Octopus Energy have introduced a scheme where they allow you to use electricity at certain periods which they reimburse you for, as hot water heating is our largest daily load, it made sense to fit a smart switch to this as normally the water is heated by the gas boiler, this now means I can suspend the boilers and turn on the heating element.
The smart switch is a remote way to turn ON or OFF the Immersion Heaters 3kW element, the smart switch is rated for 20A and by touching the faceplate, manual switching is possible.
I used a double dry lining box which has a depth of 35mm to accommodate the smart switch, I also incorporated a 20A double pole isolation switch for maintenance.
Wiring was very straightforward, power in and load out, no earth connection is provided on the device, but I used the one on the maintenance switch.
Before installing the unit, I powered it up at the table and connected it my eWeLink mobile App, to do this I ensured the phone was on 2.4GHz WiFi and the device connected perfectly.
The App allows me to set timers to ensure I don’t exceed the allocated free electricity periods, I’ve also set up notifications when the switch operates as a confidence check, its early days, (13 Nov 23), but I’m hopefully this will last.
The details are:
Smart Switch for Electric Boiler, FORNORM 20A 4400W Water Heater Switch Timer Controlled by Amazon Alexa/Google Home, APP Remote Control “eWeLink”, 2.4Ghz/Neutral Wire, White
Bought from Amazon for £23.99 – LINK
