Storage heaters/night circuit not kicking in

seamus

Bleeding storage heaters. At least once a year I have to replace one of the wall switches for a storage heater because it's died.

This year I've replaced one switch, but now there's a new trick - the bloody night circuit randomly doesn't come on. Normally when it clicks over there's an audible "thunk" from something near the power board, but for the last week or so, it's decided to not kick in some nights.
I discovered that by switching off a breaker marked "Heat control" on the board and then switching it back on again, I can manually trigger the switchover, but twice now I've woken up in the morning and I've no heat because the night circuit didn't kick in and so the heaters didn't charge up.
No fun on these freezing days.

A quick google suggests that there's a relay there which controls this which is probably faulty, so I guess my question is - do I ring the ESB or an electrician?

Bruthal

Is sounds like a problem within the MCB board, possibly a faulty control MCB or loose connection in the control circuit, particularly if you switching off and back on the control MCB causes the contactor to close when it has not at the time it should have.

The relay you mention is actually a contactor, which is switched on by a timer contact at the esb meter. The control MCB controls the supply to this contactor and timed contact.

Its easy enough for electrician to check out and find the problem anyway.

Bruthal

Does your setup have a devireg controller?

seamus

I had no idea what that was, but it looks like yes I do. A simple one, pretty much identical to this:
http://www.adverts.ie/building-materials/day-night-storage-heating-controller-devireg-710-2-contactor-cutler-hammer/2267230

Bruthal

That could be another source of the problem. I used to install storage heaters before the days of them controllers being used on them, so have not used them myself. I know others in the forum have, so maybe they will have experience of faults deviregs may have.

Its still easy enough for an electrician to say it is that or eliminate it with simple tests anyway, as it just operates another set of contacts in the control circuit to bring the heating contactor on or off.

JOHNPT

The Devi Reg controls an outside stat which puts more charge into the heater the colder the weather - sometimes the outside stat is faulty - if u turn the little dial on the devi reg unit to 'Constant' it overrides the outside stat and puts a constant charge into heater

RoundyMooney

The other possibility is a faulty timeswitch at the ESB end, Seamus. Worth a visual check before you get an electrician in. It won't be definitive, but it might save you a few quid.

Bruthal

Could be the esb timer alright. The fact re-switching the control MCB was bringing the heating on when it hadn`t come on sort of indicates a problem other than the timer, but still probably possible alright if it had dodgy contacts.