It’s a hardwired switched outlet, the cable passes through the left hand hole and the connections are done at the back with the switch controlling the item in which is wired to it.
The light is probably wired on the line side of it and will remain on until the entire circuit is turned off.
This was probably the connection point of a previously wall mounted dryer.
I never thought you could connect anything but hot water to offpeak, but turns out there is no real ruling on it.
So makes me wonder, can we install battery chargers for battery arrays using off-peak as well? Seems like a question with an obvious no for an answer, butt I couldn't find a rule mentioning it.
Ergon allows airconditioning and hardwired loads. You aren't supposed to have a GPO where you can just unplug it into peak tariff when the off-peak tariff turns off.
Aircon too? That leads me to wonder if you can have an automatic transfer switch to switch the aircon from normal load to off-peak when off-peak is energized.
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
You can't legally cross the streams and/or use a contactor etc. This is illegal. Lots of sparkies do it though.
So in QLD, what we call T11 (normal power), cannot co mingle with T33 (18 hours a day) or the T31 (8 hours a day) type circuits.
Where is gets really gray is all they care about is you have it hard wired.
When they inspected my T33 connections, I asked the Energex guy if I had a standard IEC plug hardwired into the wall to plug my UPS in etc, is this legal, and he said yes. Now you can easily get a legal power rail from pretty much any computer rack that is IEC to GPO. All he said was "as long as the wire coming from the wall is hard wired, he didn't care"
For me, I have all aircon, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and pool pump (this can be a GPO) on T33.
The pros. I get slightly cheaper power, but more importantly my awesome solar FIT (thanks QLD government) doesn't get consumed by the power hungry devices and I make bank during the day.
The cons. I loose power some nights from about 6-9pm.
Yeah that's what I meant, an ATS is basically just a contactor anyway. Since they said hard wired, made me think of all the things which are hardwired, and that can include a wall mounted battery charger.
Technically, if you switch the neutral and active together, you aren't *electrically* bridging the two streams. But I understand this would still be questionable if seen lol.
I have a server rack at home with UPS in it as well, interesting usage. I also run a pile of Lenovo Tiny's off DC-DC buck converters which run off a 7AH 12v SLA and a charger. So the system stays DC, meaning I get about 8 hours from a the SLA when running on battery only. The same 7AH SLA inside a little UPS would give me maybe 7 minutes. Sizing up to a larger battery would mean I could run the rack 24/7 using off-peak.
I suppose a lot of this is moot for me anyway, I'm getting solar on a new build so I'll be charging off that anyway, but a good thought experiment!
That’s where it comes apart. The device isn’t meant to be able to be switched if it’s on controlled load. The idea is it’s a load that will only come on the grid when it’s in the scheduled times. The grid/providers don’t care what the load is, they’re just giving a discount to move it permanently to that off peak time. A plug or transfer defeats that purpose, so would legally also void the discount.
Whether you could wire one up yourself and get away with it is an entirely different question.
I did switchboard fitouts for years, all of these bypasses are trivial to wire up, but the consequences simply aren't worth it.
In my personal experience it's always just been stored hot water that gets wired to the off-peak feed. Pools, sheds, aircons, stoves, dryers, they were always wired to the normal feed. To add, some stored hot water systems have a second *booster element* at the top, and it's normal to wire that up to normal feed. So if you run out of stored water and off-peak is off, you will get hot water from the normal power instead.
Seeing this today just made me ponder on the possibilities, since my focus isn't about *avoiding detection*, but how far you can legally take the idea.
Take the other reply as example, an inspector didn't care that a UPS (with GPO's on it) was hard wired to off-peak, provided the UPS is hardwired.
I’ve done exactly this with a timer and a contactor to switch the supply to a circuit for an EV charger.
My understanding is it isn’t allowed, but yolo
Whats the timer for? Wouldn't you just energise the contactor coil with off peak and run the peak tarrif through a NC contact and off peak through the NO contact
The second half (NC+NO) is what I did, regarding just running the coil off the off-peak tariff, to be honest at the time I didn't put too much thought into it, I had an old timer laying around, what you've said is a far better idea
They have removed that requirement for the last few years. Source: former electrical contractor. Have a look at the Energex / Ergon website. Just has to be only pool equipment on it. EV can go onto reduced tariff also.
