Economy 7 telemeter question ?

[lexx]

Hi,
With economy 7, when the off peak low tariff is switch on via the dual reading telemeter, energising the consumer unit feeding the storage heaters.
Will the rest of the house be on the low rate over that period of time, and recorded on the LOW meter reading

 

[electronicsuk]

Will the rest of the house be on the low rate over that period of time, and recorded on the LOW meter reading

Yes.

 

[lexx]

Hi,
Thanks for the answer.
Gary.

 

[wriggler]

I'd just like to ask for clarification.
I am going to go onto Economy 7 because I am getting storage heaters put in by Warm Front (being a poor old pensioner ).
I have just talked to some plumbers about putting in a new hot water cylinder (electric unvented) and they told me I need to have a special one for Economy 7 with two immersion heaters. This is probably not a big problem, but I didn't understand as I thought I would just have a timer and set it to come on during the night.
I thought that all the electricity I used during the off-peak time would be charged at the cheap rate so I could use appliances at night on timers, stay up late , charge my laptop, etc. This is the impression you get when you read anything about Econ 7. They told me that this is not the case, that only appliances that are specially wired to the Econ 7 meter can use the cheap electricity. The problem with this is that I would be paying more for the rest of my electricity, even during the night!
Can anyone enlighten me? Are there different ways of doing the wiring perhaps? If so, I'd like to make sure that mine is done the right way.

 

[st07]

It depends how your property is wired.

For a property that was designed with E7 in mind (areas without gas, for example) you'll have a main meter with Low and Normal readings. From there you'll have your main house circuit, supplying power to sockets / appliances etc. You will also have a second dedicated circuit which is wired direct to storage heaters and the immersion tank. When the telemeter receives the switch on signal, it will energise the second E7 circuit and also switch the main meter over to Low, so your whole house will be benefiting from low rate electricity.

If you're just having a meter change then your whole house will still benefit from low rate electricity, the only thing you'll have to do is set timers for those appliances that you wish to solely use low rate.

The immersion heater requires two elements, one at the top and one at the bottom. The bottom element is for your E7 circuit, it will switch on when the telemeter energises that circuit (or wired from a timer) and heat the whole tank of water (heat rises etc) during the cheap rate. The top element will run from a switch which you'll press to instantly heat the water closest to the outlet. This is known as a 'boost' button, using normal rate electricity to temporarily heat the water should the tank be depleted of low rate heated water.

 

[electronicsuk]

Of course, that doesn't mean that you can't have a single immersion heater with a timer to take advantage of the off-peak tariff. It doesn't become so economical, though, when you consider that you will have to heat an entire tank of water if you require a boost during the day.

 

[Deleted member 54734]

Look into all OFF PEAK tariff's your supplier has.
I know I allways say it but......
ECONOMY 7 IS ONLY THE MOST POPULAR OFF PEAK TARIFF.
There are many others out there.
Some give you cheap rate in the day so you dont have to stay up late

 

[wriggler]

Thanks - these posts were very helpful. It seems like I was right first time and the plumbers (and guy from Warm Front) were wrong.

If the house is not set up for E7, which I'm pretty sure is the case, and they put in a new meter, will I still get two circuits, one for the heaters and a regular one?

 

[Lectrician]

With an off peak tarrif such as econ7 it is VERY COMMON and pretty much accepted that the best configuration for HW is to use the dual immersion cylinders (hence their wide availability and production).

The lower element is connected to the off-peak CU along with your storage rads and will heat the tank overnight automatically without having to worry about the time on a timer.

The upper element is used as a boost to heat a litte water when required (late afternoon etc), and is connected to the peak tarrif (which would be cheap at night, but of little concern here).

You can fit a single element and control the time yourself, if you have the time, patience and ultimate bordem to be inclined to. You are far better off to follow the recommendation to use the mass produced cylinder which has two elements especially designed for use for econ7 type tariffs!

My opinion anyway - and in our area we have a 50/50 split on lecky heating vers gas or lpg/oil.

 

[st07]

If they simply put in a new meter, then you won't have a separate E7 circuit unless they install one at the same time. The easiest thing to do would be to find out what your E7 switch on period is and set a timer on your immersion heater to switch on during this period.