Standard rate but with economy 7 meter
Discussion
Hi All,
The house I'm moving into has an old spinning disc economy 7 meter. I have a gas boiler for central heating and hot water, so presumably there is no reason for me to keep the economy 7 meter.
My question really relates to changing tarriffs as I understand that some (or all?) suppliers let you give both readings and they add them together to produce the bill on a single rate so I don't have to be on economy 7. I haven't spoken to the current supplier yet as I only got the keys today.
When you are on uswitch or wherever, if like me you have an eco7 meter but want a single rate, do you select standard meter rather than eco7 meter? When you have found out the best supplier, then call them to explain you need the two readings combined?
There's also an ancient looking timer that ticks like a mechanical clock (and is running 3 hours fast). Just four fuses for a 3 bed house!
The house I'm moving into has an old spinning disc economy 7 meter. I have a gas boiler for central heating and hot water, so presumably there is no reason for me to keep the economy 7 meter.
My question really relates to changing tarriffs as I understand that some (or all?) suppliers let you give both readings and they add them together to produce the bill on a single rate so I don't have to be on economy 7. I haven't spoken to the current supplier yet as I only got the keys today.
When you are on uswitch or wherever, if like me you have an eco7 meter but want a single rate, do you select standard meter rather than eco7 meter? When you have found out the best supplier, then call them to explain you need the two readings combined?
There's also an ancient looking timer that ticks like a mechanical clock (and is running 3 hours fast). Just four fuses for a 3 bed house!
Urghhh - that looks horribly familiar.
I had something vaguely the same when I bought this place 6 years ago - there was gas central heating but the previous electric storage with dual meter was still in place.
Electric was supplied by a certain company, we'll refer to them henceforth as "unpowered". No other company would touch my transfer due to the dual meter and unpowered were rather unhelpful with respect to changing the meter, despite the fact it was their statutory requirement to do so.
After several months of not much happening I raised a case with Ofgem and passed the details to unpowered. Never heard anything from ofgem, IIRC, but meter was ripped out within days and my contract with unpowered was killed with glee.
Good luck and don't believe anything the feckers tell you until you've checked it
>>Edit Just remembered, I also got a letter a few months later from unpowered with a cheque and a "sorry for overcharging you"
I had something vaguely the same when I bought this place 6 years ago - there was gas central heating but the previous electric storage with dual meter was still in place.
Electric was supplied by a certain company, we'll refer to them henceforth as "unpowered". No other company would touch my transfer due to the dual meter and unpowered were rather unhelpful with respect to changing the meter, despite the fact it was their statutory requirement to do so.
After several months of not much happening I raised a case with Ofgem and passed the details to unpowered. Never heard anything from ofgem, IIRC, but meter was ripped out within days and my contract with unpowered was killed with glee.
Good luck and don't believe anything the feckers tell you until you've checked it
>>Edit Just remembered, I also got a letter a few months later from unpowered with a cheque and a "sorry for overcharging you"
Edited by fishermanpaul on Thursday 21st January 22:49
I've got a similar setup and the switching comparison sites have got better at this. I switched to the co-op a few years back which was a nightmare as they were relatively new to the energy market and didn't understand how you could have a dual reading meter but not want economy 7 tariff.
Got it sorted in the end but then moved to SSE and lately Ovo (who bought their customers) who I switched through using a comparison site, but both are fully geared up for this.
Be prepared for endless hounding for a smart meter though which will remove this problem for you.
Got it sorted in the end but then moved to SSE and lately Ovo (who bought their customers) who I switched through using a comparison site, but both are fully geared up for this.
Be prepared for endless hounding for a smart meter though which will remove this problem for you.
You may struggle to get it changed right now, but as soon as covid restrictions ease you should have no problem getting a smart meter which can of course then do whatever tariff you want.
In the meantime, British Gas, Eon, and EDF can definitely support that meter on a single-rate tariff (I know this because all three of them have supplied my flat at some stage when I still had an Economy 7 meter). You may need to sign up over the phone though.
