Horstmann E7BX hot water controller

[JohnD]

what are the off-peak hours?

Can you see by looking at your meter when it switches to off-peak?

 

[Effervescent]

This is what my electricity company has said. I can't tell when the meter switches to off peak.

Night energy (any general appliances)- 00:00 hours to 07:00 hours

Heating and hot water control- this is on a teleswitch controlled by us for heating and water up to 7 hours per day. This comprises of a total of 5 hours (either in a block or several blocks) during the night timings above and a further 2 hour boost in the afternoon or evening dependant on the weather forecast in your area.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Yes. This is a photo I sent to electricity company to show that light was on and boost was off at 22.30 in the evening when it should have been off.

Then the off-peak supply must be on.

Although they call it a boost indicator neon, it comes on with both supplies.

 

[Effervescent]

Back to my original question: can the off peak time only come from the electricity meter?
I am using a huge amount of electricity overnight. Presumably because the immersion heater is on all night. Only alternative is to turn it off and then have no hot water in the morning.

 

[JohnD]

when you take a photo, please stand back and show the consumer units and the cables running from them back to the meters. It looks to me like tail no. 5 goes to a grey MEM CU. Perhaps that is for your off-peak circuits such as immersion and storage heaters, and gets turned on according to your meter switch.

If you observe the meter readings, you should be able to see the off-peak numbers going up only during the off-peak hours.

It is possible that your teleswitch is faulty and is giving you too many off-peak hours. They are built with a timer that takes over if they miss the radio control signal.

Have a look at your storage heaters and see if they are switched on.

Let's see a photo of the immersion heater cap. Is the hot water boiling in the morning?

How many kWh are you using per night?

Have you only recently moved in?

 

[Effervescent]

Not sure if I can get any more in the picture due to door on the pantry cupboard but I'll try later.

I can't tell whether the night storage heaters are on - they're very old.

I haven't recently moved in - I 've been in the property about 12 years. This problem first occurred 6 years ago and I've been discussing on and off with electricity company ever since then. They've changed the meter several times but the times are still wrong. They are now claiming the problem is with the E7BW but I don't see how it can be if it has no way of getting a time except from their meter.

 

[EFLImpudence]

No, but the point is - if you are getting off-peak for longer than you should, it won't make any difference to the immersion - it will switch off when hot enough.

However, having several storage heaters on for two or three hours longer than they should be may add to the bills.

 

[endecotp]

I can't tell when the meter switches to off peak

Post a close-up picture of the meter. I would expect a modern meter like that to have some indication of whether the off-peak supply is on on its LCD display. (Anyone else familiar with that particular meter?)

 

[Taylortwocities]

Back to my original question: can the off peak time only come from the electricity meter?

The answer is yes, need a broader picture of the metere and teleswitch etc, but you seem to have a dual rate meter which (as your supplier has said)

is on a teleswitch controlled by us for heating and water up to 7 hours per day.

If the immersion is coming on at the wrong time, you need to have the electricity supplier examine their equipment (Teleswitch/meter) to find out why the times are wrong.

Also. To complete the picture. The Hortsman EBX7 is simply a timer that allows you to boost heat the water. It has nothing to do with the teleswitch, it does not receive any signals from outer space, radio, or anywhere. It is a dumb timer that will run for as long as you set it.

The EBX7 basically passes the off peak electricity to the immersion. If you use the boost facilirty, it switches over to the normal 24 hour supply and routes that to the immersion heater.

 

[Effervescent]

So there is a timer inside the e7bx which somehow Set itself to come on at 2230 and go off at 0800 despite the fact it has never been touched since installed when I moved in 12 years ago and worked correctly for several years

 

[endecotp]

We can see two cables coming out the top of the EBX7. Can you tell where they go? Are there any others we can't see? Might there be one going into the wall behind it? (My thinking is: it needs an output to the immersion, and an off-peak input, and a peak input. Either there is a cable we can't see, or two of those functions are in a single cable, or it has been wired in a surprising way.)

A photo of the box partially visible at the right of the previous photo would be useful.

 

[endecotp]

So there is a timer inside the e7bx which somehow Set itself to come on at 2230 and go off at 0800 despite the fact it has never been touched since installed when I moved in 12 years ago and worked correctly for several years

No.

 

[JohnD]

.....If you observe the meter readings, you should be able to see the off-peak numbers going up only during the off-peak hours.

It is possible that your teleswitch is faulty and is giving you too many off-peak hours. They are built with a timer that takes over if they miss the radio control signal....

Have a look at your storage heaters and see if they are switched on......

If you have not turned off your storage heaters for the warm weather, they will be wasting a lot of electricity.

Post a pic of their switches and controls, somebody will recognise them.

It will not be the hot water cylinder unless the immersion thermostat has failed and it is boiling.

 

[Effervescent]

Pictures of wiring, immersion and the meter which has 3 rates

 

[JohnD]

That immersion heater has a thermostat. Can you send me a cheque?