Switching to flat rate when smart meter was previously economy 7

JessieWannabe

Hi all, I hope you can help.

I moved into a 2 bed electric only flat in December that had storage heaters & economy 7. After the shock of my first month's bill being £300 😱 I replaced the storage heaters with infrared panels so no longer needed the econ 7 tariff.

I was on Octopus Flexible (with different day/night rates) anyway so switched to their Flexible single rate to save some money & in the hope that I could then switch to a cheaper provider (less than 20% of my usage is overnight now and my latest monthly bill was £65).

However, despite being offered what look like great deals on the Cheap Energy Club - when I try to secure them I am either rejected because I’m on econ 7 so not eligible for a single rate tariff or I just don’t hear anything back at all.

Is there anything I can do about this or anything I can ask Octopus to do?

Or, due to the smart meter / econ 7 set up, are my only options to either;

A) stay on Octopus Flexible and hope for the best when the price cap increases in July or

B) switch to another supplier and accept that means reverting back to an economy 7 tariff (if I can find a fixed one that’s likely to actually be cheaper based on my usage)?

Swipe

As you already have a smart meter, you'll just need to ask Octopus to update your supply's profile class on the national database from 2 (E7) to 1 (Single Rate)

https://www.elexon.co.uk/bsc/settlement/profiling/

JessieWannabe

Thanks a million, Swipe.

I have spoken to Octopus who have now started the process - unfortunately they advised that it will take 20 days so I guess it's now just a case of keeping my fingers crossed and hoping against hope that there are still some decent deals out there by the time it's done.

I really wish I had known all of this when I was buying the flat but you live and learn… 🤷

WiserMiser

Unfortunately you may have made matters worse. What type of Night Storage Heaters were they?

• Old style 'Box of Bricks' with two knobs but no display

• Modern High Heat Retention NSHs with an electronic display and a fan

Do you still have them?

Scot_39

Be interested in a little more info on the IR panels fitted - and how you have found living with them and the sort of differences in room ambient temperatures.

Were your savings in like for like months. You say recent which worries me (*)

as above post its easy to waste a lot of energy on older nsh - ax just badly controlled old NSH can lead to rooms too hot most of rhe dsy for your needs for instance ?

dimplex claim their latest hhrs are around 27% cheaper than old nsh and 47% cheaper than standard panel heaters (including off peak power rates). Both of which your £65 vs £300 beat handsdown if like for like but fear it probably wasnt.

(*) My main nsh heatings been off for several weeks now. So Apr-May should be closer to £55 looking at app figures for whole of Apr - versus having to run a frugal low temp (14/15 for most areas in 2 bed mid terrace) to keep winter bills below the £150-£160 region with nsh on e10 in winter months for heating.

Newbie_John

C) switch to flexible for summer and learn how to use storage heaters that you have (had) and move back to E7 for winter. It normally takes a day to switch E7 - same rate.