Economy 7 Failed to come on.

erb

Over the last 2 weeks my economy 7 failed to come on during the Thursday/Friday night/morning :eek: . Result was feezing cold house with no storage heating and no hot water in the morning. Had to heat the house and water at higher day rate :mad: .

The economy 7 is triggered by a radio signal sent by the supply company. After the second time the elcetricity supply company said they would send an engineer on 14 December, too busy to come earlier, to check my receiver in the meter. However, as it has worked every other night I think it might be their signal not being sent properly.

Has anyone experienced this and if so what are the chances of getting compensation for the inconvenience and having to use the higher day rate because I was deprived of 7 hours economy 7 rate on 2 occassions up to now?

jockettuk

erb wrote:

Over the last 2 weeks my economy 7 failed to come on during the Thursday/Friday night/morning :eek: . Result was feezing cold house with no storage heating and no hot water in the morning. Had to heat the house and water at higher day rate :mad: .

The economy 7 is triggered by a radio signal sent by the supply company. After the second time the elcetricity supply company said they would send an engineer on 14 December, too busy to come earlier, to check my receiver in the meter. However, as it has worked every other night I think it might be their signal not being sent properly.

Has anyone experienced this and if so what are the chances of getting compensation for the inconvenience and having to use the higher day rate because I was deprived of 7 hours economy 7 rate on 2 occassions up to now?

i have economy 7 but to be honest wouldnt have a clue if it didnt work.. ive got 2 meters which are outside so i dont do anything or know anything as long as ive got heating and elec im presuming it works ok ..

Cagey

14th of December. They are having a laugh.The cal centre will be taking it as a normal job. Phone the emergency number & say you have no heating & want someone out tonight.

erb

Cagey

I did phone the emergency number first (United Ulilities) but as power has not been cut and the economy 7 signal is controlled by the electricty supply company (Southern Electric) I have to deal with the latter. Southern Electric did say that if economy 7 does not come on for 2 consequitive nights then to ring again and they will treat it has a priority. This has not happened yet.

silvercar

I always thought my economy 7 was switched on by a timer in the meter cupboard.

black-saturn

I had to wait 2 weeks to have it fixed this time last year. It is triggered by a timer not a radio signal!! I claimed compensation for the time I was without any heating.

erb

black-saturn wrote:

I had to wait 2 weeks to have it fixed this time last year. It is triggered by a timer not a radio signal!! I claimed compensation for the time I was without any heating.

I think it depends what kind of meter you have. You may have a timer with your meter but mine is definately triggered by a radio signal sent by the supply company. Next to my meter is a black power supply box and on it the words " Radio Teleswitch Made in the UK 1989."

paul_h

RTS signals are transmitted as low frequency radio signals to homes all over the UK, switching the off peak period remotely. As these serve an extremely large number of households, it is unlikely that it's a problem with the transmitted signal as there would be a large number of complaints about the lack of heating.

It is far more likely that your RTS is faulty - insist that they come out and press for them to replace it if possible. It may not be receiving the signal, or it's internal contactor (this device switches the power to the off-peak consumer unit on/off overnight) may be faulty - they can become 'sticky'. Note that this contactor may be external to the RTS in some installations.

As for the compo, I'm not sure but I would think you would have to approach your supplier as your contract is with them. Check the fine print on their T&C with a fine toothed comb...

Cagey

silvercar wrote:

I always thought my economy 7 was switched on by a timer in the meter cupboard.

With Economy 7 the heating is swiched on with the Elactricity Boards time switch but the hot water is switched by an e7 contoller which is usually set to charge the hot water between 2.30 am & 7am on the cheap rate & has the facility to boost the hot water at anytime but usually at the normal rate.

If you had heating but no hot water then it would not be an Electricity Board problem.

paul_h

Cagey wrote:

If you had heating but no hot water then it would not be an Electricity Board problem.

OP had no heating OR hot water, see post #1.

The dedicated economy 7 hot water controllers are often fed with an RTS or timeswitch derived supply for controlling overnight hot water heating.

erb

Three weeks since I made the first post and in each week the economy 7 failed to come on during the Thus/Fri night/morning but comes on as normal all other days/nights. This leaves me .

The engineer will be coming on the 14 December and when it happens again next week I will ring them so they have some idea of the problem and hopefully come prepared to fix it.

Any suggested answers to what the problem is post on here and when it is fixed I will post the correct answer;) .

paul_h is pritty knowledgable on these things - any ideas?