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Clock Change - Economy-7
- Thread starter WannabeOwner
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- United Kingdom
paso904
Member
Thank you for reminding us! I am probably over-thinking this but for those of us on Economy 7 metering, do we need to change the charging timings on our cars? My electricity supplier told me that smart meters usually retain the same time settings all year through. i.e. mine was fitted during BST and therefore runs on BST permanently. If that is correct then presumably the off-peak times are the same? 
Sorry, don't know about smart meters, Mine is fixed midnight-to-7AM in Winter, and thus is 1AM to 8AM in Summer
If I've got that the wrong way round I'm over-paying for an hour 6 months of the year!
If I've got that the wrong way round I'm over-paying for an hour 6 months of the year!
Just remembered that I need to put the car charging start time back to Midnight (my E7 start time, in Winter)
Thanks @WannabeOwner I’d forgotten about that. I’m in the South East area and mine is split:
What are the Economy 7 peak and off-peak periods? | npower
Fortunately I don’t often need to charge for more than 2 or 3 hours so the break doesn’t trouble me very often.
@paso904 I also know nothing about smart meters, but knowing where you are would have thought you’d have the same issue as I do?
What are the Economy 7 peak and off-peak periods? | npower
Fortunately I don’t often need to charge for more than 2 or 3 hours so the break doesn’t trouble me very often.
@paso904 I also know nothing about smart meters, but knowing where you are would have thought you’d have the same issue as I do?
So only been at my current address for 4 months and October has been my first full month of EV ownership. Gone to submit meter reads only to find that all my charging has gone against my day rate!
Been monitoring over the last day and it turns out night and day are the wrong way round.. right now I'm using the low rate apparently.
Anyone come across this?
Been monitoring over the last day and it turns out night and day are the wrong way round.. right now I'm using the low rate apparently.
Anyone come across this?
Glan gluaisne
Active Member
Yes, happened to us, years ago, when we had a house with E7 and storage heaters. The house had been rewired just before we bought the house, and we found out fairly quickly that the rates were the wrong way around! Luckily I spotted it quickly and sorted the wiring out so that the supplies were the right way around.
Having said that, with a newer E7 meter and no storage heater circuits it shouldn't be possible for the physical wiring to be the cause, as there most probably won't be a separate E7 circuit. Do you have two separate circuits coming from the E7 meter, one for the peak rate supply and another for the off-peak supply? Older E7 installations were arranged like this so that the storage heaters were turned on and off by the meter, in effect.
I’ve never come across it, but it sound brilliant. It means you get all day at cheap rate
At first I thought the same but I'm only really home during the day at weekends. This month I've used 611 kWh at peak and only 126 kWh off peak..
Not entirely sure what I'm looking at to be honest, just lots of cables!
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Glan gluaisne
Active Member
That setup has the radio teleswitch contactor to switch an E7 only circuit on during the off-peak period (the black thing to the right).
However, it also looks like a newer E7 meter has been fitted, as the old teleswitch is a couple of decades or so older than the meter (it dates back to long before the privatisation of the old electricity boards). It also doesn't look as if the teleswitch is actually controlling anything now, as there only seems to be a single pair of tails going off to the consumer unit towards the right of the photo (those thick wires at the bottom). At one time, the teleswitch probably switched a night storage heater system, I suspect.
The good news is that the problem seems to be with the meter rates, most probably rate 1 is being recorded as rate 2 and vice versa. This is the suppliers problem to resolve, not an issue with the wiring in the house, so get them around pronto to sort it.
However, it also looks like a newer E7 meter has been fitted, as the old teleswitch is a couple of decades or so older than the meter (it dates back to long before the privatisation of the old electricity boards). It also doesn't look as if the teleswitch is actually controlling anything now, as there only seems to be a single pair of tails going off to the consumer unit towards the right of the photo (those thick wires at the bottom). At one time, the teleswitch probably switched a night storage heater system, I suspect.
The good news is that the problem seems to be with the meter rates, most probably rate 1 is being recorded as rate 2 and vice versa. This is the suppliers problem to resolve, not an issue with the wiring in the house, so get them around pronto to sort it.
Looking at that grey box, in the middle, it has a sticker "Rate 1 = Normal, Rate 2 = Low"
At the top of the little display screen it looks as though there is a "Rate 1 2 3 4 ..." indicator, so I am guessing that there is a "mark" next to the 1 or 2, depending on which rate is "active".
Would be worth checking that it changes from 1-to-2 and back from 2-to-1 at the correct time
As it stands, the rate 2 marker is flashing and I've checked over the last few hours to find rate 2 is going up whereas rate 1 remains constant.
At 8am this morning it was using rate 1 and changed to rate 2 sometime between 8am and 12pm. Going to keep checking to see when it switches again.
Will contact Bulb tomorrow to see what they say.
MrBadger
Badger out
E7 rates are not all at the same time. Are you 100% you know the times of the off peak electricity? Sometimes you can have more than one period of cheap rate.
Glan gluaisne
Active Member
Sounds very much as if the rates are the wrong way around to me. It may be that the clock in the meter is out, perhaps, as the normal convention is that rate 1 is peak rate and rate 2 is the off-peak rate, just as the sticker on the meter states.
Can you read the time on the display? Some E7 meters have a button to scroll the display to show time, totals for rate 1 and rate 2, etc, so if you can get to see the displayed time it may give a clue.
Can you read the time on the display? Some E7 meters have a button to scroll the display to show time, totals for rate 1 and rate 2, etc, so if you can get to see the displayed time it may give a clue.
Am with Bulb and have checked against my region, the E7 hours should be between 11pm - 7am.
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