# Forum Home Renovation Electrical  Ripple Control of Off-Peak Hot Water - on & off times?

## SteveAndBelle

Hi. 
The facts:
- 60yr old dilapitated house we're about to knock down & rebuild in a month or two
- Very old Ripple Control Box mounted in rats nest of wiring near switchboard
- Outdoor Rheem 315L Electric HWS 
Woke up yesterday to no hot water... first time in the 2 years we've owned the house however we have had a few times when the 'hot' water has just been warm enough to have a shower as long as no cold was mixed with it usually comes good again in the days following.  The relief valve was trickling/dribbling more than it usually does which was interesting (normally just very slow drips) and even when gently releasing it then letting it settle it was still dribbling minutes after. 
I assumed the Rheem HWS had packed it in but later in the day I ducked home from work and managed to test the thermostat & element which were both A-OK.  Turned my attention back toward the power source including the wiring, the newish breaker & super-old Ripple Box.  The breaker tested OK so I then connected the HWS to the Stove circuit temporarily and bingo the HWS started roaring like a big fat kettle.  Left it on that for a few hours just so we had hot water again then continued troubleshooting.  Put all circuits back to their original states then tested the breaker and all looked good there too, hmmm. 
Normally my rule is to never touch anything 'pre-breaker' however I thought I'd break that rule this time only so I pulled the covers off the Ripple Box.  Found the small manual override lever so carefully switched it on and bingo, the HWS started roaring again and its power meter started spinning like an ol' 45! 
The Ripple Box is the oldskool type with a servo that spins a disc around (takes what seemed to be about a minute to fully rotate) and mechanically switches a couple of contacts on or off.  Observing it for a little while I noticed the disc started to spin once every 10-15 minutes (or thereabouts) and when it did spin it would automatically switch the manual override back to 'off'.  I continued to test the breaker so I knew when it was getting fed power or not to try to figure out the strange Ripple Box cycle however at about 8:30pm it switched on permanently so I left it.  It switched the circuit off again at around 10:30pm and didn't switch back on before I went to be a couple of hours later.  No dramas because we now had hot water for the morning but interestingly the breaker/HWS had power again when I woke up at about 6am so I'm not sure what's going on. 
I was under the impression that off-peak Ripple Boxes switched on at about 11pm and off at about 5am but also know the ripples can be sent through willy-nilly whenever the power supplier wants to shed some load or modify the program for whatever reason.  Can anyone confirm that this is the on/off time or can anyone confirm that the behaviour of my Ripple Box mean that it's faulty?!

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## chalkyt

The "ripple box" is (usually) owned by the supply authority (as are your meters etc) so shouldn't be fiddled with... even though people do!. It may well be that it has developed a fault so give them a call.

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## mattski2008

Hi, I dont know about Brisbane but up in Ergon territory if you call an electrician due to no hot water and the relay is faulty they will reimburse you for the electricians costs, usually thorugh your power bill.
I dont know how this works down there because the network authority and retailers are seperate companies.

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## Ausyuppy

Just call Energex and let them know your electrician had diagnosed the hot water relay is faulty. They should send someone out straight away as you wont have any hot water available.

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## SteveAndBelle

Thanks for the replies. Not exactly the info I was after though ;) I just wanted to know if anyone knew the on & off times of off-peak so I could determine if the Ripple Box is actually faulty or not. 
I know I should call authorities etc. but as fact no.1 states we're only in the house for another month or two before it gets demolished which in my opinion isn't long enough to justify paying anyone to come fix it and/or sort out rebates etc. with power companies but it's too long to go without hot water for morning showers of course. Not to worry though, since pulling the covers off the Ripple Box and fiddling with that override lever it seems to have fixed itself and we've been enjoying the "_hottest of hot, hot water we've ever seen_" since... "_Steady, Hot & Strong"_ too :) Maybe the 'fiddle' was enough to get it back working again ?! I'm just not sure but I do know that the on/off cycles still seem to be all over the place. 
Fingers crossed it can hold out another 4-6 weeks otherwise I'll just bypass it altogether.

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## chalkyt

Re the on and off times... it varies from place to place. i.e. no universal time settings.

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## Ausyuppy

What Tariff are you on for off peak?

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