nPower Super Tariff

Gorgeous_George · 15 March 2019 at 5:11PM

My mother has two electricity supplies to her home and pays two electricity standing charges each at 29.083p per day).

Her bill shows two tariffs

Supply 1. Standard Electricty Super Tariff
Supply 2. Standard Electricty Economy 7

She is on a tariff that provides 2 hours of electricity in the afternoon (which she no longer needs) and 5 hours at night.

She’d like a single supply on Economy 7.

Questions
1. Should she really be paying two standing charges?
2. Does she need a meter change to move to Economy 7?
3. Does her home need any rewiring to accommodate the change?

Thanks in advance.

molerat · 15 March 2019 at 5:45PM

Does she have 2 meters or is it one meter with 3 registers ? She may need some rewiring, which will be at her cost, but it can often be fairly simple. A new meter depends on exactly what she has currently.

Gorgeous_George · 15 March 2019 at 5:59PM

One meter with 4 registers but one always reads 0.

As well as the standing charge, the rates are...

Supply 1.

Unit rate 22.674
Unit rate night 11.295
Unit rate heat 14.476

Supply 2
Unit rate 22.674
U it rate night 11.295

Carrot007 · 15 March 2019 at 6:05PM

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

She’d like a single supply on Economy 7.

Questions
1. Should she really be paying two standing charges?
2. Does she need a meter change to move to Economy 7?
3. Does her home need any rewiring to accommodate the change?

Thanks in advance.

OK. Yes that is the NEEB area tarrif. As you say four registers and one should not move (and it's expensive should it do so!).

1. I would have thought not. Try the online compliants team if you decide to keep on it. It used to be 2 seperate meters but like you say is one these days (not that they make them anymore).

2. Yes.

3. Also yes, and it might cost quite a lot, which is why most people stay on it.

Gorgeous_George · 15 March 2019 at 6:09PM

nPower says she’ll have to have the house rewired and all her night storage heaters removed.

She has asked for this in writing.

molerat · 15 March 2019 at 6:09PM

As usual the telephone CS are talking !!!!!!!!. She will need a meter change to standard E7 and likely one MPAN de-energised, needs to speak to NPower about that and they may charge for a meter change. The wiring will obviously need an electrician to look at and possibly some prep work done, getting the meter people and electrician on site at the same time could be a fun task.

Carrot007 · 15 March 2019 at 6:48PM

molerat wrote: »

As usual the telephone CS are talking !!!!!!!!.

You are refering to the NSH removal. Yeah, they will run fine on E7 but not get the boost. But you are talking complex metering here which you will not get an answer from anyone who works in a call centre. If you want real advice use the web based team of higer up. The phone will not cut it. (They may need a lot of work though).

molerat wrote: »

She will need a meter change to standard E7 and likely one MPAN de-energised

Yes a meter change but the mpan requries a logical disconnection. A de-energised mpan is not what you want here. But nothing but semantics so nothing wrong.

molerat wrote: »

needs to speak to NPower about that and they may charge for a meter change.

I would expect so, they did not decide to install that metering.

molerat wrote: »

The wiring will obviously need an electrician to look at and possibly some prep work done, getting the meter people and electrician on site at the same time could be a fun task.

Yes, probably changes to the consumer units and possibly some timers to get things to run right as they do not usually provide contactors these days for E7.

Gorgeous_George · 15 March 2019 at 7:09PM

Thank you everybody. I’ll wait to see what they say in writing.

I have a friendly electrician or two who could do the wiring changes and they should be fliexible enough to arrive on meter change day.

I’ll draft a complaint to OFGEM.

Last year their meter reader missed a digit and knocked 10,000 units (or maybe 1,000) off her reading resulting in a repayment followed by a huge bill.

Their CS is appalling and my mother lives alone at the age of 80.

Thanks again.

GG

sgun · 20 March 2019 at 5:53PM

I have just come off the super tariff - just because I was installing GCH and removing the storage heaters. If your mum is keeping the heaters then the legacy (super) tariff is by far the cheapest option to keep. I crunched the figures every year for 18 years to make sure.

If she is having the storage heaters removed Npower will come and remove the meter for free. She would need a different meter installed to then go onto E7 as the E7 that she has on the bill isn't actually E7 but just how Npower describe the second mpan tariff when the other is a legacy (confused yet?)

I was told a few years back that an E7 meter would be £140 to install.

The heaters are dead easy to remove, just heavy. I took all mine out in less than a day.

Gorgeous_George · 21 March 2019 at 12:02AM

She doesn’t want to remove the meters. She wants Economy 7 and preferably with another provider.

She is happy to pay to have the wiring changes and new meters.

She pays 2 standing charges at the moment. That is almost £60 per quarter before she pays for the electricity.

Their Economy 7 tariffs suggests ONE standing charge and cheaper day and night rates than those that I listed in #3 above.

https://www.npower.com/at_home/applications/product_comparison/tariff.aspx/tariffratesandchargeslookup

sgun · 21 March 2019 at 11:38AM

I just checked, I was only paying one standing charge - nothing for the storage heater meter. It was 15p a day so £13.50 a quarter.

My rates were:
Meter 1 (normal electricity) Day 23p night 8p
Meter 2 (heat and water) 8p

So I don't think your mum is on the Super Tariff from the old Northern Electric but something else. The old Northern legacy was brilliant, I have always wondered why people say storage heaters are expensive but obviously I was just lucky with my tariff!

I don't think it sounds like an easy job to sort out your mum's system but it wouldn't necessitate a house rewire. I have always found the Npower engineers really helpful so if I were you I would get one round to advise (even if it costs).

nPower Super Tariff

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