Economy 7 without rewire?

[skipraider]

Forgive my ignorance as I have been travelling at home and abroad for many years and am out of touch with having a permanent home, but am buying a small flat now.

I like the idea of cheaper nighttime electricity as I am thinking of a couple of small storage heaters, and could also run the immersion heater and washing machine at night. However, I have been told (is this correct?)this would require a rewire in the UK with a separate circuit for heating unlike, say, in Portugal where storage heaters come with a moulded plug to go into the regular circuit, along with the dual-tariff meter which separates daytime and nighttime use.

I also looked at the 20;20 tariff but was told this was not suitable for night storage heaters. Again, is this true? Would this be an alternative option if I simply bought my storage heaters with plugs on the continent?

 

[bongos]

As far as I am aware, when you switch to your E7 nightime rate from your daytime rate, all circuits in the house will then run on the cheaper rate.

Shouldn't involve a rewire - just your supplier to provide you with a dual tariff meter, which would be FOC when you changed tariffs.

 

[pte440]

Hi there,
I own a nightclub and we have E7, all they did was change the meter and add a timeclock, so everything is on the cheaper tariff from about 10.30pm to 6am

 

[Steve]

Hi there,
I own a nightclub and we have E7, all they did was change the meter and add a timeclock, so everything is on the cheaper tariff from about 10.30pm to 6am

I'm surprised they let you, knowing the hours of opening

And @ the OP, if you go down the route of feeding them off the existing circuits, you will need to make sure they all have timers built in, and set them to the correct times. Preferably "closed" timers, so that her indoors cant alter them at her whim (women do this)

Also, you'd have to check the circuit capacity - if you have two storage heaters on one 20 amp radial it could trip it. You could only use small ones.

 

[OwainDIYer]

However, I have been told (is this correct?)this would require a rewire in the UK with a separate circuit for heating unlike, say, in Portugal where storage heaters come with a moulded plug to go into the regular circuit, along with the dual-tariff meter which separates daytime and nighttime use.

Portugal probably has radial circuits only feeding one or two sockets; the UK has ring circuits feeding many sockets on one circuit and it is not intended for use with fixed heating.

Because storage heaters will all come on at the same time and run full whack until charged, you can't allow any diversity in circuit calculations.

However you would only need to install new wiring for the 2? storage heaters which will be supplied from an off-peak consumer unit fed from a timeswitch or teleswitch provided by the electricity supplier. The immersion heater should ideally be on its own circuit, but it doesn't have to come off the off-peak CU as it can be controlled with an E7 immersion timer.

 

[flameport]

I am thinking of a couple of small storage heaters, and could also run the immersion heater and washing machine at night.

For only two storage heaters, it may not be cheaper to have E7 anyway.

The disadvantage of E7 is that while the night rate is cheaper, the daytime rate is more expensive than on a normal tarrif.
Therefore the savings are only worthwhile if a substantial proportion of your electricity is used overnight.