EDF storage heaters night rate not activating.

lohr500

OK, I am no expert, but the fact that both Rate 1 and Rate 2 readings have increased would suggest that the meter is recording your usage during the off peak periods on Rate 2.

So the next step as I mentioned previously should be to pay attention to what clicking noises you hear from the meter and the large white box on the bottom right of your meter board photo.

If everything is working correctly, the meter relay should click at the start of the off peak period and almost instantaneously the relay in the big white box should also click.

As I understand it, both the meter and the large white relay box should be EDF's responsibility, so you probably only need to check for a click on the large white box.

The relays are what switch on the power to your Economy 7 fuse box. If either the relay in the meter or the large white box have failed then you won't get power to the Economy 7 fuse box.

If there is no obvious click from the large white box, then I would be suggesting to EDF that the fault is with their equipment.

That being said, as others have suggested previously it shouldn't cost a lot to get a competent electrician to check that power is arriving at the Economy 7 fuse box at the times when it should. I guess there is a slight possibility that a connection has become loose inside the Economy 7 fuse box.

OpolE

1 loud click for the 5 minute ALCS test from the white box. 5.30kw/h on my IHD which suggests my storage heaters are using it. So I go feel my storage heaters

@QrizB
@lohr500

Wow:

Corridor storage heater with (1x button)(Only linked up to the night rate) is heating up from this test.

Living room storage heater with (2x button's)(1 is any time heat NOW and the other is Only linked up to the night rate) NOT HEATING UP WITH THIS TEST.

 the 

ArbitraryRandom

If I'm understanding correctly, that would suggest the problem is with the living room storage heater...? So not EDF's responsibility. 

markin

So the E7 element on the big heater has gone.

OpolE

But my corridor storage heater doesn't heat when EDF should be activating it each day 10:30-00:30 and 2:30-7:30. The night rate only button has been on for 5 days now and that's the only time it was given life was just now for the 5 minute test.

FYI I have mentioned previously the big living room storage heater will heat up if I use the left anytime button. Attaching photo again. 

Overall at 10:30pm-00:30pm the storage heaters do not heat up under E7 rate. It can't be me if my little one just started on the test surely?

Gerry1

markin said:

So the E7 element on the big heater has gone.

There's seldom just one E7 heating element, especially on a big heater.  It may not be calling for heat because of a thermostat or programming fault, or some failure of the 24 hour circuit.

I'd check the wall outlet spurs with a neon screwdriver, but the OP may not be confident enough to do this safely.  The good news is that replacement elements and thermostats are usually cheap as chips.

QrizB

OpolE said:

1 loud click for the 5 minute ALCS test from the white box. 5.30kw/h on my IHD which suggests my storage heaters are using it.

OK, that's good. If your smart meter tells the ALCS to activate, it does.

5kW suggests, to me, that your immersion heater (3kW) and at least one storage heater were energised.

Do you only have those three E7 appliances - living room SH, corridor SH and immersion? Or do you have more SHs somewhere?

OpolE said:

But my corridor storage heater doesn't heat when EDF should be activating it each day 10:30-00:30 and 2:30-7:30. The night rate only button has been on for 5 days now and that's the only time it was given life was just now for the 5 minute test.

From what you've said, none of your E7 appliances are working as intended on E7 - neither storage heater, nor your immersion. Is that correct?

But at least one (and probably more) did work when you did the 5 minute ALCS test?

This would suggest to me that your meter isn't activating its ALCS during E7 hours. The only ones who can fix that are your electricity supplier, EDF.

OpolE

QrizB said:

OpolE said:

1 loud click for the 5 minute ALCS test from the white box. 5.30kw/h on my IHD which suggests my storage heaters are using it.

OK, that's good. If your smart meter tells the ALCS to activate, it does.

5kW suggests, to me, that your immersion heater (3kW) and at least one storage heater were energised.

Do you only have those three E7 appliances - living room SH, corridor SH and immersion? Or do you have more SHs somewhere?

OpolE said:

But my corridor storage heater doesn't heat when EDF should be activating it each day 10:30-00:30 and 2:30-7:30. The night rate only button has been on for 5 days now and that's the only time it was given life was just now for the 5 minute test.

From what you've said, none of your E7 appliances are working as intended on E7 - neither storage heater, nor your immersion. Is that correct?

But at least one (and probably more) did work when you did the 5 minute ALCS test?

This would suggest to me that your meter isn't activating its ALCS during E7 hours. The only ones who can fix that are your electricity supplier, EDF.

I actually can't explain the 5.3kw/h to be honest. I just turned on the all day heat button for the main living room heater and it bounced to 7.38kw/h

My immersion heater button is off and not doing anything. Can't explain why its 5.3kw/h if only 1 small corridor heater is on. Also I believe its not connected to E7. Its my work around as I got fed up of heating a whole boiler and not using it alot

My immersion heater is connected to the top of my boiler so I get part of it heated per night for an hour. I can turn it on any time of the day but of course I'l stay up 10:30-11:30 for a couple of showers worth of heat for the next day to make it cheaper.

markin

Useful tool.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Contact-Adjustable-Flashlight-Electrical-Electrician/dp/B08HM7P6G5/

TheElectricCow

QrizB said:

OpolE said:

1 loud click for the 5 minute ALCS test from the white box. 5.30kw/h on my IHD which suggests my storage heaters are using it.

OK, that's good. If your smart meter tells the ALCS to activate, it does.

5kW suggests, to me, that your immersion heater (3kW) and at least one storage heater were energised.

Do you only have those three E7 appliances - living room SH, corridor SH and immersion? Or do you have more SHs somewhere?

OpolE said:

But my corridor storage heater doesn't heat when EDF should be activating it each day 10:30-00:30 and 2:30-7:30. The night rate only button has been on for 5 days now and that's the only time it was given life was just now for the 5 minute test.

From what you've said, none of your E7 appliances are working as intended on E7 - neither storage heater, nor your immersion. Is that correct?

But at least one (and probably more) did work when you did the 5 minute ALCS test?

This would suggest to me that your meter isn't activating its ALCS during E7 hours. The only ones who can fix that are your electricity supplier, EDF.

I second this, from the sounds of things the switching equipment is still functional but we’ve come back to the issue being a configuration error on EDF’s part with the ALCS timings.

Possibly also combined with a fault in the living room storage heater if it didn’t heat at all for the test, but potentially may have just needed a bit more than a 5 minute test to heat properly with its larger size.

To the OP: bit of a long shot but has your EDF account number changed at all this year? EDF has been in the process of migrating all customers accounts to a new system recently, it may be possible that in this transition your meter ALCS timings could have been messed up which could explain why you weren’t having the same problems last year.