Switching from RHT to Economy 7

jd87

I currently rent a flat which has storage heaters and an RHT meter set up. This means that the storage heaters take in power between midday-4pm and midnight-8am on the "cheaper" rate meter. Everything else in the flat runs from the other meter so is charged at the higher rate at all times.

We did have a hot water tank which had two immersion heaters. The lower one ran off the RHT, the upper one was a boost which ran off the normal meter so could be switched on whenever we like. The landlord has now had this tank replaced with one that just has a single immersion which runs off the normal meter.

Now that the RHT water heating has gone, I think it would be better if the flat was on Economy 7 instead. How would this work with the storage heaters though? There are no timing controls on the storage heaters, they just come on when the RHT circuit comes on. With Economy 7 how would we ensure the storage heaters only come on during the cheap times? Can this still be done by the meter, or would we need timers fitted on the storage heaters?

Richie-from-the-Boro

jd87 wrote: »

I currently rent a flat which has storage heaters and an RHT meter set up. This means that the storage heaters take in power between midday-4pm and midnight-8am on the "cheaper" rate meter. Everything else in the flat runs from the other meter so is charged at the higher rate at all times.

We did have a hot water tank which had two immersion heaters. The lower one ran off the RHT, the upper one was a boost which ran off the normal meter so could be switched on whenever we like. The landlord has now had this tank replaced with one that just has a single immersion which runs off the normal meter.

Now that the RHT water heating has gone, I think it would be better if the flat was on Economy 7 instead. How would this work with the storage heaters though? There are no timing controls on the storage heaters, they just come on when the RHT circuit comes on. With Economy 7 how would we ensure the storage heaters only come on during the cheap times? Can this still be done by the meter, or would we need timers fitted on the storage heaters?

- you contracted to rent a dwelling with 365 days of half price boiling water every day
- has you landlord, without your permission forced your annual energy bills up considerably ?
- and .. .. reduced your rent costs to compensate like~with~like for the increased running costs ?
- or did you initiate and request the change ?
- a small direct cylinder costs about £200, a decent 200L costs about £500

You should endeavour to get the PartL cylinder reinstated and the crappy cheapskate taken out - it'll cost you extra that was not part of your 'understandings' when you signed the contract for the rental.

The direct answer to your question is the E10 tariff should continue to work on the stored heat side as it did before, going to E7 simply means the switching will go to 7 hours overnight only, you will lose the daytime / evening boost to your storage heaters. You will of course now need to use the full price 'immersion' heater for your hot water needs.

"""How would we ensure the storage heaters only come on during the cheap times?""" its out of your control - and always was - its usually 'teleswitched' by a radio signal, and as stated above, assuming you are on E10 / Restricted Hour Tariff will continue to work as it did before, going to E7 it will continue to work as it did before.

Changing RHT meters out for a standard meter usually costs about £50 a pop and needs a qualified electrician to check over your set up. The cost of this and any remedial work would be your landlords / or / your own responsibility. All work this side of the tails is nothing to do with the supplier and indeed their engineers are not allowed to do any work at all downstream of your meter. What needs to be done depends on the original wiring of the dwelling, what changes the new water cylinder has made to the wiring and what the DNO supplies. Some properly have an additional separate CU with autoswitching downstream of the [tails] meter, others do not and the result is either no leccy at all outside E10 tariff times or worse

Put simply an electrician will test and rearrange everything this side of your electricity meter to work on whichever meter / tariff you choose to change to.

jd87

The change of tank just happened, the old one was broken. We didn't request it and I don't think the landlord/mangement people really understand (or care about) the set-up with RHT and the two immersion heaters, despite me trying to explain it to them, so it's what the plumbing people just fitted.

I'm happy with the new tank though. We have an electric shower and a dishwasher, and we're happy washing our hands with soap and cold water, so we don't need hot water every day. I'm happy that we can now have a full tank of hot water on demand, instead of one where we had to make the choice between leaving the cheap immersion to come on all the time (on the off chance we might want hot water) or we had to make do with only being able to heat the top third of the tank.

What I want is the following:

I want to be on E7, not RHT. This is so that I can switch to different suppliers, choose an online tariff, etc.

I don't care that I won't have the daytime boost to the storage heaters. The flat is well insulated and we only have them on very low input even when it is cold.

Richie I don't understand what you're saying about the meters, maybe I haven't explained clearly. My understanding is that with E7 you only have one meter but it has two readings on it. With RHT I have two separate meters, the storage heaters are hooked up to the meter which is only powered during the RHT times, this ensures the storage heaters only ever use the cheap rate.

If I go to E7 there is only one meter, with electric going through it at all time. Yes there is a timeswitch which changes which reading moves, but as far as everything downstream of the meter is concerned, everything is powered all the time. So where is the part of the system that ensures my storage heaters only come on during the E7 period?

Richie-from-the-Boro

"""If I go to E7 there is only one meter"""

Its usually like this, the AMPY brand

If you go single meter there are as you say two or more readings on it. Its called a DUAL rate meter. In the case of E7 there is a (1) cheap / night & a (2) day core rate. It continues to be teleswitched and put simply at the point where it switches to night rate everything is cheap rate. To help your understanding the washer / fridge / dryer etc are all cheap rate. Put another way, along with the now live 20a heating ring is also your lighting, 13a, and cooker ring.

Now that's how its setup this side of the tails. Your side of the tails is why you need a sparky to ensure that your setup / CU and appliances work that way.