Economy 7

[olsonn]

Went to look at a job today which looks like a real botch up. The lady has been there a few months and rang me because the electric towel rail in the bathroom has never worked since she moved in. Just called in at 9am to have a quick look on way to another job and its a right strange case. There appears to be no isolation switch for the heater either by pull cord in the bathroom or switch outside so doesnt appear to be any way of turning it on or off. It has no thermostat. The towel rail is connected into a box in the bathroom outside of zone 2 but it is not an unswitched FCU more a junction box. The feed is taken from 2.5 T&E, but when I tested it, it was dead. I noticed that heating in the rest of the flat was supplied by storage heaters being supplied by Economy 7. My thinking is that the feed to the towel rail is actually using an off peak feed so the towel rail might well be working, but only between the hours of 11pm - 7am. Not much use to the lady when she is in bed. Can somebody confirm that this is the way that an economy 7 supply would work?

 

[NMc]

Towel rails are 24hr supplies have a good look around the switch may be in a cupboard nearby

 

[olsonn]

I know they should be but I couldnt find a switch of any type that turned it on. We are only talking about a one bedroom flat so not a million places to hide it.

 

[sjm]

You could try doing R1+R2 from the off peak board and test at box for towel rail. Have you checked in the loft? I would not expect a towel rail to be on ecconomy 7 however.

 

[olsonn]

Its a ground floor flat with concrete ceilings so no loft sorry. The fact that the cable was dead at 9am makes me think it is on economy 7. I am going to go back later in the week for a bit more investigation

 

[J&M Electrical]

On the Economy 7 timer by the mains (if it's not sealed) there should be an over rideswitch on the side (red button usually) that you can press and will override the time settings and power the Economy 7 system up.

 

[Guitarist]

It does sound like someone has wired it into an economy 7 heater supply, not knowing what they were doing. Best way to check is to pop back after 11 tonight and test it... :wink5: