Economy 7 Immersion not working

TBeckett100

Hi all

we moved into a house last week and the owner switched off the Econ 7 at the circuit board.

I managed to get the heating in order but the hot water situation is a nighmare - there is none.

In my airing cupboard I have a tank with two , what loos like emersion heaters. One at the top is wired into a switch on the wall and the bottom one is wired into another switch.

When I switch on the top emersion heater, it blows the electric and i have to switch it off before I can turn the power back in the circuit board.

I can switch on the bottom one BUT ONLY if the button on the circuit board marked immersion boost is switched off (which powers the shower), but nothing happens. 2 mornings on the trot now and still no water.

The whole thing was working prior to the owner leaving and turning everything off so I am still foxed.

Whilst I am on the subject of economy 7, i have a question about the heating. I have a heater in the living room and kitchen. Both have a switch next to it which i assume gives heat on demand. One heater has a second switch. Am i right in thinking the second switch keeps them both on the ecomomy 7 system but each heater has its own switch?

mute_posting

Re: Immersion heaters

You obviously need the top one looking at if it takes your main trip!

The bottom one is usually wired either to a seperate output from your meter (via a breaker either in your main fuse box or a seperate one) OR via a timeswitch (again via a breaker in your fusebox), the idea being that the bottom one is operated only during E7 hours and heats the whole tank (heat rises!) at cheap rate.

The top heater is a "boost" and is for if you run out of water previously heated at cheap rate, the idea being it only heats a smaller ammount of water, so although the electric used to operate it will generally be during peak (thus more £££) hours, the fact it is only heating probably 1/3 of the tank economises "slightly" (is still cheaper to heat it at off peak!) and also heats some water quicker as it is only heating 1/3 or so.

My folks had a couple of heaters fail over the years (go with a heck of a bang!) I'm thinking that perhaps recently the top one has gone bang (thus when you try to use it it trips the box) and the shock has damaged the lower heater.

Re: heating

Generally if they are storage heaters, they will only come on during E7 hours to "charge" which I imagine would be the 1st switch. Then in a similar fashion to the water, the 2nd switch will be for a boost (but using the peak rate electric)

HTH

MP