Buzzing sound from night saver clock in fuse box

Hi,

At around two in the morning for the past two nights we've been getting a high pitched buzzing sound from the night saver clock in the fuse box.
I was wondering if anyone had experienced a similar problem
and if the solution is to replace the clock, i.e. is it broken or is there a problem with some of the appliances using it.

Also as an aside, I was wondering if someone could explain how the night saver clock works, as we have both a day and a night meter, and I had always assumed that they just switched the clock over at the required time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peter

Hi Peter,

If you have two separate ESB meters then you're most likely not on the Nightsaver rate.
It sounds like you have a normal day rate meter for the lights and sockets, and a night rate meter which is only for storage heaters.
Nightsaver uses a single meter with two dials, day units and night units.

It's also likely that the time switch is part of the ESB setup.

If you look at an ESB bill you can see what tariff you're on.

Your buzzing noise is unlikely to be caused by the time switch. The older type of ESB clocks are well known for making growling noises, not buzzing.

The buzzing noise could be possibly caused by a faulty contactor or even a loose connection. Either way you should get it checked out.

This explains the nightsaver rate from ESB:
[broken link removed]
We're into winter time now (since the clocks went back) so you get half price units from 11pm til 8am. We usually wait to run the dishwasher and washing machine and charge our phones after 11 or when we get up in the morning. As they explain on the website you also save a lot more by turning on the immersion at night and of course storage heaters if you have them.

I'd give the ESB a ring and ask them about the high pitched buzzing, is it loud enough to keep you awake? Our fusebox doesn't suffer from buzzing but we do get a loud "clump" type noise at around 10:30pm, it's a total mystery to us!

Thanks for your help guys, I thought I might be able to do it on the cheap and just replace it... oh well