Economy 7 Water Tank

Bmward

Hi There,

We moved into our first home at the end of last year, for our hot water we have the Economy 7 water tank in a cupboard upstairs. This was already fitted when we bought the house and the previous owners haven't left any of the instruction manuals. We can never tell whether we are going to have hot water left or not. Please would someone be able to help with some information on these tanks. When is the water heating up? Also how much is this tank costing us? Sometimes I boost it for 20mins if I want a bath so I know there will be hot water, is this costing me a lot of money?

Thanks

tim_p

How’s the rest of the house heated?

Gerry1

Use the immersion heater(s) only if you don't have gas, oil or whatever.  There are likely to be two heaters:-

• The lower one gives a full tank of hot water.   Should be on an E7 circuit that's switched by the meter so it can only heat at cheap rate times..  Leave permanently ON when in residence.
  

• The upper one is intended to give half a tank of hot water. Should be on a 24h circuit so will be very expensive if used in the daytime.  Should be left permanently OFF and only used for an hour or two in an emergency, e.g. if you've run out during the day or have been away on holiday.  Ideally should have a local timer so that it's limited to an hour or two and can't be left permanently on.
  

Beware that sometimes there's a cheapskate solution whereby the lower heater is fed from a 24h circuit controlled by a local timer.  That can be problematic for several reasons: it may be programmed incorrectly, there may be a GMT/BST mismatch, the meter may drift if its timer is the old silver/black rotating disk type, and a simple motorised local timer may go adrift because of power cuts.

[Deleted User]

Bmward said:

Hi There,
This was already fitted when we bought the house and the previous owners haven't left any of the instruction manuals.

Hi,

do you have a timer fitted, something like this,

Bmward

[Deleted User] said:

Bmward said:

Hi There,
This was already fitted when we bought the house and the previous owners haven't left any of the instruction manuals.

Hi,

do you have a timer fitted, something like this,

Hello, yes I do have a timer that looks exactly like that fitted. Thank you

Bmward

tim_p said:

How’s the rest of the house heated?

The house is heated with an electric wet radiator system. I think that is actually separate to the economy 7 though. I believe that purely only heats our water.

coffeehound

@Bmward are you on an Economy7 type tariff with cheaper electricity for some hours overnight?

EssexHebridean

Bmward said:

[Deleted User] said:

Bmward said:

Hi There,
This was already fitted when we bought the house and the previous owners haven't left any of the instruction manuals.

Hi,

do you have a timer fitted, something like this,

Hello, yes I do have a timer that looks exactly like that fitted. Thank you

Have you looked at the timer to see if it is correctly set for the time of day? 

[Deleted User]

Bmward said:

[Deleted User] said:

Bmward said:

Hi There,
This was already fitted when we bought the house and the previous owners haven't left any of the instruction manuals.

Hi,

do you have a timer fitted, something like this,

Hello, yes I do have a timer that looks exactly like that fitted. Thank you

Hi,

good, now as mentioned above, verify the time, should be set at winter time just now, if wrong twist dial round to correct time.

The Water Heater switch should be on, always, it will come on during cheap rate.

If you need a 'boost' twist round to whatever minutes you choose, it will switch off when timed out.

EDIT: Instructions HERE.

Robin9

Bmward said:

tim_p said:

How’s the rest of the house heated?

The house is heated with an electric wet radiator system. I think that is actually separate to the economy 7 though. I believe that purely only heats our water.

The E7 Water Heating timer is the least of your problems -  the electric wet radiator system has been compared to burning £20 notes (though £50 notes is getting more appropriate) as it uses on peak electricity and with E7 that is more expensive than other tariffs.

Typically for E7 to pay you should be having a night / day spilt of about 65/35 -  yours is more like 10/90 = disaster.

sebtomato

Be careful if you use a timer, as some companies have peak hours during the night, in the middle of off peak.

For instance, EDF Energy in South West London has peak hours between 00:30 and 02:30 during the night, even if you are on E7.

I am an immersion water heater too, but the bottom heater is only live during off peak hours.

The smart meter is only enabling the off peak circuit when it's actually off peak time (5 pole smart meter).