What are Southern Electric's Economy 7 hours please?

Face

Hi,

I have recently switched to Southern Electric's fixed rate economy 7 tariff - I used to be with Powergen.

Now, my meter is obviously a 2-rate digital meter but currently the meter's clock is 2 and a half hours fast, so when we were with Powergen we'd hold off using the washing machine and dishwasher until after 9:30pm as the Powergen E7 hours seemed to start at the meter's "fast" midnight - still with me?

But I've noticed tonight that, although the meter clock is still 2 and a half hours fast, I'm still being charged day-rate after 9:30pm and even still at 10:30pm (last time I checked).

So, my question is - what are SE E7 hours? And I take it that my "switch-over" time is still controlled by the fast meter clock and somehow SE don't have some way of remotely switching over the rates - regardless of what time the meter clock says?

I hope that I've made sense

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Face

Terrylw1

If they haven't changed the meter when you switched your clock remains the same. The only way they could have changed it would be if it's radio telemeter hence updated via radio signal. The Meter Operators would do this.

However, meters are defined by region, not by Supplier, so Suppliers internal billing tariffs are not related to the physical timeclock. They bill you based on the type of meter you have fitted and the times mean nothing to their tariff, they just trust that the times are correct until you say otherwise or an engineer spots it on a call.

Face

Thanks for the reply, Terry.

They didn't change the meter when I swapped to SE - but the meter does automatically change the clock forward and backward an hour on the appropriate Sundays.

It's late and I'm not feeling too sharp - could you possibly rephrase your last paragraph for me in to something that a 4-year old would understand?

I just want to be able to work out what time to start using the electric-sapping appliances.

Thanks again,

Face

Terrylw1

No worries, it's difficult to put some of this stuff into an easy read.

Meters have their own dials and timeswitches and that determines your day and night rates on the meter as well as how your timeswitch operates.

Suppliers don't have to ability to just change these times to what they want as they don't own the meters. So, Suppliers put you on an equivalent tariff to match how your meter works at your property.

This might be a good example:

House is fitted with an Economy 8 meter, hence 8 hours a night off peak.

Supplier doesn't support an E8 tariff, but puts you on the nearest available - being E7.

Now some customers think they are losing an hour of off peak time. They are not since the meter & timeswitch is still E8 and it will still record that way. The Supplier will still get the readings but bill them on the E7 but it's still based on 8 hours at off peak.

Does that make sense?

mike_rum

you might want to try http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=123319
(I'm looking into switching from oil fired open vented ch + npower elecs to electric wch with storage on south western economy 7 rates)

Garz

Its approximately 12pm-7am, or 1am-8am. The best indication is one night watch the meter (if its mechanical) and see/hear it switch rate, or if digital pressing display should show what rate its currently metering.

coolvicky21

Is the night rate applicable throught the day on weekends?