Timer Controlled Storage Heater CU

[DuncanF]

Hi all, this is my first post.

I have four reasonably new Olsberg Astral storage heaters that do a good job heating my electricity only flat. I am on an E7 tarriff but have been eyeing up some of the peak/offpeak/semi-offpeak tarriffs recently available, and could save some money by switching to one of those. That would require that I take control of the SH timers. However the Olsbergs are dumb SHs, and swapping them out for smart SHs is not financially possible right now.

My SHs are on individual radial circuits from a second (old, cartridge fuse) CU run from the E7 live tail of the meter via a small junction box. The 24/7 live and neutral from the meter go to a bigger junction box. The live then runs to the main CU, and the neutral runs to both the main and the SH CUs.

I imagined something like this to allow me to take back timer control.

1. Move the 24/7 live tail from the small junction box to a spare live output on the bigger junction box. There are a couple of blanked out entry points. This gives me 24/7 power to the SH CU.
2. Put a timer controlled contactor in this new tail. This gives me back timer control of the SH CU. Even better if it could be WiFi controlled. Total SH output is 11kW.

Is this even possible/a thing? My Googling has not turned up anything exactly as I imaginged. Obviously I'd have an electrician do the work!

The other alternate would be to put a timer switch local to each SH. Thay all have a local isolater switch at the SH end of their radial. But this is less neat I feel.

I would be grateful for any advice on the above, or any suggestions for an alternate approach.

Many thanks.

 

[UNG]

If you post some pictures of your existing metering and consumer unit(s) it would make it easier to advise on a solution
How are the storage heaters currently switched?

A contactor controlled by a smart timeswitch / heating controller is a possible option

 

[DuncanF]

The SHs are currently switched by the E7 live output of the meter.

Here is the board. I've labelled the end-to-end of the cables as following them is not easy from the pic.

Meter tails are:

1. Live in
2. Neutral in
3. Neutral out
4. 24/7 live out
5. Switched E7 live out

The bottom left silver box is disconnected. As built these flats had a single hot air storage system, now removed, and this was the feed to it.

 

[Murdoch]

Modern LOT 20 storage heaters need dual supplies or in some cases a single supply will do BUT then it’s up to the user to set the timer to match your E7 timings - get this wrong and you’ll be heating your storage heaters at peak costs

 

[DuncanF]

Modern LOT 20 storage heaters need dual supplies or in some cases a single supply will do BUT then it’s up to the user to set the timer to match your E7 timings - get this wrong and you’ll be heating your storage heaters at peak costs

At the moment, financially, all my options are based around using the current legacy SHs and doing the timer work myself. If I stick with an E7 tarriff, then there's nothing to be done apart from keep an eye on other E7 tarriff offers. If I can move the timers to my own control, then other off peak tarriffs are available. But these have multiple off-peak windows and are not compatible with the single timed output of my legacy E7 meter. E.g. one I have found has three off peak windows. Six hours overnight, and a one hour slot mid-morning plus a one hour slot mid-afternoon.