Hi,

I've just bought and moved into a Victorian flat. I'm pretty new to all
this so if I don't make sense bear with me...

We have 3 storage heaters attached to the Economy 7 consumer unit (I
think on seperate spurs). The other week all 3 stopped working. I have
used a power detector and see that there is no power going to either of
the sockets during the off peak period.
The immersion water heater, I believe also connected to the E7 CU,
seems to be working fine.

I've checked the fuses in the consumer unit, and the main off peak fuse
and all seem OK. I want to try everything possible before calling out
an electrician, as I'd like to learn as much as I can myself. What are
the next steps for investigation that you guys would take?

A different problem also - one of my double wall sockets seems to have
packed up. I got a socket tester plug and it shows that there is a
"neutral fault". I checked removed and replaced the live neutral and
earth wires but no luck. Any ideas?

Cheers
Dom

Dom wrote
| We have 3 storage heaters attached to the Economy 7 consumer unit
| (I think on seperate spurs).

Separate radial circuits, yes.

| The other week all 3 stopped working. I have used a power detector
| and see that there is no power going to either of the sockets during
| the off peak period.
| The immersion water heater, I believe also connected to the E7 CU,
| seems to be working fine.

It's quite common for the immersion heater to be connected to the ordinary
CU enabling daytime boosts (usually with a separate timer/control unit with
a boost button), or two immersion heaters, one on off-peak and one on
ordinary.

| I've checked the fuses in the consumer unit, and the main off peak fuse
| and all seem OK. I want to try everything possible before calling out
| an electrician, as I'd like to learn as much as I can myself. What are
| the next steps for investigation that you guys would take?

There should be either a timeswitch or a teleswitch, and possibly a
contactor (big relay), which switch the off-peak CU on at the appropriate
times, as well as changing the meter from high to low rate. The
timeswitch/teleswitch will usually be Elect Board sealed and is their
problem.

| A different problem also - one of my double wall sockets seems to have
| packed up. I got a socket tester plug and it shows that there is a
| "neutral fault". I checked removed and replaced the live neutral and
| earth wires but no luck. Any ideas?

Wire disconnected at other end of wherever it's connected to, or break in
cable somewhere.

If you have only *just* bought this place, there are usually provisions in
the sale contract allowing for faults in the fixed installations to be
repaired at the seller's expense - but usually only for the first 7 days or
so.

Owain

Thanks for your reply, Owain.

Dom wrote
| I've checked the fuses in the consumer unit, and the main off peak
fuse
| and all seem OK. I want to try everything possible before calling
out
| an electrician, as I'd like to learn as much as I can myself. What
are
| the next steps for investigation that you guys would take?

There should be either a timeswitch or a teleswitch, and possibly a
contactor (big relay), which switch the off-peak CU on at the
appropriate
times, as well as changing the meter from high to low rate. The
timeswitch/teleswitch will usually be Elect Board sealed and is their
problem.


As far as I can see there is a seperate off peak 60 amp fuse, connected
to the seperate off peak CU which has 4 fuses. As i'm in a flat all the
other flats seem to have this setup, all in the same cupboard in the
hallway. Last night I used a power detector during the off peak time,
and found that there was no current flowing through the 60amp fuse,
whereas all the other flats did have current through their fuses. This
is the fuse that I tested the other day, and found to be working so I
think I can assume that the elec company's equipment (meter or
otherwise) is not providing power to me for some reason?

Dom

Thanks for the reply Owain.

As far as I can see there is a sepereate "off peak" 60 amp fuse,
connected to the sepereate off peak consumer unit. All the other flats
seem to have this same setup, as they are all in the same cupboard in
the hallway. Last night I used a power detector during off peak time
and found that there was no current flowing through my 60amp off peak
fuse, whereas the other flats did have current. This is the fuse I
tested the other day and found to be OK. So I guess for some reason the
elec company's equipment isn't supplying me during off peak times?
Maybe its their contactor, as you mentioned above? I'll give them a
call and see if I can get their help.

Cheers
Dom

Oops sorry for the double post - getting weird google groups errors
today.