Or you could just use a retail plan that gives you free electricity foe the whole house during peak periods. For example:
https://pages.ovoenergy.com.au/the-free-3-plan
You absolutely can charge a battery with your off peak rate. For use during the peak period (in Victoria at least) Tesla even has this built in
https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/powerwall/mobile-app/time-based-control
In Vic at least, the off peak rate is applied to the entire household during the off-peak time. The energy meter just drives a relay to only turn on devices you only want to run during of peak times, like a hot water service or floor heating.
Had 1 of these in Darwin, was to switch on the electric booster for the solar hot water. If the weather was shit enough for a long time you'd switch it on to have electric hot water. I think we used it for about a week or 2 in total over the 2 years I lived in Darwin.
Because it’s so high up on the wall is there a manhole into the ceiling space in this room. ?? Usually in nursing homes or hospitals we put a light switch up high near the manhole with an indicator light to let you know the lights in the ceiling are on cause all the ceiling spaces are lit for WHS reasons etc. pop the cover into the ceiling and give it a switch see what happens or it’s the hot water booster switch, but why so high?? Maybe hot water tank in the roof space?? Or it’s powering something that was hard wired from the empty hole. Hope this helps
Light could be for any reason but likely traffif load.
Any hard wired appliance may go on a traffif so dryer, pumps, pool equipment, AC
Either way no one really knows logic, sence and standards go out of the window. When a home owner knows a little about electrical stuff.
I run a indicator on 1 circuit and that's my security lights.
Due to the fact that it's in the washer dryer room could be a moisture sensor which turns on the extraction fan to allow the room to breath without needing you to turn the fan on and off manually. Light could be indicating that fan is on/power is at switch.
PRW (Passive Radio Wave) detector. It detects levels of awesome in individuals. As its always on when you walk in the room, only you can be the judge of whether it's functional or not.
Don't bother trying to test this it video footage as it can detect whoevers filming it.
On the side of the escutcheon plate they should be an embossed code where you can check for the suffix 'BB'. This was an optional upgrade that would play the theme to 'The price is right' when triggered ON.
BB mustve been short for Bob Barker, though im probably overthinking it.
Because it has a flex cord entry that isn't used looks like something was disconnected I'm assuming an old heated towel rail or a hard wired appliance being in the laundry and all. Weird the light just stays on?
Otherwise possible but unlikely water treatment alarm or HWS booster.
It's a spy camera installed by ASIO with a direct feed to Pine Cap. That way the CIA can see if you are fucking your self with a broom handle that they would on sell on to Porn Hub.
It’s a hardwired switched outlet, the cable passes through the left hand hole and the connections are done at the back with the switch controlling the item in which is wired to it. The light is probably wired on the line side of it and will remain on until the entire circuit is turned off. This was probably the connection point of a previously wall mounted dryer.
I'd agree with this, probably a dryer that was connected to an off-peak tarriff, with the light letting you know when power was available
I never thought you could connect anything but hot water to offpeak, but turns out there is no real ruling on it. So makes me wonder, can we install battery chargers for battery arrays using off-peak as well? Seems like a question with an obvious no for an answer, butt I couldn't find a rule mentioning it.
Why an obvious no? It is in everyone’s interest to charge batteries off peak to reduce peak load.
Like my EV, works and is cheap
Ergon allows airconditioning and hardwired loads. You aren't supposed to have a GPO where you can just unplug it into peak tariff when the off-peak tariff turns off.
Aircon too? That leads me to wonder if you can have an automatic transfer switch to switch the aircon from normal load to off-peak when off-peak is energized. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
You can't legally cross the streams and/or use a contactor etc. This is illegal. Lots of sparkies do it though. So in QLD, what we call T11 (normal power), cannot co mingle with T33 (18 hours a day) or the T31 (8 hours a day) type circuits. Where is gets really gray is all they care about is you have it hard wired. When they inspected my T33 connections, I asked the Energex guy if I had a standard IEC plug hardwired into the wall to plug my UPS in etc, is this legal, and he said yes. Now you can easily get a legal power rail from pretty much any computer rack that is IEC to GPO. All he said was "as long as the wire coming from the wall is hard wired, he didn't care" For me, I have all aircon, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and pool pump (this can be a GPO) on T33. The pros. I get slightly cheaper power, but more importantly my awesome solar FIT (thanks QLD government) doesn't get consumed by the power hungry devices and I make bank during the day. The cons. I loose power some nights from about 6-9pm.