I'm now on a smart meter and running Octopus Go, which has a day rate that's cheaper than my old flat rate, and a 4 hour overnight rate of 5p which is when my dishwasher and washer/dryer tend to go on.
In the meantime, British Gas, Eon, and EDF can definitely support that meter on a single-rate tariff (I know this because all three of them have supplied my flat at some stage when I still had an Economy 7 meter). You may need to sign up over the phone though.
I'm now on a smart meter and running Octopus Go, which has a day rate that's cheaper than my old flat rate, and a 4 hour overnight rate of 5p which is when my dishwasher and washer/dryer tend to go on.
Our house was advertised as set up with an Economy 7 meter but it transpired we were on Economy 10, which is truly horrible trap to be stuck in. Prior to privatisation our house was in the 'Southern Energy Board', and the house was built with this in mind. We had a day rate, night rate and third 'control rate' which just powered the storage heaters. Back in the day you would set the storage heaters on maximum input and the energy company would charge them with enough energy as they thought suitable, matched to the weather forecast. Great when electricity was cheap, I suppose. This was called a 'weather watch' tariff, and some people are still stuck paying way over the odds for this.
It took me months to get Scottish Power to budge. No other provider honours Economy 10, and SP gave me all sorts of nonsense about how I would be 'without any heating' if they fitted an E7 meter.
In OP's case, the clock device will be to switch between the day and night rates. If it is running three hours out then you might be paying over the odds, though it sounds like the whole system is redundant. I thought these timers were meant to be bombproof, so I'm surprised this one has drifted so much from accurate time unless it has been meddled with. More modern meters have a radio switch to make the switch, as energy providers stagger the change-over so as not to put too much strain on the grid.
If you do a bit of Googling you will discover that E7 tariffs have been on the brink of extinction for the last decade or so, but I've heard of people switching to E7 tariffs recently to charge electric vehicles overnight.
It took me months to get Scottish Power to budge. No other provider honours Economy 10, and SP gave me all sorts of nonsense about how I would be 'without any heating' if they fitted an E7 meter.
In OP's case, the clock device will be to switch between the day and night rates. If it is running three hours out then you might be paying over the odds, though it sounds like the whole system is redundant. I thought these timers were meant to be bombproof, so I'm surprised this one has drifted so much from accurate time unless it has been meddled with. More modern meters have a radio switch to make the switch, as energy providers stagger the change-over so as not to put too much strain on the grid.
If you do a bit of Googling you will discover that E7 tariffs have been on the brink of extinction for the last decade or so, but I've heard of people switching to E7 tariffs recently to charge electric vehicles overnight.
I thought white meter was something different but if it's just normal Econony7 then we've had that for many years as it was in the house when we arrived.
Our clock is wrong too - it used to tick loudly and would gain time quite rapidly. However a few years ago, maybe after a power cut, it stopped ticking and it's maintained its current time spot-on for years.
Our low rate starts at 8.30PM in the winter and 9.30PM in summer, so we run the dishwasher and washing machine then. Ours is set for 8 hours of low rate too - it was queried once, I can't remember why it was being looked at, it wasn't a meter reader, but I just shrugged and they left it. Ours randomly sticks on low - it's really weird, but it'll do it a few times in a month, then not do it for a couple of months.
For our use, I reckon it's only saving us about £50/yr - the snag is E7 day rates are a fair bit higher than 24hr tariffs. I do think it imposes a bit of discipline on the use of the dishwasher and washing machine - we use them at normal rate if we need to, but my wife is the kind of person who would put them on to wash a couple of things.
Our clock is wrong too - it used to tick loudly and would gain time quite rapidly. However a few years ago, maybe after a power cut, it stopped ticking and it's maintained its current time spot-on for years.
Our low rate starts at 8.30PM in the winter and 9.30PM in summer, so we run the dishwasher and washing machine then. Ours is set for 8 hours of low rate too - it was queried once, I can't remember why it was being looked at, it wasn't a meter reader, but I just shrugged and they left it. Ours randomly sticks on low - it's really weird, but it'll do it a few times in a month, then not do it for a couple of months.
