Economy 7 times and coming off

  • 9 November 2023
  • 7 replies
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My mum has storage heaters that come on at night on economy 7. She wants to change them to standard heaters to be used during the day. The storage heaters spurs are fed from their own DB which is supplied from a Aclara SGM1415-B meter from the second contractor , no.5, which is powered up at night for economy 7. She was given wrong advice from OVO in that if she changed to a standard tariff this would enable the supply to be on all the time. She has now been told this was wrong and she needs to get all the supply to the spurs feed from the other DB, non E7. Can’t the smart meter just be configured to bring the supply on all day from the old E7 supply now as it is on a standard tariff. Surely they are called smart meters for a reason. Or do I need to go to Distribution Network Supplier for advice? Any advice given will be much appreciated. 

7 replies

Blastoise186
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Hi @AndySocky 

This comment was left by a forum volunteer.

The actual solution in this case may be to rewire the internal electrics rather than messing with the meter. If you had an Aclara SGM1416-B, I’d suggest just having ECAUL/ALCS reconfigured once the new heaters are in, but that doesn’t necessarily apply to the Aclara SGM1415-B when used with external contactors. But it is possible to reconfigure ECAUL/ALCS to run 24/7 either way.

The Distribution Network Operator won’t touch this as it’s out of scope of their services.

Bear with me, I have ways of seeking further advice backstage.

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Tim_OVO
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I’m hoping the newly trained @Abby_OVO may have some advice on this when she returns next week. In the meantime perhaps @Emmanuelle_OVO may be able to advise. 

 

I guess the key question is whether removing anything from the 5th port and connecting it to the main ports, in combination with configuration of the meter with things like tariff changes so peak and off peaks are charged at the same rate would be enough...

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Thank you for the replies. The solution I have at the moment would be to take both the 16mm tails out of contactors 4 and 5. Put a 25mm tail in the no.4 contactor which is on all the time at standard rate, into a connector box with the two 16mm tails. This would then supply both DB’s. 

Blastoise186
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You’d have to get OVO to do that - no-one else is allowed to open the meter case.

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According to the OVO customer care representative I spoke to yesterday an electrician can. But that’s exactly what I thought. I was stressing that the meter belonged to them as does the main fuse. But they insisted an electrician can. It would be so much easier if contactor 5 could be reconfigured. Looking at the diagrams of the smart meter, contactors 4 and 5 are just two 100A contactors. 

Blastoise186
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I’d personally argue that getting a site survey done first would be a better option - it may help identify what your options are.

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juliamc
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Can I just butt in an say the main fuse is owned by the DNO, eg UK Power Networks. The supplier eg OVO, owns the meter and meter tails.

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