Electric boiler costing a fortune - advice needed

Premier_2

Here's the correct info:

wizzywig27 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack this thread mate, I was hoping Premier would be able to tell me about mine, like he did yours

Premier, could you tell me what mine is all about please, it seems that I am having the same problems as tsw004...

Aye, that's a Gledhill

It's just a hot water tank - but a complicated one that allows mains pressure hot water.

The main lower tank (you are just seeing the outer protective panel, beneath that is insulation and the tank is in the centre) is a thermal store. The water that is heated by the 2 immersion heaters This water is then used to heat a mains pressure cold water supply - so making it hot ready for supply at the taps. (as opposed to most hot water tanks that simply draws the water from the tank that is directly heated)

The downside is that the system relies on the fact that the water must always be hot in the tank.

The smaller grey tank on top is purely a top up/expansion tank to ensure the hot water cylinder and radiator circuit remains full. As long as you have no leaks, there should be no reason for this circuit to require more water. You can pull of the white cap if you want and see the water inside - you'll also see a ballc0ck valve inside there to maintain the water level.

One of those switches on the LH wall will be the isolator switch for the unit (but not the immersion heaters). The Grundfoss pump visable is used to pump the hot water to the taps.

The 2 electrical immersion heaters are operated by the switches on the RH wall. The one marked off peak will only operate during the off peak period of your Economy 7. It will be connected to the lower heater allowing the entire tank to heat up.

The Boost will be the higher mounted immersion heater about 1/3 from the top - it only heats the water above this and will be used to maintain the heat in the tank (at least that above the heater) should a top up be required during the day.

wizzywig27

Premier wrote: »

Here's the correct info:


Aye, that's a Gledhill

It's just a hot water tank - but a complicated one that allows mains pressure hot water.

The main lower tank (you are just seeing the outer protective panel, beneath that is insulation and the tank is in the centre) is a thermal store. The water that is heated by the 2 immersion heaters This water is then used to heat a mains pressure cold water supply - so making it hot ready for supply at the taps.

The downside is that the system relies on the fact that the water must always be hot in the tank.

The smaller grey tank on top is purely a top up/expansion tank to ensure the hot water cylinder and radiator circuit remains full. As long as you have no leaks, there should be no reason for this circuit to require more water. You can pull of the white cap if you want and see the water inside - you'll also see a ballc0ck valve inside there to maintain the water level.

One of those switches on the LH wall will be the isolator switch. The Grundfoss pump visable is used to pump the hot water to the taps.

The 2 electrical immersion heaters are operated by the switches on the RH wall. The one marked off peak will only operate during the off peak period of your Economy 7. It will be connected to the lower heater allowing the entire tank to heat up.

The Boost will be the higher mounted immersion heater about 1/3 from the top - it only heats the water above this and will be used to maintain the heat in the tank (at least that above the heater) should a top up be required during the day.

Excellent info mate, thanks for that, heres the problem, if I turn the off-peak switch on at 12pm, 8pm, basically anytime that is not offpeak, it will still work! should this not be wired to the offpeak supply?

Cardew

http://www.gledhill.net/pdfmanuals/User%20Instructions/Pulsacoil%20III%20User.pdf

Premier_2

wizzywig27 wrote: »

Excellent info mate, thanks for that, heres the problem, if I turn the off-peak switch on at 12pm, 8pm, basically anytime that is not offpeak, it will still work! should this not be wired to the offpeak supply?

When you say it works, do you mean the heater itself comes on, or just that you get hot water.

If the tank is already hot (or at least warm) the you will continue to get hot water until the 'thermal store' (the hot water in the tank) is cooled by the cold water passing through the internal heat exchanger.

If you mean that the heater actually comes on (i.e. uses electricity), then yes I would have presumed it only operated during the off peak period. i.e. was on a circuit that only came live during the off peak period. It could be that your property doesn't have a separate off peak circuit (they are often only installed if you have storage heaters, as opposed to panel heaters).

I would suggest if it's not on a separate off peak circuit you think of installing a timer switch else it's going to cost you a small fortune.

wizzywig27

Yeah, I can actually hear the heater warming the water, and my usage monitor jumps to about 1.8kwh

I do have storage heaters, which again, I thought were only controlled by the off peak energy supply? Trust me, it has cost me a fortune, I used to keep this on 24/7 without realising!

Can you figure out why two of my cables I plug the jaw to, provide me with a reading to my wirless monitor?




As you can see the jaw is clamped to the middle wire, but if I change it to the one behind, that also provides a reading to the wireless monitor

brysiewysie

I have nothing like the knowledge Premier or Cardew have but aren't both cables taking current at times? Some E7 and I guess all E10/Heatwise set ups have 2 cables that take power and you need a specific set up to capture all the current taken. I'm making theassumption that 'the jaw' is a sensing clip for an energy monitor.

wizzywig27

But on top of the problems I am having, I have four displays, one for normal rate, one for boost, one for off peak, and one for 2nd normal rate, the only display that is changing is the day rate....

espresso

wizzywig27 wrote: »

Can you figure out why two of my cables I plug the jaw to, provide me with a reading to my wirless monitor?

As you can see the jaw is clamped to the middle wire, but if I change it to the one behind, that also provides a reading to the wireless monitor

The middle wire is Rate 1, the wire behind is the Neutral wire, according to the coloured tielocks.

Premier_2

For electricity to flow, you obviously need a circuit.

I believe the reason 2 of the 3 cables give you a reading is that they are the live and neutal cables. The third cable is I guess for a off peak circuit (which presumably shares the same neutral cable) which you may be missing recording the consumption of - the off peak circuit doesn't work inplace of the peak circuit but in addition to it.

If you want to ensure you capture all your consumption, could I suggest you move the clamp to the incoming cable. See the grey main fusebox on the right, the cable coming out at the top on the LHS (the bit where the bulge for the fuse is) is the live incoming cable - the same cable that goes into the far left of the bottom of the meter I think. If you clamp around that cable you will measure all your incoming electricity before it gets spilt by the meter.

wizzywig27

Premier wrote: »

For electricity to flow, you obviously need a circuit.

I believe the reason 2 of the 3 cables give you a reading is that they are the live and neutal cables. The third cable is I guess for a off peak circuit (which presumably shares the same neutral cable) which you may be missing recording the consumption of - the off peak circuit doesn't work inplace of the peak circuit but in addition to it.

If you want to ensure you capture all your consumption, could I suggest you move the clamp to the incoming cable. See the grey main fusebox on the right, the cable coming out at the top on the LHS (the bit where the bulge for the fuse is) is the live incoming cable - the same cable that goes into the far left of the bottom of the meter I think. If you clamp around that cable you will measure all your incoming electricity before it gets spilt by the meter.

So if I choose to clamp that wire, will that eradicate the need for a 2nd clamp as well?

Let me clarify a few things, on the pic, the two wires that seem to be giving me a reading are Neutral and Rate 1, even when I should be using rate 2 (after 12am) there was no reading coming from that cable..