers. As long as that is the case, you can ignore what the person on the end of the phone at EDF tells you regarding E7 switching times.

lohr500

Are you saying the off peak circuits are being switched on and off at different times to when the meter changes recording from one register to the other?

I had this with our smart meter a few months ago because when I changed tariff back to traditional Economy 7, UW updated the timings for switching between the peak and off-peak meter registers, but they failed to update the timing for the smart meter's ALCS contactor/relay that physically switches on and off the dedicated off-peak circuit board.  
So the peak/off-peak meter registers were not synchronised with the switching for the off-peak circuits.

I resolved the problem by asking to speak specifically with someone in their meter team. They were able to resolve the problem within a few minutes by sending a new configuration instruction remotely to the smart meter. The peak and off-peak registers are now synchronised with the ALCS switching at 00:37 and 07:37 GMT.

Rosie1001

email them , you get better help then calling 

hello@edfenergy.com

wes78rpm

I've just had yet another email from EDF (hello@edfenergy.com) about a smart meter change. They failed to turn up for an previous appointment in mid-March, and still can't provide one!

It reads:

We also have to ensure that you are aware the timings from your meter for your off peak which change as shown below:
Current off-peak hours: 00:15 - 07:15
New off-peak hours: 00:00 - 02:00, 07:00 - 10:00, 16:00 - 17:00, 21:00 - 23:00

As we live in a small retirement flat where electricity is our only power source (especially on our storage heating) this means we will have install another timer in the off-peak circuit to minimise our costs, and change its settings seasonally, as well as probably having to manually turn off the storage heaters every day during peak charging hours (or fit another timer?). Yet another way to try to rip-off the consumer?

QrizB

wes78rpm said:

I've just had yet another email from EDF

 Welcome to the forum. This is your first post, unless you've had a different account before?

wes78rpm said:

... about a smart meter change. They failed to turn up for an previous appointment in mid-March, and still can't provide one!

There's nothing in your quoted email re. installing a smart meter. What exactly have they said?

wes78rpm said:

It reads:

We also have to ensure that you are aware the timings from your meter for your off peak which change as shown below:
Current off-peak hours: 00:15 - 07:15
New off-peak hours: 00:00 - 02:00, 07:00 - 10:00, 16:00 - 17:00, 21:00 - 23:00

If you don't currently have a smart meter, what sort of meter do you have? Have you asked to switch from Economy 7 (your current tariff timings) to something else?
Without a smart meter, I'm not sure how EDF expect to change your meter timings. Have they said anything about this?

wes78rpm said:

As we live in a small retirement flat where electricity is our only power source (especially on our storage heating) this means we will have install another timer in the off-peak circuit to minimise our costs, and change its settings seasonally, as well as probably having to manually turn off the storage heaters every day during peak charging hours (or fit another timer?).

That sounds quite unlikely. If EDF do change your meter timings they will also change the ALCS timings and, if your storage heaters are installed as they should be, they'll automatically change.
But I think you're going to have to be much less selective in quoting EDF if we're going to help you understand what they're trying to do.

wes78rpm said:

Yet another way to try to rip-off the consumer?

Are you suggesting that EDF, the multi-billion-Euro energy company owned by the French government, have cooked up a dastardly scheme to make huge profits selling £20 time switches to innocent British retirees?
That does sound quite unlikely to me.

Scot_39

Thats a particularly strange set of timings - I don't think Ive seen from EDF (or others) - as adds up to 8 hours - over 4 different off peak periods.

So not e7 7 hours and not e10 10 hours - often 3 off peak slots (or e9 9 as Ovo iirc offer / offered)

What are they calling your new tariff ?

How do the rates compare to your current e7 rates - or are they staying the same.

Do your current heaters rely on a restricted feed controlled from meter only  ?

You say having to buy a timer for the off peak feed ?

What about your hot water tank - if have one - does it have a timer ?

And why would the new timers be any more seasonal than your current need to adjust heating controls ?

"about a smart meter change"

Do you know how your e7 and heaters currently work - is their a peak and an off peak output from exsiting meter (s) ?

If the SH already use restricted - are EDF going to configure the smart meter restricted feed (ALCS facility) and tariff switching times to match the new times ?

