one of those unusual posts of mine, which means done in the vague hope of helping someone out. basically, then, if you are on a two rate electricity supply and for some reason need to set or re-set (i don't think reset is right) the timer for off peak and on peak, it would appear to be more difficult and needlessly complex than you would think. so, some help, look you see.
this is all specifically for the british general (bg) cuts10-01 timer, found on a consumer unit (fuse box for people of a certain age or upbringing) where a contactor is included. the contactor is the mechanism which switches an electric supply between "peak" and "off peak". i have this for my lodgings in place of exile has no gas, and so i rely on a storage tank thing for hot water. heating it during off peak hours is a great deal cheaper, and doing it then presumably puts less strain on the national grid.
right, then. it was so that recently one of them fancy electrical safety checks was gone done on my place of present residence. during this it was decided to replace an aspect (an rcd) of the consumer unit (fuse box), which was fine. but this meant that the power supply had to be off, and thus the timer reset. this was a matter i discovered when i noted, whilst attempting a shower, i had no hot water. oh.
not a problem, i thought (or rather assumed), i shall just look up the instructions on how one programs it, get it set up and have hot water, be it for showering, or doing dishes. this is (at time of writing) 2022, after all. surely the device itself would be straightforward and easy to use, and there would be a huge great abundance of information on the internet. no, and very much no.
first off, then, i established what exactly i needed instructions for. this was the CUTS10 - 01 timer off of British General, to give a full name in the hope that anyone frantically searching finds this. doing a google or similar for this, with words like "instructions" and "how to set timer" drew mixed results. most of the results, as point of fact, were for people trying to sell me a new one of this bit of equipment. a lovely thing to do, but not really helpful.
lots of the "instructions" links were for how to install the actual device, rather than how to use is. oh. right, well, very useful, i imagine, but also presently as much use as the sales offers i was getting for the thing. ultimately, or eventually, i found a "user manual" of sorts. if you have found this whilst looking yourself, let me help you out, here is the link to what seems to be the one and only version of the instructions to be online momentarily.
if you are reading this after looking at the instructions, well, them instructions are not the greatest, are they? as is common for such things these days, it looks like (or appears that) the text has been translated into many languages before being finally translated into a variation of english. not good.
yes, i tried (endeavoured) to follow the instructions. the important thing about the timer is that it be set to switch on at a certain point, and then off. for clarification, i only want the contactor to switch on during off peak times, which then activates the only off peak only thing switched on in my place, which is the hot water storage tank. a glimpse of the instructions below, which is optimistically entitled programming the switching time.
unsure if you can make it out in the above picture, but it sets out how you switch the timer to go to being on. i followed these, with success, but got to a point where i said no, hold on, this is not telling me how i set it to switch off. which is to say if i followed these instructions as presented, at one point of time set the off peak would go "on", and then simply remain on. which would mean running expensive off peak stuff during on peak billing times. not good.
eventually i worked it out. perhaps i am thick, or slow, but if you don't know something then you simply don't know it until someone shows you or teaches you. whilst the instructions make much fuss of how excellent the timer is, for it can store "up to" 44 programmes, what it does not tell you is that you have to do a minimum of two (2) programmes, one which tells the timer when to switch on and one to switch off again. oh. yes, i did an experiment during (very much) on peak times for a minute or so, and this is how it works.
let me clarify somewhat then. to set the timer for "on", be it for select days or just the one, follow the instructions as set out (here, once again). of importance is to repeat this for a new programme, but setting it to go off. and this is what the instructions miss out. on the part where it says "Select On by pressing + or -", on this new program set it to the "off" time. ensure that you select the corresponding days to your "on" selection, otherwise it shall go on one day and just stay on.
hopefully this helps, at the least, one person who wrestled with it a bit like i did. let my plight be the easier learning for someone. and oh my word yes, it is f*****g stupid that in this day and age someone goes and makes a "timer" that isn't really a timer, since on and off is not one programme. that's an on switch or an off switch, by definition.
as to when "off peak" and "on peak" times actually happen in the UK, but of course this is not equal over the entire nation. why would it be easy and simple when they can make it complex? please do not take this as a standard, but generally off peak runs from midnight to seven (7) am. however, variations see the start time sometimes commence 30 (thirty) minutes before or after midnight. check with your energy supplier, if you can get through to them. playing safe i have just set mine to run from 1am to 5:30am, and this would appear to give me as much hot water as i can use.
oh, yeah, it is highly unlikely that this timer thing will automatically switch time when we adjust clocks, because why would it be designed to do anything to help? best i have a look at when the clocks change, which i think is towards the end of october, and go adjust the settings then. again.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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