arkon

Just thought I'd post what I found out about country energys off peak electricity. I had made the false assumption that all my electricity past midnight was cheap rate as I hade a off peak meter, so over the course of a couple of weeks I started making more things come on at night only, including turning the hot water system off during the day. It all made no difference! Heres the reason why, following is country energys FAQ about off peak electricity. Read it and weep. pay special attention to what you need to do if you find yourself running out of hot water!


***FAQ starts****
what is OFF PEAK hot water and how does it work?
Hot water systems can be either instantaneous, on a standard tariff, or on a cheaper Off Peak tariff - controlled by a relay or a time clock.
A relay system receives a pulse controlled by Country Energy and turns the hot water system on and off, OR a time clock is preset in the switchboard and switches the system on and off at a set time every day without any signal from us.

Off Peak or controlled load means that electricity is only supplied to your hot water system during off peak times. For this reason it is said to be controlled by Country Energy. In return for the ability to control the heating time, we offer a reduced price for the electricity used.

Not all hot water systems should be connected to controlled load - only those capable of storing enough water for your entire day's use.


when does my hot water system receive heating?
The signals sent to activate your hot water service are variable, but generally heating will occur under one of the following regimes:


Off Peak 1 - overnight giving sufficient heating to enable an appliance to fully recover with no additional boost
Off Peak 2 - overnight giving sufficient heating to enable an appliance to fully recover with an additional boost up to four hours at Country Energy's discretion
Off Peak 3 - delivers 18 hours heating in a 24 hour period (limited availability and only in some areas of Country Energy).

how much energy does my hot water system use?
Heating from a standing start (cold) the energy required to bring the water up to the maximum thermostatically controlled temperature is approximately:
18 units (KWH) for a 250 litre system
23 units (KWH) for a 315 litre system
29 units (KWH) for a 400 litre system
>Note:
To see if your system is running as it should, compare the average daily usage on your Off Peak meter with the figure above for your size hot water system. The figure above is not relevant if you have other appliances connected to the Off Peak meter.



what if I am running out of hot water?
You have the following options:
Have shorter showers and be aware of your tank's capacity
Fit a water saving shower head to reduce the flow
Use cold water to wash clothes
Install a larger hot water system.
Shift some of your usage to the off peak heating period
How? Find out when the off-peak period for your location cuts in and, if practical, use some of your hot water during the heating cycle. Any cold water entering the system to replace the hot water you've used will receive heating until the heating cycle ends.
Note: The heating cycle can be variable, even in the same location. The surest way to check if your system is on the heat cycle is to check your off peak meter for movement. If the disk (or numeric register) is moving your system is heating.

***FAQ ends ***

ABCDiamond

Bottom line is:

You have a separate Circuit and its own meter for any Off Peak use. Just about all houses will have two meters for the two circuits used.

Anything you need to have on the Off Peak Circuit has to be wired in to that circuit.

The Electric supply company turns the of peak power circuit on and off at its end.

PeteY

ABC....in SA at least, the only thing you can have wired into your j-tarrif (off peak) CB is your hot water unit. Nothing else.

arkon

Yes but its up to their discretion when they switch it on in any 24 hour period. This means it would be madness to put anything other then the hot water on the system as you wouldn’t know for sure when it was due. This has solved another mystery I had and that was with 3 to 30 second power cuts every night around midnight give or take half an hour. This must have been caused by the switch over of the off peak meter. I don’t think you are allowed to put other things on that circuit anyway. Everyone I’ve talked to say its for hot water only.

My utter flabbergasted’ness comes from the solution to getting more hot water was to have a shower during the time they have switched on the hotwater. A) how do you know for sure when that is and B) Its mostly during the night, and who wants to get up in the middle of the night for a shower.

Peak and off peak is one of those things you take for granted back home and it’s a completely different concept out here. In their favor too! I’ve been trumped by the way, the guy up the road from me with a smaller house, smaller pool, less electrical stuff regularly gets a bill for $900!

PeteY

There is no switch over, your hot water unit is one one meter, the rest of the house is on the other.

Your power cuts must a problem somwhere else. Contact your eletricity provider.

ABCDiamond

One of our local Off Peak Tarrifs allows:

The Economy Plan can be applied to suitably sized electric storage water heaters, solar-electric water heaters and heat pump water heaters. You can also use this tariff for other domestic loads such as swimming pool filters, water bed heaters and some freezers, provided they are permanently connected.

ABCDiamond

That applies to a lot of things, and it can take time to get used to.
I remember when I first arrived, and I wondered why they didn't do things the British Way

I can laugh at myself now

Storini

I would have thought it feasible to have a shower unit heated by normal electricity supply (connected to mains cold water not the hot water system) as is common in the UK. These are pretty cheap to run I think as they are only on for a couple of minutes.

NickyC

Never seen those funny UK-style shower units anywhere here. Just curious, but why don't people in the UK have proper showers?

All showers here have a hot tap and a cold tap (or mixer) and they're (obviously) connected to both hot and cold water systems. You can turn them on full blast and get far more power than those little sprinkler things.

p63500sv8

Hi

Showers in the UK are invariably a seperate unit or with a hidden pump if attached to the normal hot/cold water supply.
The reason for this is usually water pressure not sufficient.

This peak/off peak sounds rather confusing, hopefully by the time I get to Oz next year I will understand it!

Regards

Michael
P63500SV8