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Hi, I'm buying storage heaters but a mate thinks that my meter needs to be made economy7-capable before it will work (*). The confusion lies in whether or not the existing meter (which does seem to have 2 rates) is already economy7, I think it is but then what do I know. I think that everything is ready for the electrician to do his stuff but I can't be sure. From the photo is my meter already economy7 and "ready" for an electrician to complete the work or does the Electric company need to install anything extra beforehand?
* The heaters are dual storage and convector, so I know the convector will work regardless, it's just the economy7 storage part that I'm unsure about.
Cheers
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Yes I accept that the electrician will know but thought I'd ask in case it's obvious to someone here...
Used to work for British Gas - you need to get a new meter installed. Call your power company. If you don't have a 2 rate meter installed then the heaters will either a) not come on, or b) eat all your money. E7 has a slightly more expensive day rate for normal use and a night rate which is about 1/4 of the price, for charging the heaters, which then release the heat during the subsequent day.
Hope this is of some help!
Cheers Mulacs, the small grey box with the LCD display appears to be 2-rate so I'm hoping I dont need to change anything and just get the electrican to connect to the existing stuff
Wish I knew more about this!
Is your electrician gonna change your distribution board whilst hes at it?? Is there already some kind of wiring in for electric heating already??
We had 2 meters one for cheaper rate electric, that span round like a downhillers front wheel, and an ordinary meter , we got charged standing charge for both meters,, als get your sparky to put a few spurs off the circuit for cheaper rate power for the tumble dryer wshing machine and possibly other stuff you only need to use at night.
Oh and i had the second meter taken out, as it was to costly to ever use the underfloor heating after the first month, that was 20 years ago.
looks like the 2 rate one we had in our place.
funnily enough we had it taken out as we don't have storage heaters and use most leccy at 'peak' times.
Is your electrician gonna change your distribution board whilst hes at it?? Is there already some kind of wiring in for electric heating already??
If there isn't any wiring in already its more than likely that some form of RCD protection would be required, which may mean a fuse board change. There will be two power supplies going to the heater, one for the storage(economy7) and one for the convector.
I fitted a Dimplex Storage heater with convector a while ago. Bloody horrible things to put together.
I do hope you have strong floors 😉