Hi

I wonder whether anyone can help me with this:

I lived in a flat with storage heaters until November 07, was customer of powergen/eon then on Economy 7 with Heatwise Plan (that is what it says on the bill).

I bought a new flat with an electric boiler / central heating system but have kept the same tarriff of Economy 7 with Heatwise Plan.

Unfortunately this plan does not even exist on price comparison sites so I am unsure whether I should be switching or not. My bills have definitely gone up but who´s haven´t?

Does anyone know the specifics about this price plan and on ground of which parameters I know whether it is a good tariff for me?

Cheers

Florian

Hi besenreiser,

I have heard of Heatwise with E7, Heatwise is a special tariff EON (formerly Powergen) do in their host area, i.e. your supply number (which you may have two of them) will begin with the number 11.

For Heatwise you can either have Heatwise with Domestic or Heatwise with E7, simply, Heatwise with Domestic your meter will have 4 rates, for Heatwise with E7 it will have 5. You will have a day, night, offpeak and then two for your heating.

Regrettably these tariffs are unique to the host supplier, for ScottishPower they have two heating tariffs in their host Scottish area's called Comfort Plus which you also wont find on here but they do exist. Regrettably you find that the meter is only as compatible as the heating system, i.e you cant have one without the other, so simply having the meter removed to, say, normal E7 wont work.

Nearly all the suppliers, except for BG, have these types of meters as historically they were all former electricity boards, however BG, is the exception as they came into the electricity market selling it, from clearly only selling gas. However they principally are only interested in either Domestic or E7 as the largest market share of the host suppliers tariffs.

Therefore Eon will be aware you probably wont be able to change supplier, as most suppliers, like for example BG are only expecting your meter to have one or two readings, not 4 or 5 for simply domestic heating.

Simply put you will probably have to remain with Eon, the most expensive supplier, in your host area, however, they will be aware of this and realistically should be sympathic to your needs, as realistically, its only really for electricity heating/boilers.

I would therefore dig out the best plan for you with them, there internet tariffs are the cheapest and will have to make their Heatwise (E7) tariffs available on their own web rates, so either their Price Protection 18 or their Energy Saver v5.

I would go with which ever saves you the most, reading up both these tariffs state they offer price protection till July 2010, which isnt a bad thing, as despite petrol coming down a bit, this is really competition at the pumps from the supermarkets, yes aswell as wholesale dropping, but gas and electricity take more time and there is every speculation that gas and electricity prices are set to increase in the new year, therefore capping them now seems a good idea, especially as the Price Protection one offers if their standard rates fall below yours, yours also fall, seems great too me especially if you cant transfer to take advantage of cheaper unit prices.

Best thing I would do is get a picture of your unit prices now, and contact them and ask them for prices on all the above and ask them if there are other packages you can have

Let us know how you get on