Economy 7 Off Peak hours

annettetabs

I on Economy 7 and for the first time in the 10 years I have lived in this house I have noticed something strange about my off peak hours. I believed these hours were between midnight and 7am, however, last night after bathing my kids and having used the washing machine a few times during the day and my daily dishwashing time, i decided to but the boost on so i would have hot water later on for my own bath, when i went to push the button at what was about 6.30pm i notice my off peak light was on! I checked at various intervals and finally by 7pm it had gone off. So now I'm thinking I have either got an extra hour of off peak which is not right or my off peak is from midnight to 6am with my 7th hour being during the evening. Has anybody else got this? Dare I ring N Power who i am with to query?

franklally

With the clocks changing mine is now 1am - 8am.

mute_posting

depends on what supply region you are, some (maybe all?) of norweb region is 22:30 to 00:30 + 02:30 to 07:30.

Also there are a number of dirrerent types of E7 "style" tarrifs, some of which off-peak is split up through out the day OR at random times between certain hours (but with the provisio that you will get a total of 7 hours in any 24 hour period)

best to call your supplier and confirm exactly what hours you are guarenteed (if any) if you time things like washing machines to come on at what you "think" are off-peak.

HTH

MP

annettetabs

mute_posting wrote: »

depends on what supply region you are, some (maybe all?) of norweb region is 22:30 to 00:30 + 02:30 to 07:30.

Also there are a number of dirrerent types of E7 "style" tarrifs, some of which off-peak is split up through out the day OR at random times between certain hours (but with the provisio that you will get a total of 7 hours in any 24 hour period)

best to call your supplier and confirm exactly what hours you are guarenteed (if any) if you time things like washing machines to come on at what you "think" are off-peak.

HTH

MP

Thanks for this info, I'm in Essex maybe i'll give N Power a ring see what they say, If i get 1 hour off peak between 6pm-7pm as I suspect thats great. Currently setting washing machine to come on at about 4am this will give me another off peak wash!

mute_posting

Like I Say, it is worth confirming if the hours are variable - i.e. no use timing WM to come on at 6pm each day if off-peak isn't guarenteed at that time and was just a fluke that that was one of your "andom"hours.

MP

espresso

annettetabs wrote: »

Thanks for this info, I'm in Essex maybe i'll give N Power a ring see what they say, If i get 1 hour off peak between 6pm-7pm as I suspect thats great. Currently setting washing machine to come on at about 4am this will give me another off peak wash!

Do you have a timeswitch next to your meter? It may just be incorrectly set, can you check it? I would be surprised if 6PM - 7PM is correct on E7 in any region!

mute_posting

espresso wrote: »

Do you have a timeswitch next to your meter?

A very good point - Just remembered, my folks old house had a mechanical timeswitch to control the off-peak hours, it was consistently running slow and by the time they moved house it had drifted so that the 7 hours was actually mid-day, which was great as the water was always hot in the evenings when everyone wanted a bath/shower and the WM / DW could be put on after lunch which was convenient.

Howver, if you are only getting the 1 hour in the evening (and the rest at night) you are more likely to be on a teleswitch controlled by the distributer on good old long-wave radio signals.

MP

annettetabs

mute_posting wrote: »

A very good point - Just remembered, my folks old house had a mechanical timeswitch to control the off-peak hours, it was consistently running slow and by the time they moved house it had drifted so that the 7 hours was actually mid-day, which was great as the water was always hot in the evenings when everyone wanted a bath/shower and the WM / DW could be put on after lunch which was convenient.

Howver, if you are only getting the 1 hour in the evening (and the rest at night) you are more likely to be on a teleswitch controlled by the distributer on good old long-wave radio signals.

MP

For anyone reading this in the 'Know' i have a Horstmann Electronic 7 Maxistore timer in my airing cupboard, the time is definately correct and i altered it to summertime using the special button. Went up stairs a while ago and cycled through the clock as though amending the time and the off peak light comes on at midnight goes off at 6am comes on at 5pm and goes off at 7pm, I then wondered if Economy 10 was maybe what i'm on but this is more than 7 hours off peak but less than 10 - I think I'm going have to put about half and hour to one side tommorrow (for holding time!) and ring NPower, I'm really confused.

espresso

annettetabs wrote: »

For anyone reading this in the 'Know' i have a Horstmann Electronic 7 Maxistore timer in my airing cupboard, the time is definately correct and i altered it to summertime using the special button..........

You may well have but that is not what controls your supply companies E7 times, as it is an immersion heater timer.

Have you looked at your meter yet? Do you have a timeswitch next to it, or is it a radio teleswitch that switches your E7 times by a radio signal?

annettetabs

espresso wrote: »

Do you have a timeswitch next to your meter? It may just be incorrectly set, can you check it? I would be surprised if 6PM - 7PM is correct on E7 in any region!

Hi Espresso, Yes we do have a timeswitch - looks like a big old fashioned silver dial with the time going round it and an on switch which is set at about midnight and off at 7am, can hear it ticking like a clock. As for the timer in the airing cupboard i have checked it daily since my first post and i appear to have 2 off peak hours between 5pm and 7pm and my Rate 1 meter stops counting and my Rate 2 takes over for those 2 hours, so maybe i need to be getting someone out to look at this. Considering i appear to be gaining 2 additional off peak hours a day, my bills are still and always have been very high. Just had a bill from December to April for some reason they didn't bill me in March as expected and my bill is for £726.32!! My bill for the whole of last year was only £1,10246.

espresso

annettetabs wrote: »

Hi Espresso, Yes we do have a timeswitch - looks like a big old fashioned silver dial with the time going round it and an on switch which is set at about midnight and off at 7am, can hear it ticking like a clock.

These are your E7 times i.e. you will be charged for night rate units between approx midnight and 7AM.

As for the timer in the airing cupboard i have checked it daily since my first post and i appear to have 2 off peak hours between 5pm and 7pm and my Rate 1 meter stops counting and my Rate 2 takes over for those 2 hours, so maybe i need to be getting someone out to look at this. Considering i appear to be gaining 2 additional off peak hours a day, my bills are still and always have been very high.

I don't see how that is possible! The timeswitch next to the meter controls which meter actually registers, day units or night units.

Just had a bill from December to April for some reason they didn't bill me in March as expected and my bill is for £726.32!! My bill for the whole of last year was only £1,10246.

The Horstmann Electronic 7 immersion heater timer has factory default settings of ON 2:15AM and OFF at 7:15AM after a reset. If you have an additional secondary boost at 5:00PM till 7:00PM also programmed, this will be charged at the day rate! There is also a switch to change the Boost from Timed boost to Manual boost, all explained in the user guide here.

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