Economy 7 Second house in Surrey apparently(god Knows when !)

Roger · Mar 24, 2011

Blimey check this out,
She wants to get rid of the old rewireable fuses and have a nice new board.She says money no object as its only going to go to the home to look after her husband !!!
She's about 90 so i think i better get a deposit before she spends it all.
The whole house has 8 storage heaters but some clever old switch gear,never seen it before.They are a like a thermal type of switch with a 13amp cartridge fuse in them.Because of all the heaters coming on at the same time there must be 2 systems and one is delayed i guess to come on later.Only one time clock as she is quite remote and can not get a radio signal(edf words).

Ok with CU change and was going to use a 100amp contactor on time switch to run a second CU but it looks a little more involved than that.On the fuse boards for the storage heaters only 6 ways are in use so must be 2 circuits with 2 storagee heaters on them.

Any advice very welcome as to best way forward.

bugsy · Mar 24, 2011

Dont recall seeing anything like it , but as you say 6 way C.U. via contactor via time clock ( looks like the DNO;s time clock ) Im assuming their all radials but why 30a ?

glasgowbiker42 · Mar 25, 2011

that's an old embray contactor.

richy3333 · Mar 25, 2011

See similar set-ups here in the Heelands all the time as nobody has mains gas and most rely on storage heaters for heating their houses. The meter looks like it is a set timed sort - Ec7 rather than those that are radio linked for 'Total heating'. The short live which passes from the black box to the Ec7 meter is the power for the clock.

I would ensure the heaters are on their own circuits for the new EC7 CCU with appropriate rated MCB's. I tend to split the circuits (as you would normally) mixing upstairs and downstairs so if and RCD does trip they are not left without heating totally on each floor etc.

You will need to connect in some temp tails to do the live testing on the Ec7 board or else stay with the customer until quite late in the evening when the meter kicks in and the board becomes live

telectrix · Mar 25, 2011

are those old boards mounted sideways, or were you luing down when you took the pics? and if she's 90, definitely get a deposit or a mention in her will.

Roger · Mar 27, 2011

Yeah ok obviously i have not mastered the old iphone yet.I think the plumber is in the will as he is always there.
No going back to the pics why is there so much stuff there to control what is really quite straight forward.Next to the clock you have a relay which i assume then energises the contactors.
The new meter is for one contactor and one fuse box for ecomony 7 and then via a henly block goes to another fuse box for the rest of the house.
The old meter is still there as it required for the other eco 7 fuse board.
Why 2 contactors ? because of switching load very high ?
In my first post i was going to simplify it with one CU rest of house electrics and one CU via a contact for eco 7 heaters.The new meters has 2 tariffs set one day and one night.The time switch is owned by DNO so can not touch it ? how do i go about that,cut the wire and use or just buy another and leave the existing wires loose diconnected and wait for DNO to take away.Just out of interest would they always come out and reset as the clocks went forward last night.Can i play with the timeswitch ?
Blimey have to think of a price now ,would it be worth using RCBO's through out as she is so old i don't wont multiple circuits to fail is there is a fault on one.
Cheers