For our use, I reckon it's only saving us about £50/yr - the snag is E7 day rates are a fair bit higher than 24hr tariffs. I do think it imposes a bit of discipline on the use of the dishwasher and washing machine - we use them at normal rate if we need to, but my wife is the kind of person who would put them on to wash a couple of things.
We've had exactly the same for 20-odd years. When changing suppliers, I've always had to select E7 leccy. The one time I forgot, when they requested a meter reading, there was only one 'box' to fill in. Ever since then, I've selected the E7 option and fill in the Low rate and High rate boxes, even though the charge is sometimes identical for both.
We have similar setup. When switching fee years back, uswitch etc couldn't handle it. So I found the cheapest supplier using these websites (Avro Energy in our case) and then contacted them directly for swap. They sorted out everything. Now I still give monthly readings for both high and low electricity but both charged at same rate..
littleredrooster said:
We've had exactly the same for 20-odd years. When changing suppliers, I've always had to select E7 leccy. The one time I forgot, when they requested a meter reading, there was only one 'box' to fill in. Ever since then, I've selected the E7 option and fill in the Low rate and High rate boxes, even though the charge is sometimes identical for both.
So you may have been Overy paying for years without realising... But who cares we are all millionaires on PH... LolAlexC1981 said:
Thanks. If the estate agent can find out who the supplier was from the previous owner I'll give them a call.
I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
How do you mean it says they don't supply it? Give them a call with your meter number and explain you think the supply is with them and would like to take over the account.I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
I think I had trouble with one supplier but the next were fine.
The meter was right outside the bedroom and the ticking drove me mad so I asked for a smart meter.
They did a survey but couldn't fit one because no mobile signal, so they just put a regular meter in instead. No more ticking!
The meter was right outside the bedroom and the ticking drove me mad so I asked for a smart meter.
They did a survey but couldn't fit one because no mobile signal, so they just put a regular meter in instead. No more ticking!
When I was working we had a 3 phase supply and meters which had day and night readings, the chap came monthly to read meters and would check the clock time was correct, and obviously change it twice a year anyway. Then one year they stopped changing the time clock, meter reader said it just averaged out through the year anyway.
At the time the night rate was about a third of the day rate.
At the time the night rate was about a third of the day rate.
Gareth79 said:
AlexC1981 said:
Thanks. If the estate agent can find out who the supplier was from the previous owner I'll give them a call.
I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
How do you mean it says they don't supply it? Give them a call with your meter number and explain you think the supply is with them and would like to take over the account.I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
xyz123 said:
littleredrooster said:
We've had exactly the same for 20-odd years. When changing suppliers, I've always had to select E7 leccy. The one time I forgot, when they requested a meter reading, there was only one 'box' to fill in. Ever since then, I've selected the E7 option and fill in the Low rate and High rate boxes, even though the charge is sometimes identical for both.
So you may have been Overy paying for years without realising... But who cares we are all millionaires on PH... LolIf - in any given year - the E7 dual-rate option worked out cheaper, I took that, if not the rates were the same. I do a price comparison towards the end of every contract period. Have you perhaps got a better method?
Blue Oval84 said:
Gareth79 said:
AlexC1981 said:
Thanks. If the estate agent can find out who the supplier was from the previous owner I'll give them a call.
I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
How do you mean it says they don't supply it? Give them a call with your meter number and explain you think the supply is with them and would like to take over the account.I found a website that is supposed to tell you who the supplier is. It came up as British Gas, but the British Gas website claims they don't supply it there.
There's two links on the ofgem page. One for gas and one for electricity.
https://www.findmysupplier.energy/webapp/index.htm...
https://www.energynetworks.org/operating-the-netwo...
For electricity, once you have found your network operator, you can go to their website to find out who supplies the electricity.
https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/help...
The estate agent spoke to the previous owners who said the gas and electricity was with British Gas, which confirms what the websites said.
It's the British Gas website that says they don't supply it there. I suppose they must have terminated the previous owners account. I'll give them a call on Monday.
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