[Pete JH]

This is a possible overcharging warning for people with a smart meter and Economy 7.

Sometime ago I found my that the actual switching of the power and the tariff I was being charged were noy synchronised. The charging rate from day to night was an hour later than when the night rate physically switched on. This meant that for one hour when my night storage heaters and emersion heater were switched on I was still being charged day rate instead of night rate and this was when these devices were using the most electricity. I know that at the end when the power went from night to day I was charged night rate for 1 hour during the day, but this was in the early hours when there was virtually no usage.

I had 2 engineer visits to correct this but in the end I had to have the smart meter removed and replaced with a “dumb” meter.

The purpose of this post is not to criticise E-on Next, but unfortunately, I had to refer this to the Energy Ombudsmen who found in my favour that I was overcharged and awarded me just under £600, £100 for poor customer service.

I may have been the only person in the country who has had this problem but ………

[meldrewreborn]

@Pete JH

I’m certain that your situation is far from unique. The actual commencement time of off-peak power is a critical piece of information but I suspect that it is ignored by most energy companies who just assume everything works well.

[RobJM]

@Pete JH I'm having exact same problem, just going round in circles with them, just getting the "within 2 hour tolerance" excuse over and over from different people :(

[PhilTUK]

my 2 rate smart meter changed over at 0043 GMT it was fixed and reliable so I never had an issue with it, but I did my own time switching.

[geoffers]

Originally Posted by PhilTUK

my 2 rate smart meter changed over at 0043 GMT it was fixed and reliable so I never had an issue with it, but I did my own time switching.

@Pete JH, @RobJM, @PhilTUK I'm not on E7 (I'm on Next Drive) but had this reply from one of the "Nexties" when I noticed they've set my meter's night rate to 00:30 thru 07:30 (though they do bill me from midnight to 07:00)

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/9790-ivie-and-EV-tariff?p=58959&viewfull=1#post58959

When you are on 2 rate meter you are billed from 00:30 - 07:30 rather than 00:00 - 07:00 - this was due to some of our customers having issues with heating and hot water not coming on at the allocated time as it somehow interfered with the time switch when they were set to switch at 00:00.

We were having to arrange emergency call outs to get people's hot water etc back on so it was trialed with 2 rate meters to start 1/2hr later and it stopped the issues with the timers. It was changed then so that customers who have a 2 rate meter will see their off peak start at 00:30 and end at 07:30 instead. It is easier to manage as a blanket everyone on the 2 rate starts at the same time rather than individual accounts billing at different times.

They say they were doing this for everyone across the board, rather than setting different times for different situations/tariffs.

Not sure if this is relevant to your issues?

[rwh202]

Had this with a different supplier. Again, useless and many 100’s from ombudsman.
I’d like to think an audit by the supplier would flag these things, but I’m guessing nothing to incentivise them to do a proper job.
Just getting through to someone who could understand ECAUL and TOU matrix was impossible - ultimately fixed by a config command to meter when everything escalated.

[PhilTUK]

@geoffers it's just wrong, 2R smart meters have their own settings they don't align with half hourly periods other than by accident.

The half hourly data is irrelevant in any case if your bill shows the two registers of kWh consumed. TOU people don't get meter readings.

[doverboy]

Originally Posted by geoffers

@Pete JH, @RobJM, @PhilTUK I'm not on E7 (I'm on Next Drive) but had this reply from one of the "Nexties" when I noticed they've set my meter's night rate to 00:30 thru 07:30 (though they do bill me from midnight to 07:00)

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/9790-ivie-and-EV-tariff?p=58959&viewfull=1#post58959


They say they were doing this for everyone across the board, rather than setting different times for different situations/tariffs.

Not sure if this is relevant to your issues?

I'm on E7 with a smart meter, the night-rate time for my area (area distributor id 10) is 00:00-07:00 GMT (MTC 808). Register 2 (R2) records between those hours and switches to R1 recording at precisely 07:00 for day-rate. I am billed according to the registers.

E.ON Next meter register settings ...


The E7 times were changed in error on 18 November 2024 by an Energy Specialist to 00:30-07:30, unbeknownst to me. In December I discovered that the transition times had changed and contacted E.ON Next, the energy specialist contacted the smart meter team and I was informed that there was a 2 hour tolerance. Over the next few hours I calculated the difference between half-hour read data aggregation and register reads back to 01 November and found that the change and associated R1 increase had happened around 20 November (it takes two days for a meter setting change to take effect). I contacted my DNO and discussed possible causes e.g. power cuts but my distributor pointed at the meter being at fault and to contact my supplier, so I spoke to E.ON Next and attempted to book a time for a technician to visit. It was during this call that the meter booking team advised the Energy Specialists of the account register settings page.

As @meldrewreborn said above, the timings are critical for successful off-peak usage. If the times are changed, appliances controlled by timers will operate incorrectly and may (as in my case) be outside the DNO's off-peak time frame. Off-peak time frames and economy 7 hours vary by area within the UK.

[meldrewreborn]

@doverboy

If the system were installed so that storage and water heating only operated automatically at the off peak times, then there would be not too much to complain about. But if the timings can be changed so that peak rate priced electricity is being used to heat the storage radiators and water heating that is disgraceful on its own, and not telling the customer of the change compounds it.

I don't have an off peak meter set up , but after reading this I'd want some cast iron guarantees of the nature of the supply before I even considered one.

[doverboy]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@doverboy

If the system were installed so that storage and water heating only operated automatically at the off peak times, then there would be not too much to complain about. But if the timings can be changed so that peak rate priced electricity is being used to heat the storage radiators and water heating that is disgraceful on its own, and not telling the customer of the change compounds it.

I don't have an off peak meter set up , but after reading this I'd want some cast iron guarantees of the nature of the supply before I even considered one.

... yep ... as in ALCS circuit switch, RTS switch ... I understand I'm not unusual in using local timers. Uncommon sense as per usual MR 😉.