Multi-rate electricity meter

Myr

We are all electric and have been on an Economy 7 tariff due to having storage heating.
These are hardwired into the meter and the switching on of these is determined by the meter and should obviously switch on when the cheaper night rate kicks in which according to the sticker on the meter is between 23:30 - 06:30 GMT.
Last night, I was up later than usual and ‘heard’ the storage heater near me click on a couple of minutes before 23:00.
Looked at the meter today (which is in a brick outhouse at the front of our property) and saw the internal clock is actually running 34 minutes fast.
It is a digital meter and installed in mid 2014 so not too old.
Does anyone know whether the internal meter clock triggers the rates to switch over? Or am I possibly using 34 mins of higher rate each night?
I know that I could stay up late and check outside to see which rate of the meter changes between 22:56-23:30 but I am hoping someone may know as it is really cold here.

Gerry1

The meter will switch the registers at the same time that it changes over the E7 circuit.

Your only problem would be if you had a device on a 24h circuit that had a local timeswitch, e.g. if you had set an immersion heater to operate from 0530 to 0630.

Myr

Thank you for your reply. I was worried because when I submitted my last meter reading (monthly) being the first month that I had the storage heaters on, the day units had increased to the highest that had been recently too.

Myr

Gerry1 said:

The meter will switch the registers at the same time that it changes over the E7 circuit.

Your only problem would be if you had a device on a 24h circuit that had a local timeswitch, e.g. if you had set an immersion heater to operate from 0530 to 0630.

So can I safely assume that the storage heaters being hardwired to the meter are only being charged at the low rate because the ‘clock’ believes it has reached the 23:30 charging period?

Gerry1

It was probably the darkest month as well so the lights were on longer?

Myr

No, not really, we are only a 2 bed mid terrace and seriously not much has changed since last month. We only use table lamps mostly. Thank you again for replying though. 

Gerry1

Myr said:

Gerry1 said:

The meter will switch the registers at the same time that it changes over the E7 circuit.

Your only problem would be if you had a device on a 24h circuit that had a local timeswitch, e.g. if you had set an immersion heater to operate from 0530 to 0630.

So can I safely assume that the storage heaters being hardwired to the meter are only being charged at the low rate because the ‘clock’ believes it has reached the 23:30 charging period?

Yes, there's no problem with the NSHs provided that they are on circuits that are switched by the meter.  You'd only have a problem with something like a Dimplex Quantum that operated on a 24h circuit and relied on the programming of its internal clock.

matelodave

Perhaps a photo of your meter and all the wiring that surrounds it (including the distribution board and the wiring in between so we can see what is going on).

It's unlikely that there's anything amiss, but there's been a very long thread (probably about 25 pages by now) where there's been an obvious wiring problem which only came to light when the OP eventually submitted a piccy.

You possibly need to check whether there's anything that's on time switches independently of the off-peak circuit or that possibly the hot water boost has been used,

By how much has you peak rate consumption increased

As Gerry says, days are darker longer, you may have used the cooker a bit more, more kettle boiling, watching a bit more TV etc. Have you been at home a bit more, especially over the holiday period - even we get a spike in our household consumption (as opposed to out heating) over the holiday and we are at home all day anyway throughout the year

Myr

Well, finally braved the cold tonight and took readings before 23:00, at 23:15 then at 23:30 which confirmed that the cheaper rate was being recorded from 22:56.  

So it is changing over and the storage heaters are not using the higher rate tariff.  (They do not have boost just standard input and output settings).
Perhaps it was always set fast when the meter was installed by SSE and we never noticed?  

Will keep my eye on it though in case it gets silly.  I would rather it be slow than fast.

Apart from that we have nothing on individual time switches that are affected so I have no worries there.

Many thanks to you both for your comments.