Setting the timing for electric water heater

A question about : Setting the timing for electric water heater

Hello everyone!

I live in a (electricity only) property where there's a single rate meter. I am considering to move to a dual rate meter (economy 7 plan) in order to save money.

The property has an electric boiler - Santon PremierPlus Direct Unvented Hot Water Cylinders. I tried to have a look around the boiler, but couldn't find anything that will help me set the timing of water heating during the night. I have no clue how do I go about it?

Any help/direction will be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Best answers:

• Is your heating a wet electirc system(like traditional radiators)? Or are they electric panel heaters (warm up whenever you turn them on) or storage heatets (charge at night, release heat through the day).
  Whilst there are some very competitive E7 tariffs available, First Utility springs to mind. You need to be clear as to how much electricity you use and when. You also need to fully understand the set-up you have and how it operates.
  As you do not have an E7 meter, you may have to pay to get one installed. So work out what you use and when, especially now during winter. Then you use comparison sites.
  To make e7 really work you should use at least 50% of your use at night. Although it can still work out cheaper using less.
  Post your usage (meter readings and dates) for the past few months and we can help.
• Looks like my query was misunderstood. Let me try to be more clear -
  I am not looking to decide which tariff is better for me.
  I am only looking to find how can I set/configure my electric boiler to consume electricity only during the night time, and not during the day time.
  I am asking this here because when I tried to have a look around the heater/boiler, I didn't see a switch/switchboard where I can set the timer for heating.
• Looking at the information for the unit it does not have a self contained timer. If you have it correctly wired it will come on only during the E7 period otherwise you will need to install a timer yourself.
• I am not familiar with this system, but if it is an electric boiler driving a wet CH system with conventonal rads, then switching to E7 metering would massively increase your bills. The vast bulk of your electricity consumption will be for space heating, not DHW, and on E7 all your heating will then be done on peak rate, not during the cheap rate night hours. The saving in hot water heating would be negligible compared to the increase in heating costs.
• Thanks everyone. I got my answer and I think I will talk to the boiler manufacturer about the nitty gritties of getting the timer fitted onto it.
  Thanks again.