Snug Octopus - how many radiators???

Parslee

Have had a bit of a battle with Octopus trying to get onto Snug which I won't go into, however, I've now been told we apparently have in their words "quite a number of radiators" and they're not sure what limit the Snug tariff can handle.  I find this ludicrous.  I've told them we have 7 storage radiators but only use 3, it used to be 4 but because of the sky high price we had no choice but to cut back.

Has anyone else encountered this problem with Octopus because I don't think 7 storage rads is a lot for a 3-bed property, especially when that's all the heating you have and they're not all used anyway.

QrizB

Storage heaters common different sizes. Seven small ones could demand less power than three big ones.

Nevertheless, if your meter can currently switch them on E7 I can't see any reason why Snug would have any difficulty. Octopus aren't changing any of your wiring, just your tariff.

Is this front-line customer support that's telling you this, or have they referred it to a more specialist team? Have they given any specific explanation as to why the number of storage heaters (rather than their combined power) is an issue?

Swipe

Just tell them what they want to hear and say you just have three of them.

Parslee

QrizB said:

Storage heaters common different sizes. Seven small ones could demand less power than three big ones.

Nevertheless, if your meter can currently switch them on E7 I can't see any reason why Snug would have any difficulty. Octopus aren't changing any of your wiring, just your tariff.

Is this front-line customer support that's telling you this, or have they referred it to a more specialist team? Have they given any specific explanation as to why the number of storage heaters (rather than their combined power) is an issue?

It was just an email from them saying they were going to have to check with "their team", I'd already told them we have only ever used 4 at the most but in the last few years just 3, quite frankly I couldn't believe the email it just seems ridiculous.  It costs us a fortune to turn the damn things on if we had an electric car I could get a tariff at half the price for the night time.

Scot_39

Although as above technically its just a different way to switch on / off those heaters. 

The frequency the load switched on and switched off (even more so with inductive loads) could maybe matter.

So unlike say e7, which typically switches them once per day.

Snug if select certain hrly limit patterns and even if select max and they part extend windows - seems from half hourly register examples switch them easily 3x per day, possibly say 7 or 8 times for 3 or 4 hrs user choice in 6 hr base if switches half hourly plus.  Certainly see ex whee loked like switched 5x for 2.5 gr choice elsewhere in 6 hr window.

Now my e10 meter switches my hw and 3 nsh - 1 c3.5 kW and 2 1.75 kW anc of course HW 3kW -  for up to 10 kW / 43 A - and that 3 times a day.

Except EOn didnt use a 5 port - it fitted a 4 port and large phyiscal box external 100A contactor - almost the same size as meter (meter plus comms hub bigger).  I've no idea if the contactor itself - are the same or different, but the same supplier did have a 5 port equivalent at time with internal contactor acvailable for them to pick instead. 

So contactor longevity could be a concern at larger loads and higher switch rates.  


[Aside
Discrete relay industrial automation decades ago -  lower power throughput than 100A AC mains - tge relay / contactor kit we used far from cheapest available - rated for 100,000 switch cycles.

Inductive loads in particular lowered expected life figures, but even with resistive loads, load itself was a major factor in tested mtbf - doubling current nearly halving life mid range (on basis of expected mean time between failure).

An e7 smart meter by comparison over say 15 yrs would switch  5475 times at 1 per day.
But if snug really did get up to 8x per day, that would be 43,800 times.
Much closer to those sort of certified limits.

So although the question asked by CS it might actually be a real technical concern from electrical designers of tge meters at higher loads.]