Storage Heater Cabling

Peter1988

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[FONT=&quot]I wonder if anyone could help me understand the result of off peak/Economy 7 cabling providing a live connection 24/7 to storage heaters?[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Will this effectively be consuming electricity 24 hours a day?[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I think the storage heaters that we have both connections are live permanently. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Likewise with our hot water cylinder. I'm guessing that initially I’ll need to manually switch off the off peak switches each morning.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]How does the electricity supply actually differentiate between when it needs to go off in terms of the Economy 7? are we supposed to have some kind of consumer unit with a timer? All electrics are on 1 consumer unit and provide more than just say Storage heaters so if this was the case, then it would also prevent other items working during the day presumably?
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[FONT=&quot]Thanks [/FONT]

Robin9

There would normally be two consumer units or one big one split into two.

The second consumer unit supplies dedicated circuits to the storage heaters and hot water tank and this is switched on by the suppliers time switch - usually 0030 to 0730. Some of the storage heaters may have a fan which comes from the usual domestic ring main (with a fused spur)

Peter1988

Robin9 wrote: »

There would normally be two consumer units or one big one split into two.

The second consumer unit supplies dedicated circuits to the storage heaters and hot water tank and this is switched on by the suppliers time switch - usually 0030 to 0730. Some of the storage heaters may have a fan which comes from the usual domestic ring main (with a fused spur)

Thanks for the reply. It's definitely only 1 consumer unit which provides everything. I dont see anything special or any timing device etc?


Photo - https://imgur.com/a/LvTGVJo


Where theres that 'immersion' switch that just comes on all hours of the day. it's a little harder to tell if the off peak economy 7 connections are permenantly on. Unless theres some kind of DIY testing tool I can use against the cable to see if its live?

Le_Kirk

Has this changed recently? Have you had a Smart meter fitted? True Economy 7 should have two separate feeds and this can (normally) be seen at the meter which, for Economy 7 would have Live & Neutral going into the meter and two Lives & two Neutrals coming out of the meter. If you only have one Live & Neutral coming out, it is not true Economy 7 but is probably just switched between peak and off peak rates. This means that, unless you have separate timers somewhere, your Immersion Heater and Storage Radiators will have power 24/7.

Peter1988

Le_Kirk wrote: »

Has this changed recently? Have you had a Smart meter fitted? True Economy 7 should have two separate feeds and this can (normally) be seen at the meter which, for Economy 7 would have Live & Neutral going into the meter and two Lives & two Neutrals coming out of the meter. If you only have one Live & Neutral coming out, it is not true Economy 7 but is probably just switched between peak and off peak rates. This means that, unless you have separate timers somewhere, your Immersion Heater and Storage Radiators will have power 24/7.

Thanks. Yes we had to get a new meter fitted as it needed moving and there looks to only be 1 live and 1 neutral going into the property once its gone via the meter itself. The control unit was also changed as everything was original from the late 80s.



Crikey, so basically paying to charge the Dimplex Quantam Storage heaters 24/7 during the months they are on and the immersion heater 210litres 24/7 as well! I guess temporarily will turn off the storage heater switches for the off peak and turn the immersion off each day until an electrician can hopefully resolve it somehow?



I'm getting a smart meter fitted tomorrow, i'm hoping it will help identify what the most draining power sources are, though that may well have been answered now!

thorganby

Peter1988 wrote: »

Thanks. Yes we had to get a new meter fitted as it needed moving and there looks to only be 1 live and 1 neutral going into the property once its gone via the meter itself. The control unit was also changed as everything was original from the late 80s.



Crikey, so basically paying to charge the Dimplex Quantam Storage heaters 24/7 during the months they are on and the immersion heater 210litres 24/7 as well! I guess temporarily will turn off the storage heater switches for the off peak and turn the immersion off each day until an electrician can hopefully resolve it somehow?



I'm getting a smart meter fitted tomorrow, i'm hoping it will help identify what the most draining power sources are, though that may well have been answered now!

Quantum heaters leave the factory configured to operate from two separate supplies, a timed off peak supply and a constant 24 hour supply for the control circuitry.

Your electrician who presumably fitted the new consumer unit at the same time, has commoned these two mains input supplies together, so that they will work on your constant 24 hour supply.

As your meter does not have an off peak contactor to control your storage heaters and water heater, time switches should have been fitted to use your E7 off peak supply cost effectively.

Charging your storage heaters on your expensive standard rate at 20.88p per kWh is ludicrous, when they should be using your cheap off peak rate at 7.05p per kWh.

You need to find a competent electrician, as the one who did this is obviously an idiot who has cost you ££££.

Since September you have used 6611 kWh day units and 2160 kWh night rate units costing you £1501.75.

Having a smart meter installed will not save you any money, you would have been better requesting a meter capable of controlling your off peak heating.

https://imgur.com/a/cso9ySs