Another electricity supply question

[Graeme]

I have mentioned before that we live in a house with an ex shop attached, and both have separate electricity supplies, the ex shop using roughly 1500 units per annum, with a daily charge of 25p per day or

91.25 pa, plus VAT.

Ignoring usage figures, I am thinking I could save the daily charge by having the shop supply come from the house rather than a separate supply, and save ?95 pa. However, that does not include the cost of the wiring, which I would not attempt myself. It seems, though, that I would have to live, and live here, for a good few years before the annual saving exceeded the initial cost. How long is a piece of string? How many years? Ten? Twenty? More?

[alan_m]

As the annual cost is made of a daily charge and a unit charge the saving may be more than £95. With the combined meter you save £95 if nothing else changes but you may find a another supplier has a higher daily charge but charges much less for a unit.

[Ash Burton]

Probably 5 years minimum. (£500/95)

[Graeme]

Do you really think 500 pounds? Without knowing the layout etc. it is hard to judge, I realise, but with materials, labour and VAT I would guess nearer 1000, but it is just a guess.

Difficult. Were we planning to never sell, it would probably be worthwhile, but the house is large, and we're getting older. A new owner may want separate supplies, to reinstate the shop or perhaps convert it to granny flat, holiday flat or whatever. Dunno. I'm really only thinking out loud.

[Ash Burton]

If that's the case, i'd leave it as it is.

[alan_m]

Never try and second guess what a new owner will do. Your tastes and requirements are seldom the same as someone else.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Assuming the wiring in both areas is good, you could run a new feed from your meter to the other CU. That could be done by yourself, and the connection by a sparks. You could measure up the run and work out the costs of the cable, etc.

[tabbypurr]

On what planet would a run of cable cost you £500 or £1000? 2 new CUs as well would get you nowhere near that.

NT

[Ash Burton]

The OP stated explicitly he would not attempt the work himself.

2x 100A one way sf units plus say 10 m of 16mm2 swa cable and 4 hrs labour could easily come to circa £400 plus VAT

[Graeme]

I honestly don't know. Why would I need 2 new CUs too? My thoughts were to merely (!) extend the current circuits, one lighting the other power, by cutting in somewhere in the house, and taking both ends of the ring into the shop, and do the same there. You are thinking taking a new feed from the house CU and running that direct to the shop CU, but bypassing, or disconnecting the shop meter? I assume the supplier would just disconnect outside somewhere, although they would probably remove the meter (I assume) and charge for doing so.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It would be neater to change everything to one new CU - but not needed. Unless you must get rid of the second one for other reasons - like needing the space or whatever. Obviously the second meter would be removed.

[Michael Chare]

I would suggest getting 3 proper quotes then you would know the cost.

I would not worry about a future purchaser wanting to split the house. If you think you might do this yourself you could retain both supply cables.

[Ash Burton]

The DNO is unlikely to allow that if the OP doesn't want to pay the daily standing charge.

[Dave Liquorice]

Find a tarrif with no standing charge? What is the current per kWHr cost?

If it's more than 10p/kWhr think about changing to EBICO. EBICO don't have a standing charge but their unit rate is 16.42p/kWHr that would give an annual bill of £245 ish (same as 10p/kWhr + 25p day).

Other suppliers my have no standing charge tarrifs with a lower per kWhr cost. nPower did.

As far as the wiring is concerned I'd split the tails on the house supply with a Henley block, fit a switch fuse in the fed to the shop CU, substitute this fed for the shop supply, "park" the shop supply in another Henley block and switch to a no-standing charge tariff on the shop supply. No use = no cost...

Then sit back a wait for the supplier to query the zero use. If/when they do say you don't use it (true) and don't need it (true) and if they want to disconnect, at no cost to you, they can. (Or not if you want to retain the supply for future eventualties).

[John Rumm]

While true, there s no point in worrying too much about what suits

*them* best. When its their turn, they can change it how they like. It seems unlikely it will even figure in the purchasing decision, let alone be a deciding factor.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

With two supplies, just tell them you no longer need one of them?

My house had been split into two supplies when I bought it. Mother and daughter lived there - and didn't trust one another to pay a fair share. ;-)

When I re-wired and went to one meter, the leccy company disconnected and removed the not needed one for free. I'd guess they don't want unused ones floating around the system.

[tabbypurr]

Then your cost is cable & cable clips. Under £100.

Do you need to pay them to do that? Just cease purchasing that supply.

NT

[Bill Wright]

Easy peasy. Turn the mains off at the shop consumer unit. Make up a cable with a 13A plug on both ends.

You know the rest...

I'll get my coat

Bill

[Steve Walker]

My parents, along with an uncle and aunt, own a house in France, it has a single supply, but we bought our own meter for one half when we split the house in two. The total bill is received on the "proper" meter, the standing charge is split equally and then the unit charge split by useage. One, supply, one standing charge.

SteveW

[ARW]

Actually feeding the shop CU from an MCB from the house CU was my first thought.

Then you cancel the contract on the shop electrics and it's then up to the supplier what they do with their meter and their supply but whatever they decide it's not going to cost you unless you specifically ask for the supply to be removed.

They usually just remove the fuse and meter and leave you with an sealed supply cutout that only needs the seal cutting and a £3 fuse fitting to make it operable again. Not that that could be of any use to anyone with bad intentions .