Economy 7 - storage heaters come on in the afternoon????????

[Whitespirit66]

Until recently, my economy 7 storage radiators came on between midnight and approx. 6am, as they should. They have now started to come on for a few hours in the afternoon instead of at night. I have a few questions;

What has caused this?
Can I adjust the timer, or is it a job for the electricity board?
Is the timer likely to need replacement, will the electricity board charge for this?
Am I paying peak rate electricity if the radiators heat up in the afternoon?
How can I tell if the timer is set at the right time, which is the pointer indicating the current time?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[djrichie_t]

Dodgy timeclock on your E7 meter, just needs re-setting. Give the electricity board a shout they will sort it. They will not charge at all.

If you have a single electricity meter with 2 dials then your whole house has cheap electricity on the E7 rate and not just the heaters - make the most of it when it is on

 

[Steve]

They might replace it with a teleswitch or a new telemeter.

 

[daytona]

you might have had a power cut when you were out one day and its shifted the timer?

 

[Lectrician]

If it is a DNO timer, they have a sprung mech which keeps the time for a good while during any powerfailure, and the sprung mech is 'recharged' when the power returns.

Still very common to see them go way out of sync though.

If it is a teleswitch, you may find your supplier is boosting the charge in the afternoon - some tarrifs actually do this.

 

[Deleted member 54734]

Pic??????

 

[Whitespirit66]

Thanks for the advice so far. Will get a pic of my timer and meter.

Don't think its very modern, not like a telemeter or anything like that. The timer is seperate from the meter, under a clear perspex (sealed) cover. It has a dial numbered 1 to 24 for the time. In the centre of the dial it says night and day. On the edge of the dial there are 2 levers, 7 hours apart. One says on, the other says off. These obviously make contact with levers at the bottom of the timer, and turn the heaters on or off as the dial rotates.

Hope this makes sense. Many thanks.

 

[Lectrician]

Timer it is then! Get your DNO to sort it. MAke the most of the cheap daytime lecky while you have it Is it a dual rate meter? (two rows of digits) - If so, entire house is cheap between those periods.

 

[Whitespirit66]

[im

g]
This photo should make things a bit clearer. The photo was taken at 7.15pm. The timer must be way out, as the heaters come on in the afternoon.
How do I tell what time the timer thinks it is? There isn't an obvious pointer near the dial for the current time.[/img]

 

[djrichie_t]

Yeah the timers out, very easy to put right if it werent for replacing the seal on it.

 

[jayc]

My timer is out. Comes on at 6am switches off at 1pm. Its great as we can do all our washing, tumble drying etc on the cheap eleccy.

No way I'm telling them though!