OK to use a pre-owned UVC?

[Crofter]

We're now getting stuck in to renovating our house, working on a very tight budget.

Planning to fit a direct UVC (we are all electric, no boiler).

I've previously had a cylinder from Telford, good piece of kit, and that would be my go-to option. But it's a fair chunk of the budget at nearly £500 for the sort of size I think I need (two bedrooms, one bathroom, so I',thinking 200-250l).

 

You do occasionally see cylinders come up secondhand, at a pretty hefty discount. Is there anything I should consider when looking at one? Or too much of a potential headache?

 

[newhome]

Not UVC related but your mention of electric heating reminds me of your previous issue with your heating set up which is similar to mine. Did you manage to move supplier / tariff from ‘Heating Control’ or whatever it was called? I appear to have finally found a supplier that will take me on with the existing meter set up. They are supposed to be calling tomorrow fingers crossed. 
 

Scottish Power has increased my tariff from 

 

Heating rate 9.33 to 12.2 

Other usage rate 15.66 to 16.9

 

The new supplier (EDF) will apparently take me on at 12.59 for the other usage and the heating rate ‘a fraction cheaper’. I’m waiting to find out what that is but overall it should be a better deal for me. 
 

[Crofter]

@newhome no, the changing of supplier is yet another part of my to-do list that I have never got to.

My plan is/was to stay with SSE but switch to E7, then shop around for a new supplier. I can't remember if I ever worked out what happens with the physical wiring in the house, with the second CU running the cheap rate stuff.

[newhome]

@ProDave said that if I was to change my set up to run a single meter (whether an E7 one or not) I needed an electrician to direct both CUs into the same meter using Henley blocks (or something like that anyway). I'm hoping that EDF will allow me to swap using both meters as they are. When (if) there is a 3 phase smart meter I plan to get one and take advantage of the much cheaper rates overnight.such as Octopus Agile as I know that I can direct my high usage to that time period very easily. Heating and car charging are my big uses of energy and I can do both of those at night albeit that since lockdown started I haven't used the car nearly as much and it appears that we will be working from home until at least spring next year ?.

 

I asked Scottish Power about E7 and it was 9.1p at night but 20.6p during the day so I didn't go down that road as I would still need to get the rewiring done. 

 

[ProDave]

At the moment you have something like 4 "supply" cables coming out of your collection of meters.  If you switch to something else, there will only be 2 outputs if you choose E7 / E10 or just 1 if you go for a single rate tariff.

 

So you will need an electrician to do some re connecting to ensure everything gets power from somewhere.

 

You need to think about what you have and how you want it powered.  e.g if you use storage heaters then you will really want to stay with E7 or E10.

 

The Unique feature of your old "Total Control" system (I think it went under a variety of different names) as that as well as a normal daytime supply and a cheap off peak supply, it also gave you a "heating" supply that was on all the time and metered 24/7 at the cheap rate.  That was useful for showers, and real time electric heating like panel heaters.  you won't get that any more with E7 / E10

 

[Sandybay]

Have a similar situation myself have Two meters THTC from SSE, problem is one meter is called a variable rate and is specific to SSE (for the heating side of usage), and when I go on comparison websites no companies are able to supply due to meter type they say. 

Asked for a single meter to be fitted as it would work out cheaper with another supplier due to SSE high prices, but have not heard back probably due to covid. 

[Crofter]

Last time I checked, I could get electricity from Bulb, amongst others, at a flat rate 24/7 cheaper than the "cheap rate from SSE.

THTC has no advantages with pricing like that. You have normal priced electricity available on one meter, and super expensive (22p I think) from the other. Everything except space and water heating is supposed to be run from the expensive meter, so the bills fairly rack up.

[newhome]

35 minutes ago, Sandybay said:

Asked for a single meter to be fitted as it would work out cheaper with another supplier due to SSE high prices, but have not heard back probably due to covid. 

I don’t know what SSE are like but Scottish Power wouldn’t do anything other than decommission the second meter once I had paid to get everything wired into the main meter. I wasn’t thrilled about waiting for them to do this and then paying £££ until they removed the second meter and put me on a different tariff. 
 

