Electric: Economy (water) heating

irnbru_2

I have White Meter heating (the equivalent of Economy 7) with Scottish Power.
Its used to charge up the storage heaters through the night.

Our timer switch (which turns on/off the economy supply) broke and an appointment for repair has been made.

What made me post was that the water is heated through a different timer - one that I can vary the start time and duration of charge. Its heating during the night but I'm being charged the standard rate not the economy rate

Its a Horstmann Electronic 7 water meter controller. Its very name tells me it should use the economy supply when its there ......

Is the timer sensing that the economy supply is missing and reverting to the standard rate during the night?

Or should I presume its wired up wrongly?
Should it take its supply from both the standard and economy supplies?
And if so, should I have separate fuses in my consumer units for the immersion heater?

paul_h

irnbru wrote:

What made me post was that the water is heated through a different timer - one that I can vary the start time and duration of charge. Its heating during the night but I'm being charged the standard rate not the economy rate

Are you sure?

Your normal/economy7 rate metering should be done on the incomer to your property, all your night time usage is metered at the lower rate - only one meter will be running at any one time, the meter will change over to the cheaper rate when the economy7 timer comes on.

The separate output from the timer which is connected to your economy7 consumer unit comes on only during the economy7 hours to power storage heaters, etc.

Anything on a separate timer will still be billed at the cheaper rate during the economy7 hours, but make sure your timer switches at the same time as your main economy7 timer.

Hope this makes sense!

irnbru_2

paul_h wrote:

Are you sure?

Yes.

paul_h wrote:

Anything on a separate timer will still be billed at the cheaper rate during the economy7 hours, but make sure your timer switches at the same time as your main economy7 timer.

Ok. I just need to wait for them to repair the Economy 7 timer then I'll have cheap electric again.

paul_h

Sorry, I thought you meant you were paying daytime rate for your water heating before your timer broke - my fault

irnbru wrote:

Ok. I just need to wait for them to repair the Economy 7 timer then I'll have cheap electric again.

Yes, should be OK then...

I would also make sure you ask your electricity supplier to adjust your bill to take account of the period when you were paying standard rate in error, i.e. when no economy7 electric will have been billed - they should be able to estimate the difference due...