Advice required for wiring new immersion heater controller

Joined
19 Oct 2007
Messages
117
Reaction score
0
Location
Hertfordshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi,

My 89 year old mother lives in a council house, which has been all electric since my late father had the gas removed and economy 7 installed. Since father passed away earlier this year and not knowing much about the household things she no relies on me to sort things out when they go wrong.

She called last week to say the hot water was luke warm, so i drove over and investigated. The council in there wisdom had installed a box that replaced the old timers my father had used when the did a major upgrade (new kitchen and replacement cylinder) a few year back. Now I know why their bills were so high. My research on the net shows this box to be a Horstmann BX2000. This has a normal feed from the consumer unit for day use, and a second feed from the economy 7 outlet from the meter (via a fuse box). There is no timer on this unit, just two switches for turning on or off the two supplies. The outlet from this unit connects to a single immersion heater. So the immersion is on all the time, simply relying on the thermostat to determine when to turn it on or off - so she is constantly heating and re-heating the tank of water over a 24 hr period.

We've had the council out to sort the problem out, which appears to be a faulty controller. However I would really like some means of setting the on / off times as she only really needs to heat the water once during the night so she has a tank of water throughout the day. I've seen that Horsmann do a digital programmable economy, and Timeguard also do a similar unit, however these seem to have a single supply in, and just five terminals (whereas the BX2000 has ten).

So down to my question... If I get one of these units, how would I connect it up so it uses both the economy 7 off peak supply that is live when the meter switches over at night, and the constant supply which is live 24/7.

Cheers

Malcolm
 
Sponsored Links
If she only needs the hot water on at night, can you not just put a timer in the Eco.7 supply and a switch in the permanent supply so she has that as a boost. Or even use 2 timers, you can get em for a tenner each.
 
Did the council resolve the luke warm water issue?.

The BX2000 off peak will heat immersion approx between 11.30pm and 6.30/7.30am (times vary) and maybe a couple of hours in the afternoon.

The normal supply can only supply power to immersion if the 1hour or 2hour boost buttons are pressed.
 
My research on the net shows this box to be a Horstmann BX2000. This has a normal feed from the consumer unit for day use, and a second feed from the economy 7 outlet from the meter (via a fuse box). There is no timer on this unit, just two switches for turning on or off the two supplies.
Either it is faulty or wired incorrectly.

The 'boost' function should switch off after one or two hours.
 
Sponsored Links
Thanks for the reply guys,

The chap from the council determined the BX2000's timer was faulty. He took the live peak supply and swapped it for the off peak and nothing lit up (ie the indicator on the front panel). One will be ordered, and he's coming back tomorrow to replace the 15a fuse that had also blown.

I didn't know that the peak supply in the day, whilst live will only power the immersion if the boost button is pressed, and that the boos button won't work during off-peak times. Thanks for enlightening me.

Ok so if I get a new timer controller, would I just wire the off peak feed? if so how would she be able to boost the water if she needed to in the day time. What I don't know is if the meter switches the supply at all. If that does the switching then I guess I could connect both feeds in parallel ?

Malcolm
 
Thanks for the reply guys,

The chap from the council determined the BX2000's timer was faulty. He took the live peak supply and swapped it for the off peak and nothing lit up (ie the indicator on the front panel). One will be ordered, and he's coming back tomorrow to replace the 15a fuse that had also blown.

I didn't know that the peak supply in the day, whilst live will only power the immersion if the boost button is pressed, and that the boos button won't work during off-peak times. Thanks for enlightening me.

Ok so if I get a new timer controller, would I just wire the off peak feed? if so how would she be able to boost the water if she needed to in the day time. What I don't know is if the meter switches the supply at all. If that does the switching then I guess I could connect both feeds in parallel ?

Malcolm

Malcolm, what do you want to time that the BX2000 doesn`t?.
The BX2000 will heat up the cylinder during the night, if your mum runs out of hot water she can use the boost buttons during daytime.

Adding other timer`s may confuse an 89 year old, you`ll be receiving more phone calls.
 
LOL - I quite agree, she is easily confused !

Chap from the council turned up with a new controller, with a timer function that can be programmed to heat the water any time when in off peak mode and has a 60, 40, 20 minute boost function. Tried to explain how the boost works was hard work :)

Thanks for the comments and replies chaps.

Malcolm
 
Well my mother phoned, no hot water today and the boost isn't working !

The old BX2000 had black scorching marks around the relay, so he replaced the unit with one with a timer as mentioned. However this was designed for a single supply, and ideally two heater elements. The engineer used the peak supply as this in theory would be live 24/7, however my guess is that the meter switches the supply to the off-peak circuits at the set times for that tariff.

Today I told her to turn the boost dial to 40, but she said no boost light came on and nothing was heard from the tank and all pipes remained cold. The engineer had tested the element as said that it was fine, so if the fuse has blown again, then I would agree to differ and suggest a new element (or two ) would be the way forward, and re-fit a new BX2000...

Just waiting for a call back from the council as this has now been raised in priority as she has no hot water, which to mother is a major emergency !!
 
Malcolm, any idea what make & model no. council guy used.
 
No, it's been stated that it is a single element so a BX2000 should be satisfactory.

That is - for two supplies and one element.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top