I have been looking for someone to move to for a while and it appears that I have finally found a supplier that will take over the set up as is. There are no price comparison sites that will work due to the relatively uncommon nature of the set up. I tried EDF EV team as I have an EV too (well a PHEV anyway). The guy called me and said that it wasn’t a set up he knew about (but they clearly share meter info as he looked up and found both my meter numbers). He said he would pass my query onto the complex metering team and he emailed back this morning to say that they can support the set up. The guy from complex metering is supposed to be calling me tomorrow. I hope it works out if only because Scottish Power are a complete pain in the ar4e to deal with. Will report back.  
 

Sorry @Crofter I seem to have hijacked your post! 

[newhome]

Bulb were pretty expensive for me. Just over 12p per kWh for all of my electric from EDF will save me money over what Scottish Power want to charge me for the current set up. Their ‘cheap’ rate for the second meter is about the same as I will get for all of my energy from EDF (hopefully). 
 

[ProDave]

54 minutes ago, newhome said:

I don’t know what SSE are like but Scottish Power wouldn’t do anything other than decommission the second meter once I had paid to get everything wired into the main meter. I wasn’t thrilled about waiting for them to do this and then paying £££ until they removed the second meter and put me on a different tariff. 
 

 

Get everything connected to just your cheap 24/7 meter then call them to swap to a single rate tariff.

[newhome]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Get everything connected to just your cheap 24/7 meter then call them to swap to a single rate tariff.

???? Yes I could do that I guess but would probably be fined or something. In reality I just need to move supplier as SP is just dire and none of their operators understand the tariff either so I end up spending way too long trying to get them to address issues. The latest is that my tariff has come to an end but I can’t change tariff online as they want me to as the system only recognises one of the meters. The woman who I spoke to on the phone couldn’t manage to do it, gave me a reference and said that someone would call me within 3-4 working days. 2 weeks later I’m still waiting and they have moved me to their standard rate tariff which is ££££. Called again today and was asked to go on hold while she checked something. After 30 mins on hold I hung up. Disaster of a company. 

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, Crofter said:

Is there anything I should consider when looking at one?

Limescale.

[MJNewton]

10 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Limescale.

 

Is it practical to descale them, in-situ if need be for extra complications? We've got a UVC and are in a very hard water area and always wondered if one day I might need to descale it. I figured I could drain it, remove the immersion, hoover out anything loose with a wet-and-dry then put some descaler in before rinsing and repeating?

 

Would obviously be easier for the OP to do on a unit that's not yet installed, and I suspect scaling could be a common reason why these are removed and sold on, particularly if it's the inlet diffuser that's blocked causing issues with flow. 

[ProDave]

There is a house near here that has borehole water, the only time we encounter very hard water up here.  About every 3 years I have to change their immersion heater as the water eats through the element, and each time I spoon a good bucket full of scale out of the immersion heater hole before the new one goes in.  Each time the scale is level witht he heater element which probably contributes to the demise of the heater.

 

Does anyone make an UVC with a large flanged access plate big enough to get in properly to de scale it?

[Crofter]

Hard water is pretty rare in these parts.

The cylinders I have seen secondhand are all direct only, mostly sold by people upgrading their heating system, so pretty genuine reason for sale.

Of course in a few years time it might be me who is upgrading... but that's another story.

[newhome]

@Crofter and @Sandybay for info I have just moved across to EDF. No changes to the meters or wiring are required. 
 

My heating tariff is 11.49p KWh 

and the other meter is 12.59p kWh (that’s based on an EV tariff)
Standing charge is 28.14p

The guy confirmed that they’ve been swapping people from SSE in their droves who have these meter set ups, in particular from the Shetland Islands. He was able to tell me that in the north of Scotland the rate is 11.51p kWh for the heating meter and that the rate for the standard meter would be dependent on what your requirements are (eg I have a PHEV to get the EV rate). 
 

You need to call their complex metering team on 0333 009 6980 to get a quote. I look to save quite a lot over the current Scottish Power tariff. 
 

 

[Sandybay]

Thanks very much @newhome,

That's great information for me, am going to phone them straight away, that's a significant saving over SSE.