Economy 7 Immersion heater question

[ScottishGasMan]

Hey all,

looking at an immersion heater thats not working for a friend, electric only house on economy 7 setup.

Booster immersion heater is working fine, but the lower one that should run at night doesnt heat, no power is being supplied to the heater, when I wired it to the booster I got 240v and approx 12A current draw through the live to the heater which I think is about right.

But thats where what I know about this setup ends, hes getting an electrician in to look at the supply for the immersion.

My question is, on an economy 7 set up (he had 2 digital electric meters and 2 big consumer units) does the power automatically come on and off to one of the fuse boxes at night, or are they powered all the time and a timer should be used with the heater?

curios as to whether there should have been power at the immersion during the day? as hes not aware of there being any sort of timer control for the immersion and boost controller only linked to the boost heater.

 

[JohnW2]

My question is, on an economy 7 set up (he had 2 digital electric meters and 2 big consumer units) does the power automatically come on and off to one of the fuse boxes at night, or are they powered all the time and a timer should be used with the heater?

In contrast with the 'original' system, when only storage heaters ever got cheap-rate electricity (often with a separate CU for the stoirage heaters, powered only during off-peak times), the standard E7 (etc.) system/tariff these days E7 usually supplies cheap-rate electricity to the entire installation throughout the cheap hours. There then have to be time-switches of one sort or another (maybe contactors fed off the tariff-change time switch or radio switch) to switch on the storage heaters and immersions etc. during the cheap hours.

However, from what you describe (particularly the two meters), it is not clear as to whether your friend has the 'original' system or the modern/current one - so that would need to be investigated. One starting point would be to ascertain whether loads applied to 'normal' circuits (from the non-storage heater CU) resulted in the 'normal' (not off-peak) meter 'flashing' and recording usage during the night hours.

A photo showing all of his meters/CUs etc. (including any time switches or other 'boxes') might give us some clue.

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

when I wired it to the booster I got 240v and approx 12A current draw through the live to the heater which I think is about right.

It is.

My question is, on an economy 7 set up (he had 2 digital electric meters and 2 big consumer units) does the power automatically come on and off to one of the fuse boxes at night, or are they powered all the time and a timer should be used with the heater?

As above.

curios as to whether there should have been power at the immersion during the day? as hes not aware of there being any sort of timer control for the immersion and boost controller only linked to the boost heater.

Sounds like it is only powered at night - so something is cutting the power - fuse - switch/timer somewhere out of sync?

Some pictures would be good - of meters and boost controller.

 

[ScottishGasMan]

Thanks guys, I never got pics as I was just there to check and possibly replace the immersion heater, he's got an electrician friend who I think is going to go over at night sometime and try trace the supply for the lower(night time) heater, I had just assumed there would be power all the time and and immersion timer fitted as I never work on electric heating, only gas, just thought and immerser is and immerser so I'd have a look for him thinking the stat was maybe away.

The 2 digital meters just looked like any bog standard digital electric meter except there was two of them, house was built approx 16 years ago apparently and they will have likely been there from day one if thats any indicator as to what system they would have.

 

[JohnW2]

The 2 digital meters just looked like any bog standard digital electric meter except there was two of them, house was built approx 16 years ago apparently and they will have likely been there from day one if thats any indicator as to what system they would have.

That is, in itself, a bit odd (at least, for England). I have had E7 in my house since I moved here about 30 years ago, and for all that time I have had only one ('dual rate') meter, so I would doubt that two meters would have been installed in any new property built during that time.

Practices undoubtedly vary according to supplier - do I take it from your name that you (and your friend) are in Scotland (or are you maybe 'a Scot not in Scotland'!)??

Kind Regards, John