My flat only has electricity, and I have 2 meters. Im told the (underfloor wiring) heating and hot water immersion heater runs off the economy seven meter, and everything else off the other. The problem is, my hot water only turns on for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and at about 9 at night for I dont know how long. This means I have to time my baths with military precision, as the bath needs more than 1 tankful of hot water to fill to a reasonable level. My questions are:
Should there be a booster switch for the immersion heater so I can turn it on (on the normal electricity supply) at any time?
If there isnt (which i dont think there is) can one be fitted safely / legally / economically?
What time is economy seven electricity supplied?
Can the time that economy seven is supplied be changed?

I have tried calling my supplier but they dont seem to know what im on about...

It benefits from using cheap electricity during the night to heat your water and stores it for use during the day. Other than that I don't know the ins and outs of the workings of it.

I also have economy 7 in my flat and the idea is that the electric storage heater and the water boiler are 'charged' during the 'cheap electricity' time slot which is overnight. This is between 1am and 8am (differs between electricity suppliers). You cannot change this time-slot, and your appliances are equipped with devices that 'sense' the time slot and switch on. In my case, I have 'boost' switches (located near the boiler and near the storage heaters), using the switches you can operate the appliances using normal electricity.

You have to be careful with the timer switch on economy 7 installations. I have heard of several installations when the cheap meter comes on in the middle of the day.

Are you sure that you are being charged on an economy 7 tarriff?
You should get a bill which shows how much you have used on each meter. And the idea is you put [for example your washing machine] on in the cheap time ..

Hope I am able to help you with the problem you are having with economy7. I was an electrical contractor until I retired a few years ago. The most usual thing with economy7 immersion heaters was that they had two elements, a long one and a short one. The long one was heated with economy7 and the shorter one there in case you wanted some more hot water and was heated by the normal supply. Just check if there is another immersion heater switch anywhere maybe in the kitchen or even the cylinder cupboard. But after saying all that you can get economy7 controllers now which have a 1hour boost. You need an electrician to check it out for you, either one way or another you should be able to give it a boost during the day. Hope this is of some help to you.

We had economy 7 some years ago; to put it simply when you get your bill you will see two rates.

One day time rate, which is higher than the normal rate everybody else pays and a nighttime rate which is much lower.

The more you use at night the more you save, water heater, washing machine, tumble drier all should be on timers to get the most out of the system. But obviously you want to be able to over ride the timers.

If there is anybody at home during the day I would consider having the meter changed to a ordinary one that what we did.

Hope I am able to help you with the problem you are having with economy7. I was an electrical contractor until I retired a few years ago. The most usual thing with economy7 immersion heaters was that they had two elements, a long one and a short one. The long one was heated with economy7 and the shorter one there in case you wanted some more hot water and was heated by the normal supply. Just check if there is another immersion heater switch anywhere maybe in the kitchen or even the cylinder cupboard. But after saying all that you can get economy7 controllers now which have a 1hour boost. You need an electrician to check it out for you, either one way or another you should be able to give it a boost during the day. Hope this is of some help to you.

Sparky - wonder if you could offer me some help. We have Economy 7 and storage heaters throughout the house. We have 2 distribution boxes, 1 with all the storage heaters in and the other contains everything else from sockets to shower. The problem is that electric current is always flowing to the storage heaters including during the date time. We have to manually flick the switches on the distribtion board at midnight each night and then remember to turn them off in the morning. Asbolute nightmare. What is wrong? There must be a "timer control device" missing somewhere that turns the current off to the storage heaters.

???????

Hope I am able to help you with the problem you are having with economy7. I was an electrical contractor until I retired a few years ago. The most usual thing with economy7 immersion heaters was that they had two elements, a long one and a short one. The long one was heated with economy7 and the shorter one there in case you wanted some more hot water and was heated by the normal supply. Just check if there is another immersion heater switch anywhere maybe in the kitchen or even the cylinder cupboard. But after saying all that you can get economy7 controllers now which have a 1hour boost. You need an electrician to check it out for you, either one way or another you should be able to give it a boost during the day. Hope this is of some help to you.

We had this, without the booster. The water and storage heaters were heated overnight but sometimes the water was used up by kids' bath time in the evening. We spoke to the landlord and they had a hour boost put in for us. If you own it, it didn't take the electrician very long so I don't think it should cost too much. You just have to remember to switch it on an hour before you're going to need it obviously. You can also put timers on your plugs for washing machine and dryer to come on at the night rate to save a bit of money.

Sorry about resurrecting this thread but my old night storage heaters are unable to cope with this weather,so I was looking for more modern and efficient replacements.I came across these http://www.thermasystems.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=1&id=2&Itemid=3
and wondered if any one had any thoughts or experience.
Sounds good but may be expensive,changing to gas CH is probably not a cost effective option for me,being 67 yrs and only 2 radiators need replacing.Electric is a simplle installation .
Thanks

we have economy 7 and have used it for 25 years. we like it, but it doesn't suit everybody. if you fit a modern timer to your immersion tank you can also programme boost timings if you want. we use a Horstmann electronic 7 timer to control
the hot water. modern storage heaters are cheaper to run. you will get higher
electric bills but no / smaller gas bills, and no service and boiler bills to pay.