Background to Economy 7 / economy tariffs & time clocks :
Historically, Economy 7 & similar electricity tariffs used either a time clock (set & sealed by the utility company) and since 1984, utility companies sometimes used a Radio Teleswitch device to switch your electrical tariff between the day rate and the cheaper night time rate. This enabled the utility companies to stagger, per region, when off-peak loads would switch on overnight to prevent a sudden surge of demand upon the grid.
The Radio Teleswitch device would pick up the switching signal from the BBC Radio 4 198kHz Long Wave transmitter in Droitwich, Burghead or Westerglen, where a digital switching signal was encoded into the audio signal. The Radio Teleswitch device in your home would then switch between day rate and night rate. The teleswitch also had the facility to power up an "off-peak" consumer unit, to ensure that storage heaters and hot water tanks would only be powered up overnight on the cheap rate.
Radio Teleswitch obsolescence:
The Radio Teleswitch service, which is operated by the Energy Networks Association, are planning to switch off the Radio Teleswitch service by 30th June 2025, as the BBC also plan to shut down the BBC Radio 4 Long Wave service in the near future as well.
What do I need to do?
If you suspect you have a Radio Teleswitch meter on Economy 7 / Economy 10 / super deal / THTC Total Heat Total Control type tariffs, you should contact your energy company (the company who you pay for electricity) as they are responsible for the metering arrangements.
If they identify you have a Radio Teleswitch meter setup, they will offer to replace it with a Smart Meter. In general, there are two types of Economy 7 smart meter - 4 terminal and 5 terminal meters.
If you are migrating from a Radio Teleswitch meter and have two consumer units, one for the whole house, and another consumer unit just for storage heater and hot water, then a 5-terminal meter is needed, so the new smart meter is able to power up your off-peak consumer unit overnight, only when electricity is cheaper. The smart meter should have that time clock facility inbuilt. If they are unable to provide this, do chase them, or ask to speak to their metering department who may be more knowledgable than their front line customer services team.
A list of different smart meter types is available here. If your replacement meter is not switching your off-peak consumer unit, then raise this issue with your energy provider.
There is more information available from the Ofgem website here, which gives links to energy company websites for contact info.
Dimplex storage heater requirements:
Time switched supply:
If you have XL / XLS / CXL / CXLS / DuoHeat / XLE storage heaters, (or Quantum Series A to G), they need to be "fed" electricity from a time switched supply, only when the electricity is at the cheap rate, as the heaters do not know when that electricity is at the cheap rate. This is why the electricity meter needs to switch on your "off-peak" consumer unit, to supply power to these heaters only during the cheap rate times.
Whilst CXL, CXLS, DuoHeat, XLE and Quantum are "dual supply" heaters, meaning one supply is always live, the other is the "off-peak" supply is time-switched and only energised at the cheap rate so the heaters know when they can charge.
Single "always live" supply:
If you have a Quantum RF heater (Series G6 to G12, Series Y, Series Z), then it is possible to feed these heaters on a single, "always on", electricity supply and program the off-peak times into the heater, so the heater knows when it is able to charge up overnight. It does require "whole house switchover" which means the whole house is billed at the cheaper rate, rather than just a limited set of circuits in the home, during the cheap rate, and at the same off-peak times each night.
Tariff types:
We have an article on Tariff types to view here. We also have a special British Gas Tariff for Quantum RF heaters which is available here.
Applicable Models:
Single "always live" supply capable: QM050RF, QM070RF, QM100, QM125RF QM150RF (Series G6-G12 + Series Y, Series Z)
Time switched supply: XL6, XLS6N, XL12, XLS12N, XL18, XLS18N, XL24, XLS24N, CLX12, CXLS12N, CXL18, CXLS18N, CXL24, CXLS24N, DUO300i, DUO300n, DUO400i, DUO400n, DUO500i, DUO500n, XLE050, XLE070, XLE100, XLE125, XLE150,
(Quantum Series A to G, QM050, QM070, QM100, QM125, QM150)
Require additional help? Please follow link below
https://glendimplexservice.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/79000136321
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