Drawing 3 kilowatts of power during peak

I recently installed an energy monitor in my house. Since I have done so, I have noticed that my pulsacoil A class is drawing power during the peak time. In particular, after I take a shower, the unit is drawing 3 kw of power. It seems to be heating up the thermal store again. I thought the thermal store was only supposed to heat during offpeak hours. Does this sound like a fault with my unit, or is this normal behaviour?

Hi

The Pulsacoil A Class is only designed to draw current when either:
1] the off peak supply provides a demand, usually economy 7 overnight, or econpmy 10 [sometimes called heatwise] which heats for 5 hours overnight, 3 hours in the afternoon, and 2 hours in the evening.
2] the boost button is pressed, although this will only heat up the unit until it reaches temperature and then switch itself off again. It should not restart itself on boost uless you press the black square button again.

As you have an energy monitor, firstly check what time of day the unit is heating up. If it's within the time periods of 13.00 - 16.00, 18.00 - 20.00, or 02.00 - 07.00 then it could be that you are on the economy 10 tarrif and there is nothing wrong with the unit (allow 1hr either side of those times because some suppliers are different).

If you deffinately have a Pulsacoil A Class (it can be identified by the green on/off switch on the front right hand corner) and the unit is heating up outside of these times, then you do have a problem and will need to contact a Gledhill repair specialist.

David Hickey

Thanks David,

I double checked with British Gas and I do have Economy 7, so the unit is definitely switching itself on during peak. I have arranged for an engineer to look at it. Thank you for your advice.

I'm very glad I got the energy monitor. I wonder how much money I have wasted over the years because of this problem! :-(