economy 7 meter wiring

cathold · 5 May 2010

Please can someone advise? We were fitted with economy 7 heaters back in 2007 & Scottish Power came & fitted the meter accordingly. Since then my bills have been astronomical. We asked an electrician friend & he said the tails (wires) hadn't been fitted to an economy 7 meter so we have been paying for 3 years at flat rate. Should we have 2 meters for economy 7

View media item 22255

londonboy · 5 May 2010

Can you zoom in on the meter so we can read the text on it?

ColJack · 5 May 2010

you don't have a timed meter / regular eco-7 set up there, so I hope you have timers on your storage heaters?

what heaters do you have?

PrinceofDarkness · 5 May 2010

'cathold': it's no longer necessary to have the old-fashioned 2-meter method for E7 heating. Modern meters are a dual-tariff type and they switch over to the (so-called) cheap rate at the appropriate time.

Sadly, there's no such thing as a 'cheap rate' these days, whatever the time of day or night. Electric heating has always been the most dear form of heating. It's likely that you have 12 -15kW of storage heater load, multiply that hourly rate by 7 hours and then by the 90 days of a 'quarter' , then you'll see that the supplier's bill is likely to be greedy but accurate.......

Lucia.

ColJack · 5 May 2010

PrinceofDarkness said:
'cathold': it's no longer necessary to have the old-fashioned 2-meter method for E7 heating. Modern meters are a dual-tariff type and they switch over to the (so-called) cheap rate at the appropriate time.

that's why I asked whether the heaters hav a timer ( or maybe there's a second board fed by a contactor/timer inside etc.. )..

PrinceofDarkness · 5 May 2010

I wasn't aware of your post, Coljack, at the time of my post.

Lucia.

Stoday · 6 May 2010

How many heaters do you have and (if you know) what's the watts?

How many kWh do you use at the day and night rates in a year? (this will be on your bills)

You should expect to use 3,000 to 5,000 kWh at the day rate and 500 to 1,000 kWh per kW of storage heaters at the night rate.

cathold · 6 May 2010

Thank you for the replies. We do not have timers on the storage heaters.We have 4 dimplex . Info says automatic combination storage heaters. Info says input rating 2.55kw output 1.45 kw. The charge acceptance (7hr) is 17.85kw. This is all gobbledegook to me!

flameport · 6 May 2010

cathold said:
We do not have timers on the storage heaters

That is the problem. Without a timer, they will be on pretty much all of the time, using far more electricity than they should. Worse, a lot of that electricity will be on the daytime rate, which will cost significantly more than the night rate.

If the heaters are combination ones, they will have additional heating elements in them for 'top up' use in the daytime. These shouldn't be needed very often, or at all. I

Can you post a picture of the fuseboxes/consumer units as well?

timtheenchanter · 6 May 2010

is the tape on the cutout for show, or holding the front on???

Steve · 6 May 2010

cathold said:
Please can someone advise? We were fitted with economy 7 heaters back in 2007

Why? What was there before?

MrsBanal · 6 May 2010

timtheenchanter said:
is the tape on the cutout for show, or holding the front on???

Sometimes it's for phase ID when they don't have the proper little plastic discs tacked onto the backboard.

Stoday · 7 May 2010

cathold said:
Thank you for the replies. We do not have timers on the storage heaters.We have 4 dimplex . Info says automatic combination storage heaters. Info says input rating 2.55kw output 1.45 kw. The charge acceptance (7hr) is 17.85kw. This is all gobbledegook to me!

I'd expect your electricity bill to average at least £100 a month over the year, maybe as much as £140 a month. More in the winter and less in the summer.

You say your bills are "astronomical". How much is that?

rozzerboy · 1 Sep 2010

Hi there, i have the same problem, i have the same economy 7 meter installed, do i just need to find storage heaters with timers or is there something i can do at the board, ie a timer.

I only have 3 heaters and they are from the same board, hope this helps, any help would be appreciated,

Regards

Lectrician · 1 Sep 2010

That does not look like a dual tarriff meter to me.

When you read the meter/have it read, do you obtain two readings by pressing a button? Does your bill show two readings?

You would be best having an economy 7 meter installing, which will be free if join a economy 7 tarriff.

You are currently using standard rate lecky to heat the heaters, which will be costly - especially if your leaving them on!

diynot

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

economy 7 meter wiring

PrinceofDarkness

PrinceofDarkness

MrsBanal

Similar threads