Do Electric Meters Change Time?

charlee1985

Hello,

I am confused as I am pretty sure that my meter was changing it's time to match the clocks, but this summer it didn't .

I called Ecotricity and they send an electrician, which he asked what the problem is and after I told him he rudely said "Meters are not meant to show the time or change time" and he left.

Is he right? As I am in Economy 7 tariff during the summer time the cheaper electricity hours are different than the ones in the contract.

Thanks

Carrot007

Some do but I think it's usually non domestic ones.

Cardew

If you have a mechanical clock, the time displayed doesn't change.

This means there is an hour difference when E7 cheap(off-peak) rate starts when GMT changes to BST.

e.g if your E7 starts at , say, 11:30pm and runs until 06:30am in winter(GMT) when the clocks go forward in Spring(BST) your E7 hours will be 00:30am to 07:30am.

Note: different areas in UK have different E7 timings, and many mechanical clocks are way fast or slow.

charlee1985

Cardew wrote: »

If you have a mechanical clock, the time displayed doesn't change.

This means there is an hour difference when E7 cheap(off-peak) rate starts when GMT changes to BST.

e.g if your E7 starts at , say, 11:30pm and runs until 06:30am in winter(GMT) when the clocks go forward in Spring(BST) your E7 hours will be 00:30am to 07:30am.

Note: different areas in UK have different E7 timings, and many mechanical clocks are way fast or slow.

No it's a digital clock, but not a smart one

molerat

I didn't think there was an E7 meter with a digital clock, I thought they were either mechanical clock or radio teleswitch.

Is this timer/clock in your fusebox ?

charlee1985

molerat wrote: »

I didn't think there was an E7 meter with a digital clock, I thought they were either mechanical clock or radio teleswitch.

Is this timer/clock in your fusebox ?

It's something like this



I am not home right now so I can't take a pic

Raxiel

molerat wrote: »

I didn't think there was an E7 meter with a digital clock, I thought they were either mechanical clock or radio teleswitch.

Is this timer/clock in your fusebox ?

In my last property, every flat in the block had a digital meter with two separate rates, consumption went against one or the other of the rates depending on the meters internal clock (which was wrong but that's besides the point) on a 7/17 split.

http://imgur.com/4tJc5Wn

It wasn't economy 7 in the sense of having a separate circuit that was only energised during low rate, but everyone who dealt with it (including the guy who came to replace mine when it was found to be faulty) referred to it as an E7 meter.

System

None of the meters change from GMT to BST.They stick to GMT only. A night rate of 12.30 am to 7.30 am in GMT becomes 1.30 to 8.30 in BST. If the digital clocks have drifted from the correct time, which many have, then that has to be taken into account when working out the night rate timing. Only Radio Teleswitch timers are accurate. Old 24 hr analogue timers the cheap rate can be anywhere in the 24 hours. They can be adjusted back to the correct time by a qualified electrician. Its better that they are left out of kilter and it gets the cheap rate into a more usable time than the dead of night
Last month I was in a meter room with 36 digital Eco 7 Ampy type meters. At around 10 am one or two were heard to be switching over the night to day rate and when I checked the actual true time on the clocks none were spot on and most were over an hour out. Anyone who sticks to the published times with their Eco 7 meters need to check the meter clock ( if it has one )