UKC

Had power cuts the other night and now need to reset a lot of clocks .

Just noticed the smart meter needs rebooting , so not so smart afterall.

Most annoying is the boiler, it manages to keep the time settings for hot water and heating on and off, but not the actual time.

Thinking of a way to leave the house in winter with the radiators on frost setting and not being vunerable to the boiler not coming back on as necessary after a power cut whilst away.

Best I can think of

1. Give a key to a neighbour to reset the clock.

2. Set the heating to on 24/7 with the radiators on frost, the boiler would then not need to know the time of day .

( the instructions manual is probably better off in the recycling BTW )

Any ideas? Does anyone's boiler have a back up battery?

You could plug it in via a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), the like of which is common for preventing computing technology from going down if the power dips out. If it's simply an electronic timer you need to keep on, that will take a minuscule amount of power, so the smallest and cheapest UPS you can find might well be ok.

Is the boiler a problem - does the clock resetting prevent it working or just mean the times are out - don't you have 24hr frost protection anyway? That aside, cheapest option would probably be to disable the inbuilt controller and use an external controller (last time I had an old fashioned heating system our controller was battery based - but you can get internet-connected devices now too).

What did you have to do with your smart meter? We've had power cuts and I've never noticed anything with ours - I don't think there is a reset button on ours, do you mean the device inside your house that displays the use?

Thanks John.

The boiler needs electricity for the clock and control electronics but also the water pump. This varies between 161W at full load and 2W in standby, not sure yet if this is just for the boiler and the water pump is extra.

We might invest in some solar panels and battery storage anyway so that should solve the issue . Was off for three days in storm arwen so ideally want a system that could offer cover for the boiler to stop the house freezing if we were away. The neighbour has scaffolding up for such a scheme ( been waiting for two months for installer ) so will see how that lives up to expections.

Thanks Phillip

The boiler is new, well since we moved in to new build three years ago.

Plucked up patience to read the manuals. 

One suggests setting as I guessed , another refers to a holiday setting which does similar.

Will do some testing to see how power cut resiliant the holiday setting is.

Regarding the smart meter , I had to restart the display box. The smart meter  itself I guess is in the outside access box.

I only got it to get a better energy deal.

dont think it actually does anything because the mobile signal here is not strong enough for it to communicate .

A clue was when the electric supplier asked me for a meter reading.

Can't help with getting power in, but when it's back, use something like a Salus?? We've a holiday let in Cromford and timewise it sorts itself when powers back and allows us to see the house temp and turn on/off via the app.

Your points 1 and 2 are good ones. I usually leave a key with trusted neighbours so that they can enter the house in any kind of emergency when I am not at home.

Secondly, putting everything on 24/7 (put possibly turned down) before hurricanes etc is a good idea. That way one has heat/cooling and hot water right up to the moment of the (anticipated) power cut. And then everything bursts back into life when the power eventually comes back up.

Other than that, there are all the other usual precautions - emergency tinned food, not too much frozen; fill baths with water if there is a risk of a water problem; have candles and torches at the ready etc; get camping stoves etc prepared for cooking.

In some parts of the world, the best thing is to evacuate long before everyone else hits the road!