Economy 7

ZimDee

That’s all the meter and fuse box

lohr500

Thanks, from the 2nd photo and the meter model number SGM1406B you have what is known as a 5 wire meter.
That means it has two full current live feeds coming out of it, one of which should be switched to live during the Economy 7 time window for your area.
The switched live feed is the red wire which runs from the base of the meter (the red wire closest to the front edge of the meter)  back up the right hand side of the installation and up to the grey fuse box. 

If the system has been configured correctly then when you are outside of the Economy 7 window, ONLY devices connected to the main white fuse box should receive power. Anything connected to the grey fuse box should not receive power. All power consumed during the peak period should be recorded on one of the meter's 4 registers.

During the Economy 7 period, both red wires leaving the meter should be live and so power flows to both fuse boxes. During the Economy 7 period all the electricity consumed should be recorded against another of the meter's 4 registers.

Conventionally the peak rate is usually recorded on register 1, with off peak on register 2, although it is not unheard of for these to be the other way round. 


So in short, to answer your original question, all your electricity consumption during the off peak window should be charged at the offf peak rate.

You could confirm this by looking at both your meter readings immediately before the Economy 7 switches on, then just after the Economy 7 switches off. One of the two readings should remain unchanged, whilst the other should have increased. 

Check again later in the day and the one that increased overnight should not have increased any further during the day. The one that didn't change overnight should now show a higher reading.

Hope this makes sense,

ZimDee

Thank you all for help with this it’s very much appreciated. 

wrangler21

If you're like me the storage heaters will be limited to drawing electricity during off-peak times, but all other usage for the oven, washing machine or lighting, TV etc during off peak hours will be chargeable at the lower rate.

Scot_39

In older dual rate systems - the supplies used to be actually split into 2 separate meters - and only the NSH and hot water immersion circuits were fed by the cheaper off-peak meter.

You have a more modern configuration - one 5 connection meter with on board load switching.

If you follow the live wires - you have a brown live feed from the main incoming fuse to meter - and two red live wires out of the meter.

The one we can definitely see 100% of from the meter - the thicker one - goes via one of the white henley blocks "LLLL" - to connect to the red live feed to the main - white / cream consumer unit.

The second - the thinner one - from the front of the 2 RHS meter live outputs - appears to be running (along side the split neutral - from the second white henley block "NNNN") - up around the RHS of the meter (going behind the RHS partition for a bit at bottom ) and across over the top of the newer looking consumer unit - to feed the little grey consumer unit.

That is normally on brands I have checked - the load switched output - the one that is only live during the off-peak times. So the grey consumer unit is for your off peak devices.

So all that looks normal as far as the meter wiring is concerned.

The meter itself - should be charging E7 peak / off-peak for everything in the house. On both outputs during off-peak.

And the other should only be live during off-peak.

You could check that with a meter - or any leds on switched spurs - or just by listening for signs of power coming on at off-peak boundary.

But it is always worth while doing that register check - against your regional E7 times - and then checking when the bill is received - that you are being charged the correct rate for the right register. 

Not all meters uses the same register order - and people have been billed at the wrong rate - and it's a bit of a hike if end up paying E7 premium peak rate for your heaviest use devices (HW and NSH in winter etc)

if worried about peak rate power use,  are you sure all the heaters you are using are fed by that panel - or are some of your heaters fed by the other panel (plug ins, normal panel heaters in bedrooms, fans in kitchen/bathroom etc normally be available 24/7 from normal consumer unit) ?

Have you checked the scribbled annotations above the individual breakers / switches in the white / cream unit ?

In a more modern install - each nsh etc would have it's own breaker / switch - but at lower rating 20A iirc. But an existing install doesn't have to comply.

MCampbellBell

ECONOMY 7
I asked UW for economy 7 a year ago and they said I needed a smart meter.  I told them that I don’t have an adequate signal and would need an external antenna (transponder).  They ignored my advice and after ONE YEAR and much pestering they went ahead and fitted a Smart meter anyway. It has now been fitted and - surprise, surprise - can’t connect to the network - as I told them a year ago.  I have asked for an external transponder,  but UW will not try it - they say they are unable to connect me to econ 7 without it. 

BTW. Flo gas has a transponder for bulk gas and that works. I assume they work on the same mobile network?  

Is there an energy company that will fit an old fashioned duel rate meter? 

I am exasperated. My annual bill is £13,000 and I reckon that with econ 7 I could trim £000s off my bill.

BarelySentientAI

MCampbellBell said:

Is there an energy company that will fit an old fashioned duel rate meter? 

No.  New meters are smart meters.  The government decided this years ago and has told the suppliers to make it so.

You don't need to be connected to the communications network to be on Economy 7 though.