SSE Tariff - Domestic Economy

[Resu]

Having a bit of a brain fart moment guys and would appreciate some input, please bare with me! The domestic economy rate I believe is the new name for economy 7. I am aware that the off-peak time for this tariff varies slightly region/weather depending.

Basing my question on a distant family member's setup: The (new) digital DNO meter has incoming tails (L & N) and outgoing tails (N, L1 & L2).

L1 feeds the domestic board - including the water heater circuit (electronic 7).
L2 feeds the storage board - which houses half a dozen storage heaters.

Am I right in thinking that the way this works is:
Peak time - L1 powered at day rate, L2 no power,
Off-peak time - L1 & L2 powered at night rate?

 

[Richard Burns]

EDIT: forgot the rates, unless you have an old meter then off peak rates apply to all power in off peak times, on peak rates apply to all power used in on peak times but the off peak board is off.

As you have a meter with two separate line conductors to two separate boards then, yes, that is the usual method of control; the second off peak board is only powered during the off peak hours.

There are other ways in which economy 7 can be arranged but these would not be usual if you have two line conductors.

I do not believe SSE have changed the name of the tariff, it should mention economy 7 or 10 in the title, so it may be a non Economy seven tariff and so all boards powered all the time.

 

[Resu]

As you have a meter with two separate line conductors to two separate boards then, yes, that is the usual method of control; the second off peak board is only powered during the off peak hours.

There are other ways in which economy 7 can be arranged but these would not be usual if you have two line conductors.

I do not believe SSE have changed the name of the tariff, it should mention economy 7 or 10 in the title, so it may be a non Economy seven tariff and so all boards powered all the time.

Thanks for the reply Richard. There is no mention of either in the title it is simply "Standard Domestic Economy" and nowhere on the bill did it say anything either. There is no mention of economy 7 on the SSE website (here), whereas economy 10, total heating, etc. are this is what led me to assume it is the new name.

The storage heater board (on "L2") is definitely only live during the off-peak hours. That is what led me to believe it is setup as my first post but just wanted to confirm!

I was always led to believe that the economy 7 tariff applied to the storage board only and that the normal board was at a set peak rate (this is what made me think my family member's setup was wrong - ie. water heater was on peak rate) although I might have misinterpreted the explanation of economy 7 I was given in the past!

 

[snowhead]

There have been various arrangements for Off peak sets ups over the years.
I've got Economy 7 and everything is metered at night rate overnight.

If you've got Off peak only powered at night and electric only water heating (looks like it with storage heaters) then there should be 2 immersions in the hot water cylinder.

Bottom one connected to Off peak.
Top one connected to normal rate, to allow boosting during daytime.

 

[Richard Burns]

There are different arrangements for different layouts, some of them have one board and one tail and the rate changes for the whole supply (nuisance for storage heaters as they have to have timers set to the prevailing off peak times), some have a separate meter for one board and another for the off peak board, some have your arrangement which if it has a digital meter should be charging the whole supply at off peak rates, though if it has a twin metering system it may be separate.

You can check by turning off the off peak board at off peak times and seeing if rate 2 changes when you boil a kettle, it also gets you a cup of tea at midnight!

The tariff in my area is still called economy 7, in these foreign northern climes they seem to have changed it!:confused5:
But it is still Economy 7. (they are probably trying to reduce the off peak hours below seven!)

 

[Resu]

There are different arrangements for different layouts, some of them have one board and one tail and the rate changes for the whole supply (nuisance for storage heaters as they have to have timers set to the prevailing off peak times), some have a separate meter for one board and another for the off peak board, some have your arrangement which if it has a digital meter should be charging the whole supply at off peak rates, though if it has a twin metering system it may be separate.

You can check by turning off the off peak board at off peak times and seeing if rate 2 changes when you boil a kettle, it also gets you a cup of tea at midnight!

The tariff in my area is still called economy 7, in these foreign northern climes they seem to have changed it!:confused5:
But it is still Economy 7. (they are probably trying to reduce the off peak hours below seven!)

Will try this method as it seems the only definitive way! Couldn't seem to get a straight answer from the helpline!

 

[Midwest]

One I did a job recently (which was SSE), it had a newish meter, with three Live outputs; one was for standard tariff, next was for off peak storage, last was for off peak immersion heater. The off peak came in the afternoon for a few hours and again at night from midnight till 6am. The customer had different tariffs for the two off peaks. I believe this is Economy 10, Economy 7 has just an 'on' period overnight only. I don't think Economy 10 is widely available for new customers now. FYI, SSE had a problem whereby their meters weren't recording usage correctly. My customer had received a back dated bill running into hundred's of £'s! There are other reports of customers being over charged as well.

 

[Resu]

One I did a job recently (which was SSE), it had a newish meter, with three Live outputs; one was for standard tariff, next was for off peak storage, last was for off peak immersion heater. The off peak came in the afternoon for a few hours and again at night from midnight till 6am. The customer had different tariffs for the two off peaks. I believe this is Economy 10, Economy 7 has just an 'on' period overnight only. I don't think Economy 10 is widely available for new customers now. FYI, SSE had a problem whereby their meters weren't recording usage correctly. My customer had received a back dated bill running into hundred's of £'s! There are other reports of customers being over charged as well.

That sounds more like THTC, which is what I have at the moment and is usually what we come across.

 

[Midwest]

I'll stand corrected on that then.

 

[R G]

One I did a job recently (which was SSE), it had a newish meter, with three Live outputs; one was for standard tariff, next was for off peak storage, last was for off peak immersion heater. The off peak came in the afternoon for a few hours and again at night from midnight till 6am. The customer had different tariffs for the two off peaks. I believe this is Economy 10, Economy 7 has just an 'on' period overnight only. I don't think Economy 10 is widely available for new customers now. FYI, SSE had a problem whereby their meters weren't recording usage correctly. My customer had receive




d a back dated bill running into hundred's of £'s! There are other reports of customers being over charged as well.

What you have there is a Superdeal meter , which is what I used to install quite often , the 2 off peak loads are for separate control of the water heating to the storage heating , the water heating is a 25A supply (the smaller forward terminal , this would then go to a horstman controller together with an unrestricted supply for the water heating only , this sis done so that the smaller off peak supply can be switched in separately when demand allows , and storage heating separately , although quite often they can be brought in together...

These meters are 3 rate , General supply unrestricted Number 1
Rate 2 is the middle rate which is the general supply when off peak is in
rate 3 is the off peak rate