hot water stopped heating overnight

Hey ​@Stuey2026,

Welcome to the community,

Did the electricians happen to mention why they thought the issue might be with the smart meter? Also, are you on an economy tariff that changes rates depending on the time of day? If that’s the case, there might be a problem with your time switch, but don’t worry—an engineer can fix it! I’m  glad that our Support Team could book an appointment for you.

Since you still have power at your property, this wouldn’t be considered an emergency that needs same-day attention, so you’ll get the closest available time slot. 

If you’re feeling worried about how this might affect your health, I recommend reaching out to our Support Team again. They can review your priority services information and see if it’s possible to move your appointment up a bit. Your health is important, and we're here to help!

Hello.

yes I’m on an economy 7 meter. Bizarrely thr overnight heating is working fine,  by that water tank is not heating overnight as it should. 
 

The engineers both came to the same conclusion that everything was in working order so had to be an issue with the meter. I was hoping this could be diagnosed or fixed remotely. Is that not an option ​@Chris_OVO ?

Thank you. 

Hey ​@Stuey2026,

It sounds like your peak and off-peak circuits are adjusting just as we’d expect, and it’s great to hear that your overnight heating is working well! You should be able to check this on your smart meter, where you can see the different circuits in action. I don't understand why your water heatings the only one that's affected unless it's run on a different circuit?

If you could share some photos of your meter and current setup, that would be super helpful for us to understand what you're working with!

Usually, if our Support Team were to assess this remotely, they would run a command called ECAUL. This helps adjust the Auxiliary Load Control Switch on your smart meter, allowing higher-load appliances like your water heater to come on at the right times. Feel free to reach out to our Support Team team and ask them to push this command through to see if it helps. Just keep in mind that if the issue persists, we might need to arrange for an engineer visit to check if everything’s okay with the meter. 

​@Firedog ​@BPLightlog I was wondering if either of you has ever experienced a situation where the heating is working fine, but the water tanks aren’t heating up overnight? We'd be interested to hear your thoughts!

Photos of the meter and immediate connecting cables could help - there could be connection problems or, often, there’s a valve that directs heated water to either heating or hot water (depending on equipment).

What sort of heating do you have ​@Stuey2026 ? Is it a gas boiler and if so is it a combi or do you have a hot water tank, immersion heater?

Thanks both. ​@BPLightlog ​@Chris_OVO 

photo of my meter attached. Not sure how to describe my water heating but it’s a tank with an element /thermostat at the top (for boosting) and bottom (overnight - currently not working). I do have an engineer visiting in a week to look at the smart meter as the electricians have said everything should be working / all equipment tested so it points to the smart meter. All elec not gas.
 

photo of my meter attached. There’s a red light flashing if that helps (underneath where it says Aclara ?

A couple of comments while we wait for pictures:

• Economy 7 was designed, and still used by millions, for space and water heating using electricity at a cheaper rate overnight. This usually means that the heating equipment is on its own, switched circuit separate from all the other electrical equipment in the house. To make sure that only cheaper-rate energy is used, the meter does the switching when the tariff changes to offpeak. If there is a situation where space heating is working but water heating isn’t, there must be some separation of the feeds with a problem on one of them. This isn’t likely to be at the meter unless it’s a particularly unorthodox one. 
• Hot water tanks for Economy 7 typically have two heating elements, one at the bottom of the tank and the other ¾ of the way up the tank. The lower one is on the switched circuit from the meter, heating up the whole tank overnight. The other is controlled by a separate switch close by, often labelled ‘boost’. It is on the same constant circuit as other electrical equipment and can be used if the tank has cooled down after heavy use. Because it uses peak-rate electricity during the day, it’s often restricted by a timer to a one or two hours’ boost, which is usually enough to tide the family over. 
• ​@Chris_OVO wondered whether I had ever experienced a situation where the heating is working fine, but the water tanks aren’t heating up overnight. Yes, a couple of years ago. Because the fault was clearly downstream of the meter, the customer had to call in an electrician. The first thing he did was to check the consumer unit (‘fuse box’) and saw that the breaker for the immersion heater had tripped. Resetting it (and checking that there was no danger) restored the status quo and all was well.
  First check the fuse!

We’ll probably be able to make sensible suggestions once we see pictures:

• A close-up of the meter itself, clear enough so the display and all the markings on the meter are legible. Touch a button to light up the display before taking pictures, and make a note of the time;
• An overview of the whole cupboard or the backboard where the meter is mounted, so all the cables to and from the meter can be clearly seen;
• Close-ups of the Consumer Units, with the lids propped open. The photos should be clear enough so any labels by the individual breakers are legible;
• Any other electrical control equipment, like the controls for the immersion heaters and storage heaters;

That should do for a start 🙂

​@Firedog think our posts overlapped! Here’s the meter / clearer photo than the last one. Thank you :-)

​@firedog

​@Chris_OVO ​@Firedog ​@BPLightlog 

More photos above and in thread. Thanks v much 

Thanks for all the images .. very helpful.

Can I check a few things - looking at your information, I think you’re suggesting that the hot water problem occurred ‘suddenly’, one night. If that’s correct, then it would be unusual for the meter to be the cause.

I’ve enhanced your meter photo to look at a few more details. The wiring looks correct, as it would be if it had been working properly since install.

In the bottom right hand corner of the display, you can see a mimic of the circuits that switch for the peak and off peak elements. Once these are working correctly it would be very difficult for them to become incorrect.

Presumably the electrician wouldn’t have visited overnight and so couldn’t have completed a check on the actuation of the hot water heater. The picture of the circuit switches has a neon which should alight when it gets power - of course in your photo it is off.