Night rate electricity question

deaglan169

i have a storage heater in living room, and an electric panel heater in hall which only operate when the night rate kicks in, am i correct then in thinking that only those two appliances take advantage of the cheap rate and all other sockets, fridge, washing machine etc.. are charged at normal rate even during night hours

djimi

If you have night rate then everything should run off it.

meercat

deaglan169 wrote: »

i have a storage heater in living room, and an electric panel heater in hall which only operate when the night rate kicks in, am i correct then in thinking that only those two appliances take advantage of the cheap rate and all other sockets, fridge, washing machine etc.. are charged at normal rate even during night hours

depending on the installation

in general however ,every circuit can avail of the low rate at night time

deaglan169

thats what i was thinking but i just found it strange that the electric panel heater in hall can only run when night rate is available, i can understand it being that way for the stoarage heater just found it odd for the hall heater, which made me think that only those two appliances avail of the night rate

The_Conductor

Note- you need a separate meter to avail of night rate electricity- the storage heaters have a night meter on them- which is in fact nothing whatsoever to do with night-rate electricity. The idea of the night meter is to allow the house to cool down overnight to aid with sleeping, and then slowly release the heat that has accumulated overnight during the daytime- or kicking it in with the override, as required.

To avail of cheap night-rate electricity, you need a separate meter!!!

deaglan169

there is a digital meter with two settings night and day, and my bill has two parts, units used under day/night rate but im thinking that the night rate is a separate circuit hence just the two heaters

meercat

deaglan169 wrote: »

there is a digital meter with two settings night and day, and my bill has two parts, units used under day/night rate but im thinking that the night rate is a separate circuit hence just the two heaters

there is probably a clock fitted to a contactor which operates at off peak times thus operating your storage heating
perhaps the panel heater in the hall should be a storage heater(normally the bedroom only has panel heaters)

any electricity used at off peak times(i.e immersion if on a timer)will be at the cheaper rate

a picture of your fuseboard will help confirm this

Thoie

deaglan169 wrote: »

there is a digital meter with two settings night and day, and my bill has two parts, units used under day/night rate but im thinking that the night rate is a separate circuit hence just the two heaters

Easy way to check -if you can see the meter easily, take a look at it around midnight, then turn on the kettle/oven and see which meter runs faster.

meercat

Thoie wrote: »

Easy way to check -if you can see the meter easily, take a look at it around midnight, then turn on the kettle/oven and see which meter runs faster.

the digital meter wont have a rotating dial

The_Conductor

meercat wrote: »

the digital meter wont have a rotating dial

It has separate read-outs for Day or Nighttime. By using a high intensity appliance (such as a kettle) it would be obvious which meter is in use at any given time.

meercat

smccarrick wrote: »

It has separate read-outs for Day or Nighttime. By using a high intensity appliance (such as a kettle) it would be obvious which meter is in use at any given time.

https://www.electricireland.ie/ei/business/manage-your-account/how-to-read-your-meter.jsp

deaglan169

ill put kettle on later and check will post back my findings

deaglan169

i put two 2kw heaters on and turned off storage heater went down and checked and it was flying up quiet scary really so the whole apartment runs on night rate, cheers all for replies and help