If so you might even be better off for heating.  On older NSH models - simply turn down the thermostat a little - and they will boost to that higher temperature essentially 4x per day.  So give heat out on a smoother curve during the day.

If not meter restricted circuit controlled then yes you will need timers - but you would need them already - if not already built in.

Can you tell us the model or models if different in different rooms of NSH you have in the flat ?

wes78rpm

Scot_39 said:

Thats a particularly strange set of timings - I don't think Ive seen from EDF (or others) - as adds up to 8 hours - over 4 different off peak periods.

Thanks for your questions Scot, I'm a retired Electrical and Electronic Engineer (B.Sc), so I realise what you are trying to get at. I won't respond to many, but the strange set of timings got me thinking about what they would mean to others, no matter what their situation, and if they had been properly informed of changes. A reduction of overnight off-peak to 2 hours after midnight would be quite a major change - for example for the dairy farming community - if enforced. So I came here and found this post. How can people save money and reduce energy consumption when they find themselves in this situation?

The original poster asked for the timings for off peak on smart meters from EDF. They'd not been able to get any info or response from EDF, so I quoted what had been sent to me by EDF (almost an afterthought at the end of the most recent email, in a chain of nearly half a dozen) in case it helped them. But perhaps EDF just need to be more open about off-peak timings and inform their customers properly.

This is our current situation. Our Tariff name is 'Deemed' and I supply readings towards the end of every month via their website (after an email prompt from EDF), and they then send me a bill via email. No direct debit is in place. When I've tried to investigate a change of tariff, their site tells me it is not possible to change until a smart meter is installed. 

Every logon to the EDF website starts with a message saying 'You could be left without heating or hot water if we don't change your meter. Please don't worry, we're here to help and it's super easy to book an appointment'. My experience is exactly the opposite.

Our peak/off-peak switching is by radio signal which is due to be turned off around June, hence my mention of EDF not turning up for the appointment made to change the meter in mid March. They had then promised to escalate things with their installation section, as attempts to get another via their website always report 'no appointments available'. But still no appointment. I should also mention that I logged on to their website at midnight and got the only appointment available 6 weeks in advance at the beginning of February. That's 'super easy'?

Our storage heaters and water heater run on a separate off-peak circuit to the normal mains. We have an up to two hour boost timer on our water heater, and  'boost' on the storage heaters connects them directly to the normal mains via a simple on/off switch, so we never use it.

Are EDF going to configure the smart meter restricted feed (ALCS facility) and tariff switching times to match the new times ?

It seems so from their email. And will most customers even understand this?

Rosie1001

I have experience of what you are going through ..

i will let others explain what happened as they are more knowledgeable than me about how to write things out ..

but I finally have a fully functioning smart meter , and I also have night storage heaters , i am now economy 10 tariff ,

This is perfect for us , as we get an afternoon and evening boost on off peak prices  if we need it ..
..(all the electric clicks over to off peak so win win for using washer dryer etc in the afternoons) plus the 5 hours overnight off peak 

wes78rpm

Thanks Rosie

It's comforting to hear from someone who has some experience of the problems I've outlined and got through them. I was starting to think that the responses here would be from technocrats writing in a shorthand that would baffle most people. 

The strange off peak timings that EDF told me I was getting with the smart meter upgrade were pretty ridiculous, and I'm still concerned that some folks have had things like this foisted on them without their knowledge, while they try to keep things as simple as possible. I see this in some other folk in the same block of flats - no mobiles, no internet, everything paid by cheque, etc. and easily taken advantage of.

Ildhund

wes78rpm said:

The strange off peak timings that EDF told me I was getting with the smart meter upgrade were pretty ridiculous, 

You didn't mention earlier that these timings were the ones you would be getting when your smart meter is installed. I rather assumed that your timings - which are determined by the distributor and delivered by the RTS  - would be changing to the ones quoted in anticipation of the RTS shut-down, to make sure things at least kept working until the meters could be exchanged. I suppose I was mistaken.

Offpeak timings are arranged between suppliers and distributors, so they vary considerably around the country. Neither you nor the original poster have said where you're located, so the chances of your timings being the same as the OP's are pretty slim. That apart from the fact that the OP has a smart meter while you're still - I think - controlled by the RTS service. Your selective quotation from EDF's communications isn't making it easy to work out what's happening.