Economy 7 timer, but no Economy 7?

Spies

My girlfriends flat has an immersion heater connected to a newlec economy 7 timer, the problem is, there's no dual rate meter installed in the utility cupboard. So every night it's coming on for 6 hours at full rate electricity, this is costing £300 a quarter.

Why is there an economy 7 timer but a single rate meter? It smacks of laziness and/or cowboys that built this development. Can we get the electricity company to sort this out?

Any help appreciated.

HappyMJ

Spies wrote: »

My girlfriends flat has an immersion heater connected to a newlec economy 7 timer, the problem is, there's no dual rate meter installed in the utility cupboard. So every night it's coming on for 6 hours at full rate electricity, this is costing £300 a quarter.

Why is there an economy 7 timer but a single rate meter? It smacks of laziness and/or cowboys that built this development. Can we get the electricity company to sort this out?

Any help appreciated.

Yes just ask them. Are you aware that if you change to an E7 meter the day rate will be more expensive. What is your annual usage at the moment? How much do you think is used at the night rate? Put those numbers into the calculator on comparison website or post them here and you'll find the difference is quite minimal. If you had storage heating the difference would be huge but a small immersion heater won't make much difference. Actually how is the property heated? Why isn't the gas boiler heating the water?

Spies

Well by the morning, before anyone's really up, the energy meter is already at 10kw.

Heating is wall mounted convection heaters on another newlec timer but not used at the moment.

Swipe

Just set the timer for an hour. It doesn't need to be on for 6 hours. Even so, the thermostat should kick in once it reaches set point. Have you checked what temperature it is set at? You might want to turn it down to 65C.

Cardew

Spies wrote: »

My girlfriends flat has an immersion heater connected to a newlec economy 7 timer, the problem is, there's no dual rate meter installed in the utility cupboard. So every night it's coming on for 6 hours at full rate electricity, this is costing £300 a quarter.

Why is there an economy 7 timer but a single rate meter? It smacks of laziness and/or cowboys that built this development. Can we get the electricity company to sort this out?

Any help appreciated.

Presumably at some time it the past the flat had an Economy 7 tariff and probably storage heaters??

The occupant probably had the dual rate meter removed when(if) the storage heaters were removed.

How do you think that an immersion heater could possibly cost £300 a quarter?

Depending on how much hot water is used it would be unusual for the immersion to use more than, say 6kWh a night.

Even if it used the 10kWh you say is on the meter(fridges, lights, TV, appliances would come out of that) the cost would be roughly £1 a night - so £90 a quarter.

It is not up to the electricity company to sort out any wiring/timers etc in your house - their responsibility stops at the meter.

What form of heating is in the flat? panel heaters?

Spies

Swipe wrote: »

Just set the timer for an hour. It doesn't need to be on for 6 hours. Even so, the thermostat should kick in once it reaches set point. Have you checked what temperature it is set at? You might want to turn it down to 65C.

Wall mounted convection heaters.

The flat has never had NSH, its a new-ish build,

Total daily use is about 20kw.

Spies

How do I do this? The economy 7 timer has no facility to set times and I don't see where the temperature is set?

Swipe

Spies wrote: »

How do I do this? The economy 7 timer has no facility to set times and I don't see where the temperature is set?

To set the temp on the thermostat you have to remove the cap (secured with a small nut) on top of the tank. If your timer is a non-digital type (with rotary dials) then unfortunately you can't change the times. The only thing you could do in that case is to use the 1hr boost dial instead.

Spies

I'm looking at the thermostat now, it's a Cotherm TSE and it has numbers 1 to 5 on a radial dial, it's currently set on 4 but what temperature does each number relate to?

I've googled for the stat to maybe find some instructions to say what each number means but I've drawn a blank.

Swipe

The best advice I can offer is to test how hot the water on higher or lower is to the touch. To give you an idea, mine set at 60-65C is hot enough to sit in the bath and the water feels hot enough (but not too hot or scalding) after having added no cold water.

albyota

Swipe wrote: »

The best advice I can offer is to test how hot the water on higher or lower is to the touch. To give you an idea, mine set at 60-65C is hot enough to sit in the bath and the water feels hot enough (but not too hot or scalding) after having added no cold water.

Swipe, I think You need to check the temperature of your water then......:eek:

http://www.rwc.co.uk/public/HWBLF%20-%20FactSheet.pdf

"
Degree of scalding depends on temperature and volume of hot water, plus the length
of time the body is exposed to it.
It takes only seconds for a severe scald to occur.
[FONT=Arial,BoldItalic][FONT=Arial,BoldItalic][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,BoldItalic][FONT=Arial,BoldItalic]Scalds/water temperature[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,BoldItalic]
[/FONT]
Research (Waller et al, 1993) indicates that as water temperature increases above
50°C, duration of exposure needed to suffer third-degree burns decreases rapidly.
Healthy adult skin requires only 30 seconds of exposure to water at 55°C before third
degree burning occurs...
But, only 5 seconds at 60°C

Less than one second at 70°C."

An amendment to the Building Regulations means that as of April 6, 2010, all new-build homes across England and Wales will have devices fitted to baths to limit the temperature of the water to 48°C.