Economy Seven

[kellybelly]

My first post, please be patient!

I have had an old electra tech economy seven system for a number of years now, but this has recently broken down. My supplier says its a private job, to wire a new CU to the existing radio teleswitch for the economy seven tarrif. I have a dual rate meter. Is it possible to wire a new off peak consumer unit to the teleswitch to take advantage of the off peak supply, thereby having two seperate consumer units from the same meter, one nomal from the dual meter, and one off peak via the teleswitch? I don't propose to wire this myself, but would like an understanding before i ask anyone to qoute on the work.

kellybelly

 

[breezer]

i dont think so.

i believe the idea of the teleswitch meter is that time x it changes the rate at which you are charged.

there did used to be what was called the white meter, where by you did have 2 consumers units, the 2nd one being fed from the white meter.
this 2nd consumers unit only had storage heaters connected to it, so at time x it came on and heated the bricks in the rads.

but since it meant 2 CUs 2 meters it was considered out of date, old whatever and some one invented the teleswitch which did away with the need for 2 CUs etc

the advantage of the teleswitch is that if there is a "surplus of electricty" it can be changed over to use it anytime the generating company want, where as you could not do that with the old white meter

 

[crystal ball]

Ignore the previous post it is wrong


Yes it is possible, I have done a few. The Electratech uses pulse relays to switch storage heaters on when it gets a signal from the teleswitch.

When the Electratech fails (no spares available) I remove the relay /mcb board and replace with a standard consumer unit switched direct by the teleswitch, you can re use the Electratech board if required but it is usually easier to replace it.

You may need an E7 timer for your hot water as this will have been controlled by the Electratech

Is it the keypad that has failed, sometimes can be reset by pulling off the front and shorting out the pins on the back whilst pressing any key

 

[breezer]

i didn't know that

(since you edited yours I will edit mine)

I am not wrong about the white meter

 

[bernardgreen]

The Landis and Gyr teleswitch provides a switched off peak supply which can go to an off peak consumer unit for storage heaters, immersion and other such equipment. It also provides a switched ciruit to the dual rate meter to select which counter is incremented.

Bernard
Sharnbrook

 

[kellybelly]

thanks for all your advice gents, an electrician me a good job a short notice, compleetly removed the electratech system which was very cumbersome, and replaced it with a single consumer unit to control storage heaters through the teleswitch, and moved my normal immersion heater to a spare mcb? on my normal consumer unit, and gave me a certificate for his trouble. thanks again.

 

[kai]

It's always a good idea to rip out any such obsolete heating controllers, as their spare parts are no longer manufactured anymore.

Had this problem once, where an obsolete hot water cylinder had an obsolete dual immersion heater element for night and day water heating.

The element failed, and it was impossible to obtain a replacement anymore, so it was cheaper to install a modern economy seven cylinder, with two side entry immersion heaters in its place.

 

[stuartsjg]

Where do you live?

Like many others in the Scotish Hydro region who are all electric, i have this sevice called THTC (Total Heat, Total Control).

I have two separate meters (modern systems use one with two screens) and a teleswitch.

One meter and one CU is for all the domestic loads.

The other meter supplies one CU with "24H low rate" and also the teleswitch which has two outputs. One is upto 40A for storage heaters and the other is up to 16A for water heater.

The nice bit is the 24H low rate off which is connected the panel heaters in the bedrooms & bathroom as well as the fire in the living room.
The shower and "boost" for the water also comes off the 24H supply.

The drawback is you really need to have the hydro as your supplier as the low rate is about 7.5p/kWh where as E7 may 3.5p/kWh. Domestic unit rate i think is about 13p.

The saving is you arnt paying high rate for the kWh you use in day time which may be 12-14p (?)/kWh under E7.

Has to be said that i changed to the utility warehouse as they picked up the MPAN number of the 2nd meter as Economy 7 so i saved 4p/kWh on nearly 20000kWh PA saving £800 PA!!

The hydro did try to block the move by transferring me back automatically so i played innocent saying i dont know why they are moving me back, Utility Warehouse put the foot down with the hydro and they left me alone after that.

It was never clear if the hydro were just trying to poach me back as they may do with other customers, or if it was due to the THTC/24h low rate thing.


Stuart