Economy 7 - Not switching?

[CrawfW]

Hi,

My storage heaters aren't working - and i've deduced that their lack of a 240v supply is a big part of the problem. Trouble is, i don't know why the supply is missing......

The heaters are supplied from a fuse board with three 15A fuses, with a seperate cable running to each of the three storage heaters. Beside the board, there there is an analogue dual-range economy 7 meter and a tele-switch. After 00.30, an indicator on the meter indicates that it is running on the low-range, and there is a 240v supply to the fuse board. Trouble is, the supply goes no further......

Is this a problem with the contactor?

Online reading seems to suggest it might be, though i'm not really sure what a contactor is......

Is there anything i else i can check? Or, is this one of the electric company themselves? Opinions seem to differ as to whether this is something owners are allowed to do or not.......

Any suggestions much appreciated!

Crawf

P.S - I guess people will tell me to call the pros. I have no objection to this - i just want to understand too!

 

[JohnW2]

The heaters are supplied from a fuse board with three 15A fuses, with a seperate cable running to each of the three storage heaters. Beside the board, there there is an analogue dual-range economy 7 meter and a tele-switch. After 00.30, an indicator on the meter indicates that it is running on the low-range, and there is a 240v supply to the fuse board. Trouble is, the supply goes no further......

Are you saying that, after it 'switches over' at 00:30, there is 240V going into this fuse board, but nothing coming out of it? If you have a dual-tariff meter, there must be some sort of switching device (quite probably the contactor to which you refer), activated by the tele-switch, which switches on the supply to the storage heaters during the 'cheap' hours - is there something between the meter and this fuse board which is supplying the storage heaters?

Some photos showing meter/tele-switch/fuse-board etc. might help us.

Kind Regards, John

 

[CrawfW]

Hi,

Thanks for replying so fast. Not at the house now, but will get some photos up tomorrow.....

In the meantime, i do indeed mean that after 00.30 there is 240v going into the small fuseboard - but nothing detectable anywhere "downstream".

Does this suggest that the contactor/other switching system is Ok - and that the problem could be the fuseboard switch itself? Or some other aspect of its distribution?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[JohnW2]

In the meantime, i do indeed mean that after 00.30 there is 240v going into the small fuseboard - but nothing detectable anywhere "downstream". Does this suggest that the contactor/other switching system is Ok - and that the problem could be the fuseboard switch itself? Or some other aspect of its distribution?

Is there perhaps a contactor within that fuse board (as I said,l, there must be some switching somewhere)? If so, it certainly could be that which is at fault - or, as you say, conceivably the fuse board's switch, but it would be incredibly unlikely that it would suddenly 'die' unless something was done to it (like switching it on/off).

The photos may well help us to help you a bit more!

Kind Regards, John