No Economy 7 electricity supply - both storage heater and water heater stopped working?!

Bambi12345

Gerry1 said:

Check the fuse in the off-peak PowerBreaker.

Power down and unplug sensitive items such as PCs, laptops, TVs etc, then switch everything off at the consumer unit.  Swap the fuses in the PowerBreakers, switch on again at the consumer unit and see whether the peak circuits still work.  If so, then the off-peak fuse was OK and the fault is elsewhere.

Reverse the process to get back to normal.

If the fault were with the fuse in the off-peak PowerBreaker, why would that going also stop the storage heater from working? Just trying to understand before I start messing around with fuses, as I've never touched a fuse in my life and am nervous to for fear of getting something wrong/stopping my peak supply from working!

QrizB

Thanks for the photos.

Bambi12345 said:

Yes, you've got a four-terminal meter with a separate contactor (the white box on the right). Its this contactor that switches the E7 circuits, and it's controlled by the thin blue wire from the smart meter.

I can't add anything useful to the diagnostic info given by lohr500. It should click (and might feel warm) when it switches the E7 circuits on and off.

In the photos of your meters, it says "T2" at the bottom of the screen. Does it say T1 normally, outside E7 hours?

Bambi12345

QrizB said:

Thanks for the photos.

Bambi12345 said:

Yes, you've got a four-terminal meter with a separate contactor (the white box on the right). Its this contactor that switches the E7 circuits, and it's controlled by the thin blue wire from the smart meter.

I can't add anything useful to the diagnostic info given by lohr500. It should click (and might feel warm) when it switches the E7 circuits on and off.

In the photos of your meters, it says "T2" at the bottom of the screen. Does it say T1 normally, outside E7 hours?

Thank you! Just checked it now and it says T1 right now, 

QrizB

Bambi12345 said:

QrizB said:

Thanks for the photos.

In the photos of your meters, it says "T2" at the bottom of the screen. Does it say T1 normally, outside E7 hours?

Thank you! Just checked it now and it says T1 right now, 

That's good. Your meter is still in two-rate mode, so it's unlikely that your supplier has sent out an update that has switched it to single rate (which is one possible cause of the symptoms you have).

We're left with the basic issue; either the meter isn't telling the contactor to switch, or the contactor isn't switching when told to do so.

Bambi12345

Thanks so much for all the helpful advice - I'm going to try and record a video of the meter at changeover time tonight to see if I can catch a click. Will report back on results, as I'd be very grateful for further advice.

Bambi12345

Just in case it helps with diagnostics, got a pic of the diagnostics screen from the storage heater showing off-peak energy usage (or lack thereof): 

Gerry1

Bambi12345 said:

Gerry1 said:

Check the fuse in the off-peak PowerBreaker.

Power down and unplug sensitive items such as PCs, laptops, TVs etc, then switch everything off at the consumer unit.  Swap the fuses in the PowerBreakers, switch on again at the consumer unit and see whether the peak circuits still work.  If so, then the off-peak fuse was OK and the fault is elsewhere.

Reverse the process to get back to normal.

If the fault were with the fuse in the off-peak PowerBreaker, why would that going also stop the storage heater from working? Just trying to understand before I start messing around with fuses, as I've never touched a fuse in my life and am nervous to for fear of getting something wrong/stopping my peak supply from working!

I hadn't seen your post a few minutes earlier at 1107 and was assuming that the off-peak PowerBreaker supplied both the water heater AND the charging of the storage heaters.

However, best left alone if you're not confident about checking fuses.

lohr500

Bambi12345 said:

Thanks so much for all the helpful advice - I'm going to try and record a video of the meter at changeover time tonight to see if I can catch a click. Will report back on results, as I'd be very grateful for further advice.

That sounds like a good plan. You just need to be there a few minutes before and after the theoretical cut over time as it may not be bang on 10:30. Our theoretical off-peak rate is supposed to start at 21:00 GMT but the meter switches over around 4 minutes later.

If there is no click, you will be able to tell if the meter has changed by looking at the T1/T2 indicator on the display. Have a happy click hunt and let us know what you find 

Bambi12345

Okay so an update - just stood by the meter cupboard awkwardly for 10 mins, and at 22:34 there was a loud click and the display switched from T1 to T2 (I didn't get it on video due to it being a few mins later than I expected, but the click was unmistakeable). So it seems like there is activity there. Still absolutely zero power coming through to anything on the E7 circuit despite the consumer unit appearing fine. So where does this isolate the problem to...?

Gerry1

Was the clunk definitely from the contactor?