Economy 7 timer, but no Economy 7?

macman

Spies wrote: »

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.

Then turn it down to 3 and retest.
The following is a direct replacement using the existing wiring and back box-just a straight plug in swapover:
http://www.heatingcontrolsonline.co.uk/horstmann-electronic-economy-timer-p-53.html

chris1973

Whatever your immersion heater is using at the moment will be nothing to what running multiple convector heaters will use when its the middle of winter and -15 outside

To get the FULL benefit out of having E7 installed, you need to use storage heaters. Sure you can have your convector heaters on during the E7 period, but you won't really get the benefit of them, unless you sit up all night, 7 nights a week and sleep during the day. So to be honest, changing over to E7, just for the immersion heater isn't going to help you any in your present set up when winter arrives, more so as E7 generally comes with higher than average peak electricity rates during the day, so you'll be getting cheaper electricity for your hot water, but paying WELL over the odds for heating your convectors during those winter days and evenings.

So every night it's coming on for 6 hours at full rate electricity, this is costing £300 a quarter.

Any reason why its set to heat for 6 hours overnight?. Is she up at 3AM doing the washing??

My Immersion heater heats the entire tank and switches off after around 90 minutes of powering up. So if you get up at 8AM, set it to come on at 6am and go off at 8AM, it would be physically impossible for a 3KW immersion heater to consume more than 6 units (6 KW/H of Electricity) in a 2 hour period.

Depending on the size of the tank the heating periods may be slightly different and a huge cylinder may require 2 - 3 hours of heating depending on what the thermostat is set at, but 6 hours is excessive, unless you are running a guesthouse.

Swipe

albyota wrote: »

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

It's definitely set to 60F on the dial so therefore must be inaccurate. My water temperature is just right for baths so it's not a concern. I always use the kettle for washing up anyway.

Foggster

I am on E7 and have storage heaters. My immersion heater is on all the time throughout the day and night. Summer elecricity bills come in around £40 per month and peak around £80 for a couple of months in the winter - depending on the weather of course.

I dont have two meters in my cupboard - there is a digital meter and you have to press the green button to get both a Day and Night reading.

macman

Foggster wrote: »

I am on E7 and have storage heaters. My immersion heater is on all the time throughout the day and night. Summer elecricity bills come in around £40 per month and peak around £80 for a couple of months in the winter - depending on the weather of course.

I dont have two meters in my cupboard - there is a digital meter and you have to press the green button to get both a Day and Night reading.

Why-the whole point of having E7 is just to run it for a couple of hours overnight on cheap rate, that should be all that's needed. If you neeed to boost it during the day for an hour or so you can do it manually. If properly lagged it will hold the heat for hours.
Every hour you run it during the day is costing you a premium rate.

albyota

Sorry Swipe, I thought you might be at risk of sending out wrong advice.

Swipe wrote: »

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.

But if its 60F that's probably around 15C, if the immersion heater thermostat is at the bottom of the tank, it is likely to be 30+C at the top.

Sorry to be pedantic, but people reading this could be thinking of adjusting their settings. :eek:

Swipe

albyota wrote: »

Sorry Swipe, I thought you might be at risk of sending out wrong advice.



But if its 60F that's probably around 15C, if the immersion heater thermostat is at the bottom of the tank, it is likely to be 30+C at the top.

Sorry to be pedantic, but people reading this could be thinking of adjusting their settings. :eek:

My mistake, I meant 60C. It's probably really only heating to around 45-50C then at the top of the tank if it's quite hot for a bath but not hot enough to add any cold water in the winter months. My filled bath water temperature is probably around 30C once full. I only have the heater on until it switches off when it hits set point so the bottom half of the tank probably never has chance to heat up properly as it would if it were left on for a few hours and used every day.

Foggster

macman wrote: »

Why-the whole point of having E7 is just to run it for a couple of hours overnight on cheap rate, that should be all that's needed. If you neeed to boost it during the day for an hour or so you can do it manually. If properly lagged it will hold the heat for hours.
Every hour you run it during the day is costing you a premium rate.

Do you think my electricity bills are high?

macman

I have no idea. It doesn't matter what your DD's are-what matters is your annual kWh consumption-what are your figures?