What's involved with getting a timer put on your hot water cylinder to stop it heating during the day? I want to use cheaper night time power, 11pm to 7am,as I have just changed power company,have been doing it manually for a while,but it is such a hassle.thanks
articferrit,
May 17, 4:31pm
I started turning my (new) cylinder off during the day as an experiment to see if it made any difference to the power bill, it didnt like it and stopped going completely.
trade4us2,
May 17, 4:36pm
The switch on the meterboard would probably be a circuit breaker which is not designed to be used as a switch.
simba,
May 17, 5:56pm
cylinder 2kw,circuit breaker dg 61c16, hope this helps thanks
ryanm2,
May 17, 8:00pm
Wouldn’t the ripple control be turning it on at 11 and off at 7 ? Anyways, PDL do a basic 24 hr analog timer which would do the trick.
trade4us2,
May 17, 8:30pm
The ripple control almost never turns my cylinder off. Sometimes it's off at 6pm and on at 7pm. I have a pilot light in my kitchen that tells me.
kiwicw,
May 17, 8:50pm
I have a smart meter, have been told l can't have ripple control. Plus have been told that it has to be hard wired.
ryanm2,
May 17, 8:52pm
Every meter or meter combo should have the ability to control loading, I would ask again about a day/night rate.
ryanm2,
May 17, 8:54pm
Do you have day/night or a 20/4 hour plan where the lines company controls the ripple for up to 4 hours a day (always at peak times, 6.30 - 8.30am , 5.00 - 7.00 pm ) depending on load.
kiwicw,
May 17, 9:08pm
Ecotricity's is my new company,as I said they won't do ripple control.
supernova2,
May 17, 9:12pm
Will a timer like that work properly on a ripple control circuit? If I knew the answer I wouldn't have asked.
trade4us2,
May 17, 9:48pm
The ripple control unit turns the power to the hot water cylinder on and off. As long as the timer has its own power supply it can be installed after the ripple control unit. I don't see why that wouldn't work. However a sparky will be needed to wire it up.
trade4us2,
May 17, 9:53pm
I have never had any of those. The power company has always been able to turn off hot water heaters whenever they like. Since my smart meter was installed, they hardly ever turn my hot water off. However I do hear the sound that the ripple control makes in my audio system, usually on the hour at 10pm etc. Maybe the smart meter is filtering out the ripple signal almost all of the time (but not always).
johotech,
May 17, 11:39pm
The ripple control system is used for many different things. Not just hot water.
Street lights, night rate storage heaters and water heaters are just a few examples.
jan2242,
May 18, 7:51am
Why not just manually turn on the cylinder at 11 and then off at 7?
simba,
May 18, 8:06am
dont want to, been there done that,thanks for your ideas ,oops wife name
cleggyboy,
May 18, 8:13am
Just had solar power put in and a timer on the HW to come on during the day when hopefully there is some sun. The timer was $600.
kiwicw,
May 18, 8:27am
This 30A timer is only $33.40 , see above # 12 better than 600.
Nowhere does it mention any AS/NZS compliance so any competent electrician will refuse to install it. Even if you find one who is dumb enough to take the job (unlikely because there is no shortage of work), it will be an illegal installation if there is no compliance.
If you buy the HPM/Legrand product through a reputable wholesaler it will be compliant.
kiwicw,
May 18, 9:27am
Console, I have an retired sparky that would install it ,still got his ticket, with all this information I still don't know which one to get . thanks
tfc3,
May 18, 9:58am
I am a retired electrician, still have my registration but not a practicing licence. I can not legally install this and issue a certificate of compliance.
kiwicw,
May 18, 10:07am
I should have said partly retired he still does small jobs about the town, like the local school and clubs etc
johotech,
May 18, 10:13am
You could get a timer like this mounted at the cylinder. Or there are switchboard mounted timers if you have a modern switchboard. Probably cost around the same as the one below.
Keep in mind that the labour is going to cost you nearly as much as the parts. The easier you make the job, maybe by using a more expensive timer, then the labour might be less.
This timer is probably around $150-200. You're looking at maybe the same in labour charges on top.
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