Economy 7 help

talbius

Hi all, looking for some expert advice

I just moved into a flat which is only powered by electricity. I'm on an economy 7 tarif with the hours 22:00-01:00 and 03:00 to 07:00. Which I thought was odd but apparently not.

Anyway I have a boiler in my cupboard with two switches. One which I think is for the immersion and one which fills the whole tank (the fuse to the latter has the word off peak written on it)

When switching on these buttons they light up and work there and then both day and night. I thought the 'off peak' switch was only
Meant to activate after 10pm

An electrician looked at it and told me the E7 times are all messed up but the utility company came out and said its all set up fine to the meter. I can even hear the click at 10pm when it switches over

So am I ok to just switch the full tank on after 10pm for a few hours and get the cheap rate? or does the switch have to be on a specific circuit to benefit from cheap rate which should automatically switch on and off. I thought about replacing th switch for a timed one to switch on during off peak hours only. But is pointless if it's not even set up to the off peak ring.

Not sure i understand it properly.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

werdnareklaw

Is there any type of clock visible anywhere near the electrical switches, fuse box or meter? If not it may be that the E7 is switched on and off by a signal sent by the utility company down the power line. If that is the case, you can't change it yourself other than switching everything off!

If you watch the electricity meter dials at the appropriate times you should see what is using the electricity, off-peak or full rate.

talbius

Thanks for the reply werdnareklaw

There are no clocks anywhere by the fuses box, switches or meter. I'm pretty sure the E7 is done via the utility company at the quoted times.

i thought the switch with the 'offpeak' fuse could be left flipped on knowing it will only activate during offpeak times.

The reason i thought this is because my previous flat (in the same complex) had storage heaters with the same sort of light switch. i used to leave them flipped on but the heater and the light on that switch would only activate during the low rate. i assumed it was the same everywhere. but these switches in my new flat work all the time. just means ill need to make a concious effort to turn them on and off.

Good point about watching the meter at different times. ill check that out. Thanks for your help!

werdnareklaw

No problem! I have a holiday cottage near my home and that is on the Heatwise Tariff with EoN. That has a special meter and the timing is controlled by this signal down the mains I mentioned. It is turned on and off three times a day and that includes the immersion heater and storage radiators BUT if I switch the immersion on when the Heatwise is off, the light on the switch does not come on until the signal turns it on! It may be a different configuration with your installation, mine was done 12 years ago.

One other check you might be able to carry out is when you switch the immersion on, can you hear the tank warming up? Mine makes a quiet simmering noise. So if the E7 is off but your light on the switch comes on and there's no simmering, there you go

I might also add that although it is not that cold at the moment, the person staying at my cottage is managing to consume about £7 per day, electricity :eek:

Cardew

talbius wrote: »

i thought the switch with the 'offpeak' fuse could be left flipped on knowing it will only activate during offpeak times.

The reason i thought this is because my previous flat (in the same complex) had storage heaters with the same sort of light switch. i used to leave them flipped on but the heater and the light on that switch would only activate during the low rate. i assumed it was the same everywhere. but these switches in my new flat work all the time. just means ill need to make a concious effort to turn them on and off.

It obviously depends how your flat is wired, but the system in your old flat was common years ago(and is still in use) where the Storage heaters and immersion heater only had electricity supplies during the off-peak hours; and the rest of the house remained on 'normal' electricity 24/7.

The trend these days is to have all the property electrics go on cheap off-peak rate for the 7 hours, and all on 'daytime rates for the other 17 hours.

If the latter is the case with you, the Storage heaters and immersion heater should be on timers.

If they are not on timers, they will be supplied with daytime rates between 01:00hrs and 03:00 hours.

I would get that those hours sorted out and have the 7 hours in one block.

HappyMJ

Does the meter have a radio teleswitch? It just looks like a box similar to the one on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch Some meter's in some regions set by the radio do have the times you say.

werdnareklaw

I stand corrected I thought the Teleswitch signal was sent down the mains. Embedded in the BBC long wave radio transmitter it seems!

talbius

Cardew wrote: »

It obviously depends how your flat is wired, but the system in your old flat was common years ago(and is still in use) where the Storage heaters and immersion heater only had electricity supplies during the off-peak hours; and the rest of the house remained on 'normal' electricity 24/7.

The trend these days is to have all the property electrics go on cheap off-peak rate for the 7 hours, and all on 'daytime rates for the other 17 hours.

If the latter is the case with you, the Storage heaters and immersion heater should be on timers.

If they are not on timers, they will be supplied with daytime rates between 01:00hrs and 03:00 hours.

I would get that those hours sorted out and have the 7 hours in one block.

It seems my water heater bottom element is not on any timer, nor the immersion, and there is a daytime rate between 1 and 3am. Though I quite like offpeak from 10pm as I can heat up my bedroom on low tariff.

Im going to check my meter and see if both peak and offpeak is using energy after 10pm. Hopefully it will only be offpeak then I can see about replacing the on/off switch for my boiler with a timer so i can set it to only come on during off peak time.

I no longer have storage heaters in my new flat. its underfloor heating with timers.

@HappyMJ

im pretty sure i dont have one of those boxes. though the meters are stored in the basement of the block of flats. ill need to check it out.

Thanks for everyones replies