Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

As said above, the current(sorry!) system in place will be a lot better if you can get timers fitted to heaters and immersion heater.

Perhaps you could persuade the Utility company to fit a timer instead?

Cardew wrote: »

There are, and always were, two configurations of Economy 7.

Some properties were wired so only the storage heaters and immersion heater switched to cheap rate for the 7 hours and all other electricity from sockets/lights etc was on daytime rates 24/7.

Most properties now are wired so they have all electricty consumed during the 7 hours off-peak at cheap rate and all at peak rate for the other 17 hours. I have such a system and my house is 24 years old.

It sounds as if you were wired to the first system described above - the 'white meter' was one of those systems - but the Electrician has wired your new meter for the second system(i.e. all electricty for 7 hours on cheap rate)

Provided you have timers on your storage heaters and immersion heater, the second system is much better as you can have appliances(washing machine/dishwasher/dryer etc) progrmmed to come on in the 7 hours; and depending where you live cheap rate is still available early in the morning.

Just to add to this, how is your E7 being billed, 2 MPAN's with seperate tariffs (1 standard + 1 off peak) or 1 MPAN with a 2 rate tariff?

These meters all include time switches whether meter side or radio controlled so UW are wrong there.

If the day circuits tail has been attached to the Night rate register, I would have thought the heating turns off in the expected night hours. This way the Night meter time switch would be doing nothing other than recording any standard usage (lights, TV, etc) but if the heating is attached to the Day register, it will switch the heating on for 17 hours a day.

I've seen it before sometimes in that by doing this, it won't switch off during the 7 hours you would think.

One impact thing to resolve here is the overspend. UW will get charged for this so will try to charge you for it! What needs to happen is a recalculation of accurate usage over this period and UW can choose to correct to their settlement bill or pay it...but its not your problem! They can also choose to invoice their Meter Operator for losses due to their engineers mistake.

Be careful with recalculation, they may try it on.

catsstripeypjs wrote: »

it sounds like the meter could have been wired in wrongly. Certainly the engineer that visited didn't seem to be much of an expert at the time!

Either that or the wrong type of meter was fitted. You need one similar to this which has an integral restricted hours contactor.

http://www.electricmetersales.co.uk/electric-meters/5246%20User%20Manual%20Version%202%200%20%283%29.pdf

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Meter has definately been wired up wrong for the existing installation.

The old installation probably had the (sealed) timeswitch changing over the meter between rates as well as controlling the off-peak heaters. The new meter probably changes rates automatically, but doesn't control the heaters as it probably doesn't have a 'restricted' feed. The supplier will provide a "control" supply, which will be current limited within the meter, for the purposes of switching the off-peak contactor(s). These will be fed from the load-side of the meter, in parallel with the supply to the "24 hour" board. There is no reason for the contactor to be sealed, as the customer will be charged the full rate for the off-peak load if they decide to operate the contactor at other times.

Some meters have the contactor built in, others expect the customer to provide it.

I really appreciate how kind everyone has been in replying to my distress call!
If I've understood what you're saying, Owain, it would seem that the meter that UW have installed is unsuitable for my system. I am going to start using UWs complaint procedure as they must surely be obligated to rectify this.

catsstripeypjs wrote: »

Hi Terry, I'm afraid that I don't know what a MPAN is!!! My bills have always shown day useage and night useage. I haven't had a bill yet with the new meter. Interestingly, UW tell me that they have not received the new meter starting readings from when it was installed, despite the engineer telling me that he would send them to UW on installation day!! What a shambles!

My water heater is definitely working overnight. I switched it on at 06:00 when R2 was active, and it worked.

I'm definitely going to battle for adequate compensation for my increased electricity costs until this is resolved!!!

The MPAN is with your supply number on the bill. See this link which shows what it looks like.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_Point_Administration_Number#section_1

If you have 1, its just standard E7, if you have 2 its a standard tariff + an off peak seperate supply.

Just to add to Owain's point, if they have fit one of those, its a meter configuration problem that is either a) incorrect metering purchased which won't be the case or b) its been set up incorrectly but both rates would be working or c) the engineer has inserted the wrong tails into the meter (transposed them) which can happen where the developer labels the tails the wrong way round...which can keep coming back to bite you if you don't correct it.