High Electricity Bill - PulsaCoil III

Hi Experts,

Need your advise here, I have recently got this new apartment which has PulsaCoil III Water Boiler. My Electricity Bill is pretty high for a month around 145 GBP. There is a NOBO System 500 Orion 512 timer next to Boiler which has all these settings day, hours, minutes, zone etc.
Also it has 3 wall switches 1 to switch the NOBO System ON/OFF other is ON PEAK and third is OFF PEAK. I realised that ON PEAK and OFF PEAK both buttons were ON when I moved in, I was checking meter reading every day and finally when I switched OFF ON PEAK power switch the meter read very minimal, but for some reason there was not hot water at all. I am bit puzzled how to fix this only with ON PEAK switched ON the hot water comes in shower but it's very high electricity usage.

There is something definitely not right there hence the electricity usage is so high.

What could be wrong here, is the OFF PEAK function not working, needs looking/fixing? does the Pulsa Coil III needs to be synced with NOBO timer to come at certain times so ON PEAK could be switched OFF?

I looked at NOBO System 500 Orion 512 manual but it only tells about setting for storage heaters, could the Pulsa Coil III be also linked to it somehow, anyone could guide how to do that if possible please?

Is it better to get someone come and have a look at it rather doing myself you suggest?  if that would be better solution as paying 140+ a month is simply mammoth, the other apartment where I live have only 30 GBP bill per month, here this is almost 4-5 times.

Any advise would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,
Regards,
Vish

Vish,

Apologies for slow reply. Not sure if you have sorted this out yet or not, but my guess would be not!

Firstly, the NOBO system is designed for, and normally used to control electric central heating. Underfloor heating, ceiling heating or wall heaters. Not storage heaters. It is a time controller with lots of channels so each wall heater, ceiling heating panel, underfloor heating element etc can be independently turned ON and OFF at times of your choice. Very controllable but the downside you the user have to set up all these times in the first place which is a fair bit of work, manual in hand.

In most NOBO installations one of the NOBO channels will be connected to the off peak heater element on the Pulscaoil water heater, so it can be turned ON and OFF to coincide with the cheap rate night time electricity from your electricity supplier, sso first thing to check is your supplier actually has you on an off peak tariff, with low cost night time electricity. Your electricity bill will tell you what tariff you have, or call them.

Next, check what channel the Pulsacoil off peak heater is connected to in the NOBO, and set the timings to coincide with the low cost periods on your electricity tariff. Now, the Pulsacoil should heat the hot water overnight using low cost electricity and your bills should fall a bit. The ON PEAK switch on the wall by the Pulsacoil is for the emergency back-up heater element to give you a small amount of hot water if you run out of hot water during the day when off peak heater is turned OFF. This uses expensive daytime electricity so usage should be limited.

If, having set up your low cost electricity tariff and adjusted the times on the NOBO, you still get no hot water (unless using the on-peak switch) then there is a fault. Either the Pulsacoil off peak heater element thermostat has tripped or quite commonly, the NOBO channel controlling the Pulsacoil has failed. Both are common faults. The Pulsacoil can be fixed but sadly not the NOBO. NOBO went into administration a few years ago and spare parts are not available. A simple alternative is to install an "Economy 7" time switch next to the Pulsacoil to control the hot water.

My final comment is any flat with a NOBO system is usually heated with expensive daytime electricity, so this will be contributing significantly to your high bills. Turn all the heaters off at every possible opportunity and your bills should also reduce. I doubt you have storage heaters, there is no point in installing a NOBO to control storage heaters as the electricity company controls storage heaters for free!