Economy 7 Timers.....do they exist?

RedRaynsey

Hi All,

First I want to start by saying that this is a great forum, I've been browsing for a while looking at money saving tips!

My house is powered fully by Electricity, and we are on Economy 7. The issue I have is that the water is pretty hot all day, and probably doesn't need to be heating up between 1am and 8am. If I'm awake in the early hours, I can hear the heater turn off at about 4am, and then it will kick in again an hour later once the water temperature has dropped.

Does anybody know of any timers which can be used for economy 7 so that I can set the heater to come on 3 or 4 hours into the economy seven period?

ex-energywatch_adviser

Google 'Economy 7 immersion heater timers' to find stockists, prices etc. I'm surprised you don't already have one as they tend to be a standard part of the installation.

Cardew

Assuming you have storage heating, most houses are wired so that those heaters and the immersion heater only come on during the economy 7 period; and have an override facility for topping up during the day.

If your house is not so wired, it depends how your immersion heater is connected to the mains. If it is via a 13 amp plug, then a simple plug in timer will suffice.

If not you can buy a cheap timer that allows you to set any period of time and has a override facility.

Lastly ensure you know the exact timings of E7 - including when we revert to BST.

Oldernotwiser

Can't you just turn it off every other night or when you haven't been using much hot water?

Belnahua

You could try this:-
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=12726&C=Froogle&U=12726&T=Alias&MA=time%20controlled%20immersion%20heater

I use a similar device, so the water's only heated for a couple of hours early in the morning, rather than all night, and use the boost if I need a top up in the day.

Of course you'll have to disconnect the immersion heater from the E7 circuits and put it on the permanent supply; but it saved me a packet on heating water all night! It still counts to your E7 usage as long as it's on during E7 hours.

RedRaynsey

Belnahua wrote: »

You could try this:-
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=12726&C=Froogle&U=12726&T=Alias&MA=time%20controlled%20immersion%20heater

I use a similar device, so the water's only heated for a couple of hours early in the morning, rather than all night, and use the boost if I need a top up in the day.

Of course you'll have to disconnect the immersion heater from the E7 circuits and put it on the permanent supply; but it saved me a packet on heating water all night! It still counts to your E7 usage as long as it's on during E7 hours.

Ahh thanks a lot! It's already wired into the main circuit too - I've never thought about sticking the timer onto that!

Thanks everybody for your help - hopefully should bring the bills down a little!