Electricity Timer Out of Sync - Advice Required

padair

Lo All.
I reciently got a letter from the ESB telling me that the Automatic Timer that switches from Daytime to Night time was off. I had not contacted the ESB so I thought this was a mistake. To cut a long story short, my landlord hada problem with another appartment in our building. He contacted an electrician whom infored him the timer that distinguishes between Daytime and night times savings was off by 6 hours.

How long would it take for the timer to be off by 6 hours. I have been in the flat for nearly two years and I am trying to figure out if I have been paying too much over two years. My nex bill came in at €60 euros which had been credited by the ESB. Our previous bills used to run in around €160-€180 in the winter.

Any advice in the matter would be appreciated.

P.

Davy

padair wrote: »

How long would it take for the timer to be off by 6 hours. I have been in the flat for nearly two years and I am trying to figure out if I have been paying too much over two years.

In theory it should balance out each year when the clocks go forward, and then go back. Depending on time set, you could be getting the night rate, when you shouldn't be so depends if its 6 hours forward or behind.

Best thing is to ring them and make an appointment and get it corrected. Will only take a few minutes.

Thoie

padair wrote: »

I have been in the flat for nearly two years and I am trying to figure out if I have been paying too much over two years. My nex bill came in at €60 euros which had been credited by the ESB. Our previous bills used to run in around €160-€180 in the winter.

Any advice in the matter would be appreciated.

P.

I had that issue before (and 8 months of arguing with the ESB about it - they offered me €10 in the end :mad:).

The first thing to find out is what runs on the night meter in your place. If it's just storage heaters, then you're not out of pocket - they'll just have heated at a different time, but still on the night rate.

In my case everything (immersion, dishwasher, all sockets) switches to the night rate meter. I had everything set up so that dishwasher, washing machine etc., only started at midnight, but of course with the timer wrong they were all running on full rate units. The ESB countered that any electricity I used when the meter thought it was night was then cheaper, but that wasn't much bloody use to me, as I was out at work during those times, not using electricity.

Our timer had gone out by 8 hours in an 18 month period (new build, I moved in approx 12 months after the meters were installed brand new), so I think it's a "how long is a piece of string" question. I'm amused by your issue because ESB firmly told me that never ever ever had the clock on a day/night meter gone out of synch before - you and I therefore must be the only two people on the planet affected by this!

To be honest you can push and push and they might eventually come up with a number, but my general advice is just move on and keep your sanity - it was like trying to deal with a brick wall. If you're lucky and get someone sane in there they might use your usage this winter (from now until March) to calculate your averages, and sort you out for the difference if the previous two years were wildly different.

BendiBus

Thoie wrote: »

I'm amused by your issue because ESB firmly told me that never ever ever had the clock on a day/night meter gone out of synch before - you and I therefore must be the only two people on the planet affected by this!

Nope. I'm the third person (or possibly the first - it was a few years ago) to have this happen. :cool:

Thoie

BendiBus wrote: »

Nope. I'm the third person (or possibly the first - it was a few years ago) to have this happen. :cool:

Gasp! It's as if it's not a one off incident, and that sometimes these things can be wrong!

(To be fair, the vast majority of the units are fine, but like any other mechanical object, things can be faulty - my frustration was partially because the ESB refused to admit that sometimes things break.)

Davy

Thoie wrote: »

Gasp! It's as if it's not a one off incident, and that sometimes these things can be wrong!

(To be fair, the vast majority of the units are fine, but like any other mechanical object, things can be faulty - my frustration was partially because the ESB refused to admit that sometimes things break.)

Do you have the old black mechanical timer as to the newer digital type?