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No power to storage heater

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  • 07-01-2015 7:59pm
    #1
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭


    Hi all,
    I’m looking for some help regarding storage heaters in an apartment. I’ve been unable to get the storage heaters to come on at night (although the instant heat/boost function of the heaters works fine). I had an electrician come over and check it out and he showed that there is no issue with the heaters themselves and the fuses at the wall beside them are working fine as well. He checked this by manually putting the contactor switch in the fuse box in the hall to ‘on’.

    He suggested that the issue could be with the timer on the meter for the apartment which would result in the meter not switching to the night time rate. I checked the front of the meter last night after 11pm and the pointer was pointing towards the night reading.

    Does this suggest that the meter timer is working and that the problem may lie somewhere else?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Tagged:


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    #2
    meercat
    Registered Users Posts: 4,745 ✭✭✭meercat


    Is there a thermostat in the house
    Turn it up full. (Listen for the click)

    Pics of contactor and meter may help
    Take a pic of meter tonight and one 12 hrs later.
    Think your electrician could be more helpful.


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    #3
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    meercat wrote: »
    Is there a thermostat in the house
    Turn it up full. (Listen for the click)

    Pics of contactor and meter may help
    Take a pic of meter tonight and one 12 hrs later.
    Think your electrician could be more helpful.

    Thanks for the reply, Meercat. There's no thermostat in the apartment as far as I can see. I assume it would be somewhere accessible if there was one.
    Unfortunately boards won't let me post pictures as I'm a new user.
    I was thinking the same re the electrician - I'm guessing he should have been able to pin point the problem rather than leaving me second guessing. I don't want to have to call out ESB to check the meter time if possible as it requires being in the apartment for half the day waiting on them to arrive!


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    #4
    meercat
    Registered Users Posts: 4,745 ✭✭✭meercat


    Is there a devireg controller in the fuse board.


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    #5
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    Hi meercat,
    Think i've a workaround for the posting pics problem...replace the '1' at the start of the following..
    1mgur.com/PtiVMf9,WSUUr0X#1
    The devireg controller has a knob called 'night' that goes from -4 to +4? It has one of them..


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    #6
    meercat
    Registered Users Posts: 4,745 ✭✭✭meercat


    Could be controller for your heating being the problem

    Search devireg storage heating problem on boards. On phone can't link.

    Think the electrician fobbed you off tbh.

    You need a competent electrician familiar with devireg to sort this for you.


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    #7
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    Thanks again for the speedy reply, Meercat.
    In your opinion is unlikely to be the meter timer? The fact that the red switch on it points towards night at after 11pm and towards day after 8am suggests to me that the meter is probably fine?
    Also, the storage heaters come on when the contactor switch in the fusebox is manually switched on, if that helps clarify the fusebox controller issue...


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    #8
    Bruthal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    meercat wrote: »
    Think the electrician fobbed you off tbh.

    Sounds like that alright.


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    #9
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    Thanks for the replies, guys. Any suggestions on how best to proceed? If I get onto the electrician again he's likely to tell me the problem is probably at the meter, meaning I'll have to get an ESB technician to call out...


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    #10
    Bruthal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    thelids wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies, guys. Any suggestions on how best to proceed? If I get onto the electrician again he's likely to tell me the problem is probably at the meter, meaning I'll have to get an ESB technician to call out...

    All he has to do to test that is energise the switch wire from the timeclock timer. Its probably a pair of browns to the meter timer contacts, so it should be simple enough to check if that is the problem.


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    #11
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    Bruthal wrote: »
    All he has to do to test that is energise the switch wire from the timeclock timer. Its probably a pair of browns to the meter timer contacts, so it should be simple enough to check if that is the problem.

    Are you talking about the ESB technician doing this or the electrician? I'd hope to avoid calling out the ESB guy if possible as they require you to be in your house for 4 hours in the morning to let them in. Quite tricky for me to do without taking a half day from work!


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    #12
    Bruthal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    thelids wrote: »
    Are you talking about the ESB technician doing this or the electrician? I'd hope to avoid calling out the ESB guy if possible as they require you to be in your house for 4 hours in the morning to let them in. Quite tricky for me to do without taking a half day from work!

    Electrician. As meercat said, there is a slight hint he just fobbed you off to get away from it.

    An electrician should be able to do other checks besides simply pushing in the contactor manually.


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    #13
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    Thanks for the feedback, guys.
    I'll get onto him tomorrow to call out and recheck. So basically, he should be able to see if the problem lies at the meter or not (without having to call ESB out)?
    Is there anything else in particular he should be checking/inspecting in detail, e.g. the devireg controller, contact switch (again!)?
    The electrician was recommended to me by the management company and I got the vibe that he's more of a jack of all trades rather than an actual electrician. Hence the fobbing off, possibly. Anyway, I've paid him for his previous visit, so I guess I'm stuck with him!


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    #14
    meercat
    Registered Users Posts: 4,745 ✭✭✭meercat


    thelids wrote: »
    Thanks again for the speedy reply, Meercat.
    In your opinion is unlikely to be the meter timer? The fact that the red switch on it points towards night at after 11pm and towards day after 8am suggests to me that the meter is probably fine?
    Also, the storage heaters come on when the contactor switch in the fusebox is manually switched on, if that helps clarify the fusebox controller issue...

    Haven't yet come across a storage heating problem that's on Esbn clock(you never know though)

    As bruthal says,he should be able to test without getting Esbn out.


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    #15
    thelids
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭thelids


    meercat wrote: »
    Haven't yet come across a storage heating problem that's on Esbn clock(you never know though)

    As bruthal says,he should be able to test without getting Esbn out.

    Alright guys,
    The electrician came back and as suspected there was no problem with the meter timer. The issue was a faulty devireg, as suggested by Meercat. So he bypassed the devireg, and now the signal from the meter goes straight to the contactor rather than through the devireg first.
    Heaters came on last night, so all good now!
    Thanks again for the help - greatly appreciated.


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