Electrician says new meter needed... British Gas say we don't - help please!

Cinders2001

Landlord says we have to have a DM100 night storage storage heater fitted in our house. It's to up the EPC energy rating of this house.

All the physical work has been done, we are just waiting for the actual heater itself to arrive and be installed.

We are told it has to be on an Economy 7 dual tariff meter.  Ok. Fair enough.

We phoned BG and they say we don't need a new meter for our electrician to finish installation as he can use the attachment 'bits' on the current meter to finish the job then they will digitally or whatever change it to a duel tariff for the night storage heater.

This current meter BG changed in January.

So they know what meter we have.

It has 4 attachment places under it that have thick wires coming out of them.

All 4 are in use.

There are 2 more thick wires for the heater that are supposed to go into it somehow!

Can someone tell me where they are meant to go please?

There just isn't room!

Thank you.

Feeling desperate now.

Mark_d

Smart meters have the capability to deal with switched load though the supplier should configure the switching times.  You should be able to find technical details, regarding the wiring of your meter, if you Google for the meter's make and model.

BarelySentientAI

Your electrician shouldn't be wiring anything into the meter.  There should only be four wires coming out of there.

The heater gets wired into a consumer unit (fuse box) just like everything else.

If you want a separate consumer unit just for the heater, then you put a junction box (usually called a Henley block) between the meter and your existing fuse box.

Any competent electrician should know this.

EssexHebridean

@BarelySentientAI - a standard 4 lead meter isn't going to work for the switching needed for E7 though, is it? 

BarelySentientAI

EssexHebridean said:

@BarelySentientAI - a standard 4 lead meter isn't going to work for the switching needed for E7 though, is it? 

A 4 lead smart meter should switch registers correctly and track peak vs off-peak overall.

A small fifth connection (so not one of the two fat wires) could control an external contactor through ALCS if you wanted circuits to only be live at off peak, but that isn't necessary to run a storage heater.  Could be what BG were talking about though.

You don't need a five terminal meter for economy 7.

EssexHebridean

Got you - and yes, of course that makes sense if no specific circuit activation is needed I guess. I was thinking about it from our perspective of having had an E7 circuit which had to be physically activated at the right time. 

OP - one thing you should be aware of is that BG have had various ongoing issues with smart meters and E7 - it might be worth you investigating whether those are now resolved. Also you will need to be scrupulously careful about the timing settings for the heater too, to avoid it charging at peak times. 

Reed_Richards

EssexHebridean said:

.... I was thinking about it from our perspective of having had an E7 circuit which had to be physically activated at the right time.... 

... as, presumably, was the electrician.  That's "old school", isn't it?

EssexHebridean

Reed_Richards said:

EssexHebridean said:

.... I was thinking about it from our perspective of having had an E7 circuit which had to be physically activated at the right time.... 

... as, presumably, was the electrician.  That's "old school", isn't it?

I wonder if that is what the electrician has been asked to do - if the Landlord is concerned about their tenants ending up with a big bill, or if the particular heater being fitted is designed to work that way? The model of heater that the OP mentioned isn't one I know anything about at all, so it could be that it doesn't have the ability to programme the operating times? (That would in turn also be "old school"!) 

Reed_Richards

I wondered if the night storage heater was actually a QM100 rather than a DM100?

Xbigman

There are a few basic questions that spring to mind. How is the house currently heated? You say you are having a storage heater fitted, how will the other rooms be heated? You do not need E7 to run a night storage heater its just that it usually works out cheaper. If you end up with a mixed heating system with some rooms night storage and some not it will all come down to your split between day and night use. Its possible (but rare) to use all E7 but still have such high day use over the year that flat rate is cheaper. You need to do the sums and decide. 


Darren

EssexHebridean

Reed_Richards said:

I wondered if the night storage heater was actually a QM100 rather than a DM100?

Yes - that occurred to me as well. If so, then it can indeed be programmed although there is a massive risk that if things go wrong, the user will be hit with a chunky bill as a result.