Economy 7 timer switch advice

matelodave

Gerry1 said:

@matelodave It's the same type of meter as in the photo I posted.  Must be two rate because it's 5-terminal, has the blue Cycle Display button and the light for when the 100 Amp relay has livened up the off peak 5th terminal.

If the 100A light never comes on then it's a meter problem for BG to resolve, if it does come on but the heaters don't warm up then the fault is downstream, so the OP needs to check their consumer unit, wiring and heaters.

I agree, but I'm trying to help the OP check the basics before pulling the fusebox to bits or floorboards up (metaphorically speaking). It should be pretty easy to check that the meter has been set for E7 operation with a couple of button presses rather than waiting up until halfpast midnight (or later) to see what happens. Just saying 

TBH I'm suspecting that the meter hasn't been configured correctly. Our similar meter was installed as a dual rate and the bloke came back and reconfigured it for single rate working in about 30 seconds using a laptop and an IR adapter

Gerry1

Is the off peak immersion heater still working?

coffeehound

[Nah I'm deleting that as it might be the shop that's got it wrong]

Gerry1

coffeehound said:

Wonder if the sparky has found an old Ampy meter in stores and assumed it's dual-rate like the L&G when it isn't?

As it has a fifth terminal, doesn't that mean it must be at least dual rate?

I'm also intrigued about how the clock is synchronised, given that it's non-smart.  Is it just a glorified digital clock that will slowly drift until a diligent meter reader happens to visit and happens to notice that the time isn't quite correct?

coffeehound

Ha I was too late in deleting it; think it was a red herring - ignore me

Gerry1

No problem, there's precious little technical info on the L+G website, let alone anything consumer friendly.

coffeehound

Yes it's quite a confusing picture between Ampy and L&G.

Re the timing, I had an L&G meter at my last E7 home, and it was still using the old radio signal system for switching.

matelodave

Gerry1 said:

coffeehound said:

Wonder if the sparky has found an old Ampy meter in stores and assumed it's dual-rate like the L&G when it isn't?

As it has a fifth terminal, doesn't that mean it must be at least dual rate?

I'm also intrigued about how the clock is synchronised, given that it's non-smart.  Is it just a glorified digital clock that will slowly drift until a diligent meter reader happens to visit and happens to notice that the time isn't quite correct?

The fact that its got a 5th terminal doesn't necessarily mean that the extra terminal and contactor have been enabled. meters can be configured to work as either dual or single rate (as mine was)

It's not ever so hard to have an internal clock in the meter, getting its timing from the 50Hz supply and a back-up battery to keep it going for several days or more. The 50hz is re-synched daily so it's pretty accurate and it's not unusual nowadays to have radio-synced clocks if they wanted even more accuracy

coffeehound

Wonder if the long wave switching signal carries any time-of-day info?

matelodave

This is available https://www.npl.co.uk/msf-signal and even your GPS has satellite derived timing. The MSF signal has, both date and time of day info and can set a bit to signal BST

Super accurate timing is now cheap as chips and available to everyone. How do you think your mobile phone works.