Economy 7 and smart meters

[opps]

I was talking to a mate earlier today. His neighbour is supposed to have economy 7. They recently had a smart meter fitted.

My mate noticed that during the daytime, the immersion heater has 240v running in to the heating element at the bottom of the tank. He is under the impression that the lower heating element should only be live in the small hours (the economy 7 hours), and that the upper element exists as a higher rate (cost wise) top up.

Is he correct? And if so, how does his neighbour resolve things?

 

[Murdochcat]

Assuming the immersion hasn't been reversed, call the supplier and get them to come back and do the job properly

And in the meantime do as much cooking and washing as possible when the economy 7 is "live"

 

[opps]

Assuming the immersion hasn't been reversed, call the supplier and get them to come back and do the job properly

And in the meantime do as much cooking and washing as possible when the economy 7 is "live"

Thanks for the reply.

I have just spoken to the guy. He says that both elements are live during the day time, along with the storage heaters (which should be night time only).

 

[Murdochcat]

He needs to report it to the company that he pays his bills to and get them to sort it out

 

[opps]

Thanks. I will pass the advice on.

 

[ericmark]

Economy 7 is a tariff, not a system. Many years ago we had the white meter, and it would only turn on over night, but this limited what could use the off peak supply, so we got a host of diffrent methods to use the off peak, some times a triggure wire was used, some times radio 4 time signal, but there is no longer a single method of using economy 7.

It also seems to vary area to area, so what may be true in Scotland or Wales may not be true in England. I have been lead to believe economy 7 is only still avaible in Scotland, but there are many other off peak systems. And which can vary as to if you have an EV, or solar panels, or storage battery, most need an AMI (smart meter) and not the older AMR meter.

Never worked out why, the diffrence between the two is ability to remotly turn off so can be used as pre-paid meter, and auto loss of supply notification. I have failed to find out why the goverment want this, one assumes in case of another winter of discontent, however I hope not.