Removing ballon d'eau chaude from heures creuse.

[Rhodri]

Evening everyone and Merry Christmas. Hope the leftovers are going down well.

We have an electrically heated hot water cylinder which is wired into an heures creuse switch on the tableau with an apparently typical "force marche", (night) and "arret" positions. As we airBnB our small longere for up to 8 people, our guests sometimes run out of hot water in the evening. The day before yesterday I switched it to force marche, assuming that it would be always on, enabling us to run it via the newly installed smart-phone connected controller. We don't have an heures creuse contract and want to heat the water in the early morning and again early evening. I was surprised to find, yesterday, that the controller had switched off, then to find that this was because the tableau switch had returned to the "night" position. Had I turned it off again?? This morning, same thing. So the penny has dropped and I realise I need to remove it from the day/night switch. Rather than removing the switch from the tableau and replacing it with a couple of interrupteurs (it's more than just the heater on the circuit, I believe), I wondered if I could disable the time signal simply by removing the lower gauge wires from the A1/A2 positions on the switch? Would this allow the time switch to stay in force marche?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Rhodri]

So, in case anyone else has a similar issue, I went ahead and disconnected the time signal wires and the switch now behaves exactly as I’d hoped - the force marché stays where I put it and doesn’t automatically return to the heures creuse position, so I can now control the hot water remotely via the M-climate Bobbie controller.

[idun]

I had been going to suggest that you, or someone did just that.

IF you don't have an heure creuse contract, then why not have your water heater on when you want it to be on.

We had a switch on our water heater that would override the heures creuses, but I never ever did, we had EJP for years and it would have cost an arm and leg to override.

[Lehaut]

I hesitated to agree with your suggestion as I have not done it personally. When we changed over from your system to a normal tariff, the engineer disconnected the wires you mentioned from the main meter, put a bit of tape over the lower (creuse) meter reader, and our system was changed. So, if you have changed over from "tarif heure pleine creuse" what was activating the switch?

I have been installing remotes on various systems and heaters in our flat, all controlled from a phone. Your MClimate seems a bit expensive, you might want to look at Sonoffs (10A 2200W for 9.99€ on Amazon). I have them installed in bathrooms in watertight box for towel rails.

[nomoss]

I'm beginning to think that, when someone changes from HP/HC to a flat rate contract, the supplier simply applies the standard tariff to all the consumption, and the technician carrying out any changes does not necessarily disable the contacts in the meter nor make any wiring changes in the switch panel.

This is probably because the consumer's wiring within the panel is not the responsibility of the supplier.

There are different ways in which the meter contacts may be connected. Normally open and normally closed contacts are provided, different types of relays are used to make use of these, and sections of the load have to be separated as required.

In our previous house we had a Tempo meter, which has six different tariffs, with programmable output contacts. The contacts had never been connected, so I separated the loads into three groups, with two relays, to make the best use of the switching system. Everything worked perfectly during the twelve years we had the house.

We sold the house seven years ago. The new owners were very happy with the system, as the Tempo meter is no longer available for installation, reputedly because EDF lost money on it, and can save a lot of money if used correctly. They had no problems at all while they lived there.

Last year the house was sold again. The new owner almost immediately got rid of the meter, as it was "too complicated", even though the operation is completely automatic, and can be manually overridden if necessary.

The technician sent to replace the meter did just that, without making any changes in the panel, so that a large part of the system had no power after he finished. He was called back, but apparently told the owner she had to get an electrician to rewire the panel, as it was not his responsibility.

Instead of calling in the electrician in the village, who did all the previous work on the house, she got one from miles away, who was much cheaper.

I guess you get what you pay for, as after two visits he has not got power to all the outlets, and has burnt up a section of the panel.

My advice is to leave your electric panels alone unless you know what you are at, and if not, get in an established electrician, preferably recommended by someone you know and trust.