Storage Heaters not working - please help!

jjcoldinbrum

Hello,
I've read a few posts about people putting in new storage heaters and them not working properly (drawing power during the day). The responses seem to suggest that the meter may be incorrectly wired.

We have storage heaters. They were working fine until our meter got changed. With the new meter the heaters draw power whenever they are switched on (day or night - leading to a tripling of bills!).

Any ideas? One person's already been out and deemed the meter to be 'fine'...not really solving the problem! Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

penrhyn

Your storage heaters should be wired in a separate circuit and are normally controlled by a radio teleswitch linked to the meter.
If the circuit is continually live then there is something wrong with it or the meter.



If its an old installation you may have a clockwork switch that has failed.

dunloadin

What type of meter do you have credit or key? And who came out to check it, your storage heaters should not be coming on through the day, any competent person should have sussed out what the problem was within minutes.

Not all meters have timers attached (teleswitching is quite old hat now as well) modern meters have inbuilt clocks which can fail, though it is very rare. As you just had your meter changed you probably have a new digital meter with 5 terminals, very hard to mess up the installation unless you have some wierd wiring.

If it's a Key meter check to see if you still have rate 1 and 2 readings, it should also show the date and time. If these have gone the key has been sent the wrong tariff last time you used it at the pay point, this will switch the clock off and energise the terminal supplying the storage heaters.

jjcoldinbrum

Thanks for your help penrhyn.that's useful info.

Dunloadin - it is a credit meter, the people who came out were meter people from our management agency (in charge of maintainance for the block of flats)...and you're right they do tend to be incompetent. When I say 'new' the meter was actually installed over a year ago now - we've been trying to get it sorted soince then. I think we may have to call someone out ourselves instead.

We definitely still have rate 1 and rate 2 readings, and they change over at the right time too. The heaters just love using power at anytime day or night.

Thanks for your help,

John

dunloadin

jjcolinbrum - the flat managment agency should not be fitting meters, unless they are private meters and you are paying them for your electricity. This raises a seperate issue as they are not allowed to profit from selling electricity on to people, so theirs no point in them having private meters in the first place.

Sounds to me that they have connected the supply for the storage heating to the 24hr domestic supply somehow, if it's the same people who did the job who later came to check it then it's no surprise that they found nothing wrong, as they didn't know what they were doing in the first place.

Is the meter located in the flat, or in a communal meter cupboard? Sometimes the supply for the heaters is controlled by a contactor relay when the meters are in communal cupboards, if this is the case then it is possible that the smaller wires used have been fiited incorrectly into the new meter.

Who is your supplier? is it the flat owners or a normal supplier (BG/Eon/Npower etc), if it's a regular supplier contact them direct and explain the problem to them, should get someone out who knows what he/she is looking at then.