Economy 7 meter

loulou111

Hello
I moved into my property last year and the first thing i did was to switch my electric from Npower to british gas - call me mad but had always been with them since leaving my mum and always had good customer service with them - until now!! I got my first bill w/i one month of moving in and it seemed about right for what was paying before (£50 for month)so paid itand thought nothing of it, however by time i got second bill noticed that was way too low for 3 months (£67) so called with meter reading and was hit with massive £310 bill just before chirstmas - accept my own responsibility for this as i should have noticed it from first bill and so set direct debit plan to pay off debt, am fine with all of that - however after 4 further months had still not received further bill so called them again - gave meter reading and have again been sent massive bill - this time however i noticed i was paying much more for daytime consumption 28.871p per Kwh as opposed to norm which i think for BG is 22p - again i called them and they said i had an economy 7 meter?? i had never heard of this and can only assume that it is something the previous owners required and it means that i am paying alot more for daytime than night time electric. As someone is at home during day all time it is not ideal for us and BG said I would have to pay £36 for new meter - obviously I have now looked to switching to new service provider and ironically according to uswitch the best for me would be Npower! My question is can I do anything about what i was being charged by BG and get deductions to standard rate as I was never told that I had economy meter? or does buck stop with me in that it should be my responsibilty to know these things, but i don't know how i could possibly know??? incidently Npower have said meter does not need replacing and that they will just put me on a standard rate .
Thanks in advance for any advice.

espresso

You need to get your initial readings from your BG invoice from when you first moved in and calculate how many day units you have used and how many night units you have used until now.

loulou111 wrote:

this time however i noticed i was paying much more for daytime consumption 28.871p per Kwh as opposed to norm which i think for BG is 22p

This will be the Tier 1 rate, which only applies to say the first 125 kWh used each quarter, then the Tier 2 rate will be say 8 - 12p. On E7 tariff, your night units will be much less, say 4 - 5p depending on which region of the country you are in. Until you know how many day and night units you are using, you can't work out what is best for your situation. Don't pay BG for a new meter!