Electric meter boost function

Wardee

I have moved into a flat which is electric only and I noticed if I press 2 on the my smart meters keypad it says I can boost. I've tried looking but I still don't fully understand what this means? From what I can tell it uses the 5th port but how do I know if I have anything connected to that port?

Gerry1

Sounds like you're on Economy 7 and would have storage and immersion heaters.  The meter has an outlet (5th port) that is only live at the cheap rate times, and the storage heaters and main immersion heater are connected to this to make sure they don't use expensive daytime electricity.

I imagine that the meter's boost facility will liven up the night time supply for an hour or two, e.g. if you've been away, the place is freezing cold, there's no hot water and above all you want Heat Now !  But remember that all the storage heaters and the immersion heater will be livened up, so you'll need to switch off temporarily anything that you don't want.

Would be quite useful, but should only be used very sparingly because you'll be paying expensive daytime rates.

There's sometimes a second immersion heater halfway up the tank with its own local switch that may be marked Boost.  It will be on a 24h circuit and should always be left switched off unless you've run out during the day.  It will give you half a tank of expensive hot water.  If so, use that rather than the boost function on the meter.

Wardee

I still don't understand it. I am on E7 yes, I have an immersion heater which I have to switch on when I want hot water which is a complete pain when I get in from work for example as I have to wait to have hot water to simply wash my hands. I think I only have panel heaters rather than storage heaters so once again I have to switch on when I want heat but as soon as you turn them off the room just becomes instantly cold? I cannot figure out the programming of it, seems very complex, plus I don't really like leaving these kind of electric heaters on all day/night. I've never been in an all electric place and it's getting me down a little to be honest. 

Gerry1

Wonder whether the place had storage heaters and an E7 tariff but a cheapskate landlord replaced them because they looked tatty?

Panel heaters would have been cheap for him to buy, expensive for you to run (on single rate) and cripplingly expensive on daytime E7 rates.

Confirm your E7 times by looking at when the the meter switches over, and manually switch the immersion heater if it's not on an E7 circuit or doesn't have its own local timer.  Do you have two immersion heaters (see above)?  Either way, avoid using immersion heaters on daytime E7 rates.

Apart from moving, your best bet is probably to switch to a cheap supplier that offers single rate even if you have an E7 meter; have a look at Neon Reef for starters.  It's a variable tariff so may suddenly increase, but it's probably as good as it gets in your situation.  Whatever you do, keep an close eye on the bills and make sure that your DD payments are keeping up with your usage.  Many people don't realise that a fixed DD is only a top up of a kitty which may or may not be sufficient to pay your bills.  Paying £X per month isn't All You Can Eat and can result in a big shock when the DD is massively increased because you haven't been paying your way and the arrears have to be clawed back.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay

Wardee

That's why I wondered if I could somehow check what is connected to the 5th port boost? The heaters are Hyco AN1000T, definitely panel heaters. I am on E7 but it seems pointless to run these unless I want to heat the room as heat dissipates so quickly. At the moment I pay 14p per hour on peak & 10p off peak. How do I switch the immersion? All I can see is an on/off switch, I only have one immersion heater but it's difficult to switch on off peak unless on a timer. By hardly using the heaters I'm using around £2 a day but the trade off is being very cold while at home!

Gerry1

Anything connected to the 5th port won't work during the day unless you select Boost on the meter.  Search online for the meter make and model and you should find the full details of the Boost function.

Talldave

A photo of the meter & consumer unit would help.
Are there two immersion heater elements in the water tank - one near the top and one half way down?