Combine two electric meters?

[clare1234]

Hi Guys,

Please be gentle this is my first thread!

Really need expert, independant advice.
I have a shop which has two electric meters one is for the lighting/ power sockets, the other is for night storage units.
Would it be cheaper to combine the two meters? I'm currently paying the same kwh rate and daily service charge for both meters. The amounts are, 22.02 kwh and £7.00 monthly service charge with British Gas.
I only use one of the three storage heaters during the winter months. When it gets really cold I use either an oil filled radiator or a halogen heater.

If I can't combine the two should i get british gas to disconect the night storage meter, leaving me with one meter and no service charge on the other?

Storage heaters look about ten years old.

Any help would be appreciated as I have little knowledge in this field!

Cheers Clare
xxxx

 

[electricAl]

Well, its not really a Sparkies question - more of a consumers one

As you`re using the (theoretically cheaper) nightrate so little, i`m confident you`ll get a better deal by combining the 2 and getting a lower cost flat-rate

If you can (and its surprisingly difficult to get em to actually tell you) get the various providers to give you a KW/H price (insist upon it) instead of a "we can save you £683 a year"

Allow for the differing standing charges (some will mix it in with your flat-rate) and go for the cheapest - obviously

Course, 5 minutes later they`ll change their prices, but hey, what can you do?

Good luck with it tho...

 

[gorilla]

Hi Guys,

Please be gentle this is my first thread!

Really need expert, independant advice.
I have a shop which has two electric meters one is for the lighting/ power sockets, the other is for night storage units.
Would it be cheaper to combine the two meters? I'm currently paying the same kwh rate and daily service charge for both meters. The amounts are, 22.02 kwh and £7.00 monthly service charge with British Gas.
I only use one of the three storage heaters during the winter months. When it gets really cold I use either an oil filled radiator or a halogen heater.

If I can't combine the two should i get british gas to disconect the night storage meter, leaving me with one meter and no service charge on the other?

Storage heaters look about ten years old.

Any help would be appreciated as I have little knowledge in this field!

Cheers Clare
xxxx

You could get it all included into one meter but it may not be worth it as you will need to get your local electricity distributor (not BG although they may get them for you) to come out and disconnect the meter and remove it.

You will also need a qualified electrician to come in and put your storage heaters onto your "main" consumer unit.

They only thing may be loading of the circuit/supply.

I doubt it would be cheep to get the DNO into take the meter away. You may be better off leaving it as is.

What you could do is just get the electrician to connect the storage heater circuits in to the main CU if it is possible.

I wouldn't like to make any real guess as to if that is possible as I haven't seen the system and I'm only just starting out in the world of electrics.

 

[electro]

[FONT=Arial Narrow, sans-serif]Hi [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow, sans-serif]A very strange set up you have, one of the meters would have been on the E7 tariff at one time. If it was my place I would have the storage heater supply switched off and I would ditch the storage heaters as these are not meant to go on a regular tariff due to cost and loading. It might be best to look at a more modern way of electrically heating your property using modern heaters properly on a E10 tariff which will supply one distribution board rather than the two separate boards you have now.[/FONT]



[FONT=Arial Narrow, sans-serif]The cheapest and easiest way is have one of the meters switched off and have the other meter changed to a two tariff meter on the E7 tariff which will feed both boards.[/FONT]



[FONT=Arial Narrow, sans-serif]Regards[/FONT]

 

[clare1234]

Do I contact my supplier (British Gas) to come out and switch off/disconnect the 2nd meter or do I have to ask a local electrician?

Thanks everyone.

 

[electro]

Contact your supplier once you have decided. you can not touch the meters yourself.

 

[electricAl]

Unfortunately Clare, you are at the mercy of British Gas & the network operator/meter company.

Basically BG are your supplier, EDF/Eon/ScottishPower etc are your Distributor, and a 3rd company owns the metering! ( On-Stream in these parts)

They do have the monopoly over metering arrangements - this isn`t something you could get a local spark to do - & if he/she did you might well regret asking them...

You`ll have to swallow the price they demand - i`m afraid there`s no competition in this particular field

 

[clare1234]

i've just emailed On-stream just to get a price, this might help me decide!