Electricity help - new home!

harj1185

Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post in or not but here goes!

Moved into a one bed house last month as a tenant, moving out first time alone and am having problems with the heating and water.

The whole house is electric only and is on the economy 7 tariff. I have an immersion water heater and electric ceiling heating. However the landlords seems a bit clueless in that he cannot explain how it all works properly!

I have been told the water and heating work during the night only, how is this? I get the hot water, but this also doesn't seem to be true. There are two switches next to the boiler and only the top one works, which seems to leave the water hot all the time, not at night only! Also, with the ceiling heating, there are a few thermostats in the house, however there doesn't seem to be any timer so I can set it to come on in the morning?

Hopefully someone may have a similar set-up and can help!

Premier_2

The ceiling heater will work whenever you switch it on (subject to thermostat settings)

Regarding the hot water tank, can you identify where the immersion heater is? It is a circular boss, older ones were usually metal and newer ones plastic, about 3" diameter, with a cable going to it.

It will either be top mounted or you will have 2 side mounted ones.

If yours is side mounted, it could be that the lower one will only heat the water using offf peak electricity so leave it on one night and see what happens.
If it doesn't heat the water, then it (or it's thermostat) is bust - inform the LL to get it fixed.

The upper one will work whenever switched on ... but remember it only heats water above the heater so probably only about 25% of the tank.

With a top mounted heater, it has 2 elements; one short one and one long one that goes almost to the bottom of the tank ... so again only the longer one will heat the whole tank. It could be only the longer one works during the off peak period.

If you discover the heater element (whether side or top mounted) is wired to come on whenever turned on, you really need to use a timer to take advantage of heating the whole tank using cheap rate electricity. That should normally be enough to supply hot water all day (depending on usage). If you find you need a top up during the day, use the higher/shorter element.

Remember that with E7, all electricity you use during low rate period is charged at the low rate.

harj1185

Premier wrote: »

The ceiling heater will work whenever you switch it on (subject to thermostat settings)

Regarding the hot water tank, can you identify where the immersion heater is? It is a circular boss, older ones were usually metal and newer ones plastic, about 3" diameter, with a cable going to it.

It will either be top mounted or you will have 2 side mounted ones.

If yours is side mounted, it could be that the lower one will only heat the water using offf peak electricity so leave it on one night and see what happens.
If it doesn't heat the water, then it (or it's thermostat) is bust - inform the LL to get it fixed.

The upper one will work whenever switched on ... but remember it only heats water above the heater so probably only about 25% of the tank.

With a top mounted heater, it has 2 elements; one short one and one long one that goes almost to the bottom of the tank ... so again only the longer one will heat the whole tank. It could be only the longer one works during the off peak period.

If you discover the heater element (whether side or top mounted) is wired to come on whenever turned on, you really need to use a timer to take advantage of heating the whole tank using cheap rate electricity. That should normally be enough to supply hot water all day (depending on usage). If you find you need a top up during the day, use the higher/shorter element.

Remember that with E7, all electricity you use during low rate period is charged at the low rate.

Thanks for the reply!

I have two side mounted ones that go to switches, the top one works and a red light comes on but the bottom one does not. I will check toninght if it comes on during e7 hours, if not I will have to speak to the LL as he told me to just leave the top one on!!!

LL also said he thinls the ceiling heating works on e7, but you stated above it seems to just turn on when required, which is what I think too, which is annoying as it seems there is no way to time it to come on in the mornings before work!