New to all electric...

[Supersonic]

Heya all!

This is my first all-electric house, so new to some of the stuff like Economy 7 and how boilers work so would like to bounce a few things off any of you experts who might correct me if i'm going the wrong way so to speak...

I've a Maxistore hot water tank in my airing cupboard which supplies all the hot water in the house. There are two heating elements, of which one is a 'boost' element and one 'standard' element....So far I'm ok..

We had scalding hot water 24/7, so i guessed the thermostat on one of the elements has died and continually heated up the water to boiling point, therefore our first bill was steep!!

So....the standard (duff...) element we turned on at the wall mounted switch last thing at night, and turned it off when one of us woke at about 6am, giving it 8hrs of heating....voila...job's a good 'un. Its a workaround, but a pain in the backside if we forget.

What i dont understand is where economy 7 comes into all this?

We have no timing switch in the house, no control panel for the boiler so what turns on the boiler in the wee hours to take advantage of the cheap electricity?? Is this controlled by the meter outside or what? Do I need to get a timer installed by the boiler as well as getting the thermostat replaced??

I've only lived in a house with a combi boiler, and i understood that, as it had a timer which I set when i wanted stuff to be on and hot, this all electric stuff I just dont get?

Any advice, ramblings, or discussion appreciated!


Cheers!
Steve

 

[kevindgas]

Economy7 and 10 both work via a time control in the meter which is seperate to the general tariff meter which supplies the rest of your house

the meter allows electric within certain times generally over night and will supply the bottom element with the boost supply connected from the main meter to a second element higher up the cylinder and occasionally is connected to the same element on single element cylinders (this is not good practice)

the same economy system is used for night storage heaters you will also get a split bill for your electric with two sets or three sets of figures

hope that explains it

 

[JohnD]

There are two ways it might work:

1) you have certain circuits in your house that are only supplied with electricity during the off-peak hours. the switching is done by an attachment to the meter. in this case you would normally have two consumer units ("fuseboxes") although it can be done with one double-decker.

2) All your circuits are live all the time, and the meter charges you less for electricity used during the night. The meter has two sets of usage records (probably a digital display, if modern) and has a sort of timer that switches from the full-price to the off-peak metering. In this case, you ought to have a timer of your own attached to the lower immersion heater, and any other appliances that can take advantage of the off-peak pricing.

You can get various immersion heater timers. Horstmann make a good range (rather expensive).

BTW if any of your immersion heaters are overheating the water, you need to check the setting of the thermostat first. Sometimes thermostats fail but you can fit a new one very easily (no need to turn off the water as it sits in a waterproof pocket) but you must of course turn off the electrical circuit. thermostats come in different lengths so take out the old one and buy a new one to match.