Can anyone throw any light on this Heatwise tariff? There are some helpful posts but I am still confused. I have come into this because my mother, who is 85, living in a modern, small well insulated, but completely electric with storage heaters house on a sheltered housing place is now in some distress. She swapped from economy 7 but wanted to stay on an age concern tariff last Autumn. She went to Heatwise, and had economy 7 removed. She says she wanted to stay on Age Concern tariff. She's with Eon.

This week after lengthy conversations with Eon I discovered that they had not read the meter but she had had estimated bills since the change to Heatwise - in February they told her she was £38.79 in credit, but the bill showed that there were more day units that night- apparently somehow the readings were back to front.
By May they managed to read the meter, and on May 14 they sent her a 'Notice of High Bill" . She sent them her own readings and on the phone they said there had been a mistake and she would be £300 approx in credit.
May 20th a bill for £497 arrived. Plus a request to raise her DD to £68 per month.
She rang them again and discussed the bill, May 21st new statement, in debt £376.95.

They are claiming she has used £787 electricity since September, previously she paid £50 per month DD and it covered the bill!

I have now had two conversations with Eon. I find their bills /explanations completely ununderstandable. However they have promised me a written explanation. I look forward to it.

Can anyone throw any light on this Heatwise plan? She seems to be on Price Protection 17 as well. I have questioned what advice she was given before she change from age Concern- the person at Eon stated to me that Price Protection charges are higher - but clearly she chose to go for an expensive fix. - however I have to wonder what advice they gave her!

To make matters worse comparison sites don't seem to have Heatwise on - so I can't se if she can get it cheaper. Any advice on what might be a good tariff for this situation? Is it worth having the meter checked?

Hi Worried Mum

I am sorry to hear about the problems u have been having with your mothers electricity account with Eon's Heatwise tariff. I did respond back to an earlier post in April concering another customer of Heatwise, if you want to have a look at that then please click on the link: http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/economy-7-with-heatwise-plan-25397.aspx

Interestingly enough reading back on that post, a person called malc-eon, so i presume he works there, states that customers on their Heatwise tariff cant be on Price Protection or Online tariffs, I find this contradictory to your post, and this would be a significant disadvantage to customers like you and me interested in fixing rates when they are lower against possible price rises, online tariffs are also reknown for being cheaper, i infact run my mothers account online with ScottishPower, I print off the bills for her and she gets the best rates.

One thing which strikes me about your post is that fact you mention the difference in balances, which seems linked to how they were billing the meter readings. Energy Companies are now bound by the ERA guidelines which means they are not allowed to back bill for mistakes concerning energy billing, one such rule is transposed readings (being the wrong way round, which they realise and correct and hey presto big bill) this guidelines state they can only do this for a max of 1 year.

Best thing would be to get hold of every past bill and see if the readings are consecutive to the last one, and against current readings today. this would indicate how they have been billing you. Also i would confirm/clarify the rules on which tariff they can be added too..

I may have misread or not read, but unsure how long this has been going on for. I would ask either contact EON again and ask them to keep the monthly DD payments at the same amount until your dispute is cleared. I would ask for your call to be escalated to either their customer care/complaints team or a manager if you feel it is not being properly handled, ask for their complaints proceedure, all companies have one, especially since the new energy ombudsman came into force. if after 8 weeks your complaint has now been resolved you can ask for a deadlock letter and take it to the ombudsman. all this should be explained to you by eon or in writing.

Hope everything turns out ok

Hi worried mum

I am sorry our Heatwise tariff is causing your mother distress. It may help if I give you a brief description of how Heatwise works.

Heatwise meters are designed for all electric properties with storage heaters. They give 10 hours of storage and water heating at a cheaper rate. This is split into three blocks at the following times for week days.

3 hours in the afternoon between 1pm and 4.30pm.

2 hours in the evening between 5.30pm and 10pm.

5 hours at night between 12am and 7am.

At week ends the times are as follows.

3 hours in the afternoon between 1pm and 5.30pm.

2 hours in the evening between 5.30pm and 10pm.

5 hours at night between 12am and 8am.

Heatwise is a comfort tariff rather than an economical one. It is designed so the storage heaters do not cool down and the house and water should stay warm throughout the day.

Units used during the above times are charged at a lower rate. This is shown on your mother's bills as afternoon and night/evening.

You can have Heatwise with either a single rate or economy 7 tariff.

The Heatwise part sits alongside the standard/Economy 7 tariff. Electricity used outside the above times is charged at standard prices.

Most Heatwise systems are fitted with a boost button. This will give your mother one hour of electricity outside of the above times and can be used whenever she wants a top up.

To confirm, the Heatwise part of the meter is connected to the heating and water only. Units charged under this heading refer only to heating the house and water. All other electricity used will come under the standard tariffs which run alongside Heatwise.

Customers with Heatwise meters are not eligible for online, Age Concern or Price Protection tariffs.

If your mother has a Heatwise meter she will not be able to have the Age Concern tariff. However, she can have Economy 7 with Heatwise.

It is possible to remove the Heatwise part of the meter so your mother is on a standard system and eligible for other tariffs. However, I would be careful about this as the Heatwise part will be wired into the heating/water system and removing it may not be beneficial. I would ask an independent electrician for advice before doing this.

I know you have already spoken to us about this but I think it would help if you spoke with our specialist metering people. They will be able to explain in detail how Heatwise works including how your mother can use it to best effect.

Hope this makes things a little clearer.

Malc

malc - eon:

Well that's all very well. Yes, quite a usefull and informative description of the tariff hours, but nothing about something the OP was concerned about - billing confusion. Lets hear some confirmation about what the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing (and the law) requires of EON.

Many thanks to everyone who has replied. The information is now much clearer and I feel I know how Heatwise works. BUT today in conversation with my mother I have discovered that she actually had Heatwise removed and moved to Economy 7, so thanks for the responses and I am pretty surprised that my conversations with Eon didn't bring this to light. Actually I need to ring them again and ask them to confirm that this is what has been done, but am trying to raise the energy to do it!

It does confirm that you can't combine Heatwise and Price Protection, so that makes sense.



However the confusion does show how bad the billing is. You need a degree in accountancy to understand the bills ! I'll have a look at the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing. Thanks for this hint.

Incidentally today she received another notice of change (upwards) of her DD. I await with interest the Eon explanation of all of her bills and an account of what has happened since the meter change!

Hi worried mum

If the Heatwise element of the meter has been removed make sure your mother is on the correct tariff.

You are absolutely right in saying this should have come to light when you were talking to us. This is why I would check the tariff is ok. Also make sure it starts from the date the Heatwise was removed.

On standard billing your mother will be eligible for other tariffs. These include Age Concern and Price Protection.

If you are handling her account you may also wish to consider an online tariff. These give extra discount for managing accounts online. You will be able to provide accurate meter readings online too.

You mention in your first post about a series of estimated bills and readings entered the wrong way round. Do you or your mother have a record of any readings taken previously? If you do give us a call and ask for the account to be re-billed using these. In this way your mother will be charged for the electricity she used at the prices applicable at the time.

EON are committed to the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing. Consequently, from 1 July 2007 if a supplier is at fault for not billing a domestic customer a bill will not be sent which includes energy consumed more then one year previous to the bill being issued.

I don't have enough details to tell if your mother's account comes under the Code of Practice but it is certainly worth asking the question.

If your mother now has a debt on her account ask for a payment arrangement to spread the balance over a similar period to that taken to sort the account out.

Hope this helps.

Malc