Economy 7 questions

Supernaut

Hi folks,

Hoping some of you's could help me to understand economy 7, as a lot of info online is so far a bit vague. Me and the other half moved into a flat in the Spring which uses economy 7 storage heaters with an immersion heater. Meter is a pay as you go. Tbh I havn't much of a clue as to how this should work, but i'm guessing the immersion heater and storage heaters should come on between 1200 and 0700 only? Our storage heaters have input and output nobs that go 1 to 6, so if we stick on the input around 4 and the output at 1 (no boost) then the heaters should only use electricity between the economy 7 hours?

We've only started to use it recently, however I'm pretty sure its not working correctly. I've switched it on yesterday and my electricity usage has tripled over the last day, not really economical at all! What I've noticed as well is as soon as i switched it on at the mains the meter light starts flickering a lot faster, so I'm thinking maybe our energy supplier hasn't put us on the Economy 7 tarriff, or maybe this is something that needs to be seen to by an electrician?

Jamie

jk0

Your meter will have two readings if it's E7. One for midnight to 7am, and the other for 7am to midnight. If it does not have two readings, you need electric co to change it.

Supernaut

Had a look there, there's one grey box which displays our electricity balance and another box with a clear panel on it, inside which there's a dial that goes from 0000 to 2300 labelled economy 7. Any reason as to why it seems to be using the electricity during the day? Thinking we might just be on a standard tariff, and if Power NI switch us to an economy 7 tariff it'll work as it should?

jk0

Supernaut wrote: »

Had a look there, there's one grey box which displays our electricity balance and another box with a clear panel on it, inside which there's a dial that goes from 0000 to 2300 labelled economy 7. Any reason as to why it seems to be using the electricity during the day? Thinking we might just be on a standard tariff, and if Power NI switch us to an economy 7 tariff it'll work as it should?

Yeah, I'd guess so, though I'm finding it hard to visualise what you describe. Is it possible to post a photo?

Ectophile

That sounds like it might be a time switch. If so, it should be set to turn the heaters on in your cheap period (which might not be exactly 00:00 to 07:00). Outside the cheap time, the heaters should be turned off.

Night storage heaters will use a lot of electricity. If you have a hot water tank, the immersion heater should also turn on at the same time. But the overnight electricity is much cheaper than normal.

Edit to add: The blinking of the meter is saying how much electricity you are using, not how much it's costing.

jk0

I wonder if the timeswitch is packed up? Does it show the correct time?

FTA: In that case, you might be best off keeping mum. (If timeswitch is stuck on cheap time, it sounds like all your electricity is at the cheap rate.)

J_B

I think an electrician's visit sounds good.

When you say 'pay as you go' do you mean you have to buy 'top ups' before you can use any electricity??? (That's the most expensive way you can buy electricity.)

malc_b

These sound like stand E7 storage units. The input setting is for how much heat to store in the bricks. The output setting is basically a room thermostat, it lets heat out to keep the room warm. Boost is for warming the room up quickly but should be turn off before bed or you'll wake up to a sauna. You need to put enough heat in to last all day but no so much as the room gets too hot because the units still leak heat even when the output has closed. Hence you need to adjust the heat input up as the weather gets colder and down as it gets warmer.