Night storage heater settings for BST

Scot_39

Getferret said:

EDF Energy Hub Help states 

Daylight Saving Time

Smart meters don’t change for Daylight Saving Time (or BST). They stay on GMT all year round.

This is important to know if you’re on an Economy 7 tariff or a tariff with an off-peak rate, as you need to be aware of the hours when you qualify for cheaper electricity. So when the clocks go forward an hour in March, your Economy 7 or off-peak tariff hours might not match the actual time.

This also applies to Energy Hub as it displays data taken from your smart meter.

The meter is showing BST times same as wrist watch/phones etc. Do I have a problem with the smart meter clock I need to address with EDF?

I suspect not - it just means you have to be wary that when it says 1am - thats always GMT - not 2AM BST in summer - if you like the actual time.

Not sure what the energy hub is - but suspect it is because the whole tariff monitoring system is locked in GMT.

(I remember convincing myself my daily usage stats displayed on the IHD where also stuck on GMT - a while ago  - but vague memory now)

So unless - and only one poster has suggested so far his times do change

Say your region was

00:30 - 7:30 on GMT and meter sticks with GMT

on your watch, even your IHD - that really means your off peak is now

01:30 - 08:30 BST - the time we are now living with - the actual time by EDF speak I guess.

So in practical terms warning you off-peak times are different from what is says on all of your clocks.

In practice, for you as a user, it might for instance mean for example

Don't off-peak load shift washing machines to 00:30+ anymore - but to 01:30+ instead

Or dont drag yourself out of bed to shower at 7:15 etc if 8:15 shower good enough to make work or school etc.

Many people have complex arrangements around solar / battery / invertor set-ups. 

Some may need to reprogram NSH as yourself, or adjust timer switches (or rather not unless they self adjust).

Raxiel

Scot_39 said:

But others like @EssexHebridean @dunstonh - who said he had to change Tapo - not sure what that really meant.

TP-Link's Tapo smart devices, including the P100 and P110 smart plugs can be set to operate on a schedule. That schedule follows DST, shifting 1 hour relative to GMT in the summer. If you have an E7 or E10 meter arrangement that doesn't follow DST - and your Tapo devices are set to switch on during the off-peak periods - you'll have to manually set the schedule back to GMT.

Getferret

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

does your smart meter switch at the EDF times, if so your heaters should be set to correspond with it.

This morning at
07:25 until 08:29 both the smart meter and IHD clock displayed time BST. Smarter meter showed rate off peak.  
At 08:00 IHD started tariff change count down. At 08:30 the smart meter rate changed to peak rate.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

so you need heaters set to 01-30 to 08-30, to correspond with meter switch.

Scot_39

Raxiel said:

Scot_39 said:

But others like @EssexHebridean @dunstonh - who said he had to change Tapo - not sure what that really meant.

TP-Link's Tapo smart devices, including the P100 and P110 smart plugs can be set to operate on a schedule. That schedule follows DST, shifting 1 hour relative to GMT in the summer. If you have an E7 or E10 meter arrangement that doesn't follow DST - and your Tapo devices are set to switch on during the off-peak periods - you'll have to manually set the schedule back to GMT.

I thought they were used to measure load from posts here, didnt realise they also switched load.

My biggest loads are nsh heaters in winter and immersion in summer - so once saw they were normal socket devices - didnt read specs.

So maybe like a digital timer - with an auto gmt bst switch.

Whereas an old mechanical timer can remain as was.

Raxiel

Scot_39 said:

Raxiel said:

Scot_39 said:

But others like @EssexHebridean @dunstonh - who said he had to change Tapo - not sure what that really meant.

TP-Link's Tapo smart devices, including the P100 and P110 smart plugs can be set to operate on a schedule. That schedule follows DST, shifting 1 hour relative to GMT in the summer. If you have an E7 or E10 meter arrangement that doesn't follow DST - and your Tapo devices are set to switch on during the off-peak periods - you'll have to manually set the schedule back to GMT.

I thought they were used to measure load from posts here, didnt realise they also switched load.

My biggest loads are nsh heaters in winter and immersion in summer - so once saw they were normal socket devices - didnt read specs.

So maybe like a digital timer - with an auto gmt bst switch.

Whereas an old mechanical timer can remain as was.

The original P100's are just digital timer sockets that have WiFi for programming and remote control. Inexpensive, well made, and do the job if you don't mind having to use an app to control them (the only physical button on the unit is on/off)

The newer P110 costs about the same and is functionally the same, except it adds energy monitoring and can report live power usage as well as historical values in Watts or (once populated with details) pricing, which can be programmed with ToU pricing and can adjust for a tariff that doesn't follow DST.

That made them pretty popular. Energy monitoring for a low cost, and useful as a timer for when you don't need that function.

Related to the thread topic, I'm not sure you can run high current load through them for a prolonged period (not that I think it was being suggested) but low loads and short periods are ok. Were currently running the electric blanket through ours, it's normally on a P100 just so I can set a 1hr timer at bedtime in case we forget to switch it off before we fall asleep, but I switched it to our P110 to see what it costs to run (about 2p an hour on medium).

Tapo is a whole ecosystem though, we also have several smart lights and switches of theirs.

Scot_39

You cannot use them for night storage heaters etc as they are plug based timers.

NSH and immersion are spur wired - permanently connected - and the bigger models take more than 3kW - the nominal limit for 13A socket.

And like other switches - not suitable for certain loads (although it says 13A resistive on Amazon - couldn't see their inductive rating).

Many cheaper (say £5 high st ) domestic timers are 13A / 3kW resistive / but only c1A / 300W inductive. (Think motors, compressers in fridges etc, certain lights etc)

EssexHebridean

The thread appears to have been drawn down a rabbit hole full of red herrings - I certainly haven't ever suggested using Tapo plugs to control NSH's - which should in any event be hard wired - and frankly I don't believe Dunston would have done either, so not sure where that suggestion came from! (At the risk of encouraging the O/T aspect, I use mine most regularly as timers for controlling things like our heated towel rail - the cable runs through a wall to a socket outside the bathroom before anyone gets agitated - and also chargers for various things. Those are all things I want running overnight on the off-peak, therefore I need to ensure that my own timings are set correctly on the Tapos.)

Our E7 reliant devices (rather than the discretionary ones) are all on a separate circuit so the only thing I need to remember from that aspect is that I don't have to get out of bed at the crack of dawn for a shower any more, and I can use the immersion by just switching it on first thing and leaving it to do its thing, rather than running it overnight! 

Getferret

Finally resolved after many many texts the last couple of days to EDF.

EDF confirmed the smart meter has been mistakenly set to auto update when the clocks change from GMT to BST.  My contract T&C’s state the smart meter stays on GMT.

I was given the option to stay on BST or change back to GMT.  At least now ON BST I get to have the later showers and breakfasts

Scot_39

EssexHebridean said:

The thread appears to have been drawn down a rabbit hole full of red herrings - I certainly haven't ever suggested using Tapo plugs to control NSH's - which should in any event be hard wired - and frankly I don't believe Dunston would have done either, so not sure where that suggestion came from! (At the risk of encouraging the O/T aspect, I use mine most regularly as timers for controlling things like our heated towel rail - the cable runs through a wall to a socket outside the bathroom before anyone gets agitated - and also chargers for various things. Those are all things I want running overnight on the off-peak, therefore I need to ensure that my own timings are set correctly on the Tapos.)

Our E7 reliant devices (rather than the discretionary ones) are all on a separate circuit so the only thing I need to remember from that aspect is that I don't have to get out of bed at the crack of dawn for a shower any more, and I can use the immersion by just switching it on first thing and leaving it to do its thing, rather than running it overnight! 

No one said you had - but I added here as another area that is directly impacted by meters switching GMT / DST - or not.

And note in a latter post - I said 

My biggest loads are nsh heaters in winter and immersion in summer - so once saw they were normal socket devices - didnt read specs.