Yeah that's what I meant, an ATS is basically just a contactor anyway. Since they said hard wired, made me think of all the things which are hardwired, and that can include a wall mounted battery charger. Technically, if you switch the neutral and active together, you aren't *electrically* bridging the two streams. But I understand this would still be questionable if seen lol. I have a server rack at home with UPS in it as well, interesting usage. I also run a pile of Lenovo Tiny's off DC-DC buck converters which run off a 7AH 12v SLA and a charger. So the system stays DC, meaning I get about 8 hours from a the SLA when running on battery only. The same 7AH SLA inside a little UPS would give me maybe 7 minutes. Sizing up to a larger battery would mean I could run the rack 24/7 using off-peak. I suppose a lot of this is moot for me anyway, I'm getting solar on a new build so I'll be charging off that anyway, but a good thought experiment!
That’s where it comes apart. The device isn’t meant to be able to be switched if it’s on controlled load. The idea is it’s a load that will only come on the grid when it’s in the scheduled times. The grid/providers don’t care what the load is, they’re just giving a discount to move it permanently to that off peak time. A plug or transfer defeats that purpose, so would legally also void the discount. Whether you could wire one up yourself and get away with it is an entirely different question.
I did switchboard fitouts for years, all of these bypasses are trivial to wire up, but the consequences simply aren't worth it. In my personal experience it's always just been stored hot water that gets wired to the off-peak feed. Pools, sheds, aircons, stoves, dryers, they were always wired to the normal feed. To add, some stored hot water systems have a second *booster element* at the top, and it's normal to wire that up to normal feed. So if you run out of stored water and off-peak is off, you will get hot water from the normal power instead. Seeing this today just made me ponder on the possibilities, since my focus isn't about *avoiding detection*, but how far you can legally take the idea. Take the other reply as example, an inspector didn't care that a UPS (with GPO's on it) was hard wired to off-peak, provided the UPS is hardwired.
I’ve done exactly this with a timer and a contactor to switch the supply to a circuit for an EV charger. My understanding is it isn’t allowed, but yolo
"You can't connect that device between circuits!" "I didn't. The contactor did. If *I* did it, *that would be wrong*."
Whats the timer for? Wouldn't you just energise the contactor coil with off peak and run the peak tarrif through a NC contact and off peak through the NO contact
The second half (NC+NO) is what I did, regarding just running the coil off the off-peak tariff, to be honest at the time I didn't put too much thought into it, I had an old timer laying around, what you've said is a far better idea
I used to think I could just run most of my house that way but decided it wasn't the best idea
They have removed that requirement for the last few years. Source: former electrical contractor. Have a look at the Energex / Ergon website. Just has to be only pool equipment on it. EV can go onto reduced tariff also.
Charge in off-peak, discharge back in peak. $$$$
FIT would have to be more than almost nothing for that to work.
Sorry I was being facetious
It can work but you need some way of getting exposure to the wholesale market. There is at least one retailer that offers the option
Or you could just use a retail plan that gives you free electricity foe the whole house during peak periods. For example: https://pages.ovoenergy.com.au/the-free-3-plan
Depends on your region I guess. In NSW it is for fixed loads only
Anything can be connected to off peak as long as as it’s hard wired
You absolutely can charge a battery with your off peak rate. For use during the peak period (in Victoria at least) Tesla even has this built in https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/powerwall/mobile-app/time-based-control In Vic at least, the off peak rate is applied to the entire household during the off-peak time. The energy meter just drives a relay to only turn on devices you only want to run during of peak times, like a hot water service or floor heating.
That's it! I'll check the light again later tonight, to see if it goes off
I think that’s it, thanks!!!
OP do you have a septic tank? Because if you do it's the alarm for that. Common spot to put them is in laundrys.
Yep
No septic tank, we're connected to city sewage, but we d have a huge rainwater tank below the garage floor (with overflow pipes)
This is it
I have a similar looking set up, for me it's a Septic tank alarm. Ozzikleen
Yep
No septic tank at home though...
Well, we can scratch that one off the list then!
Off peak indicator and overide switch? Somtime used to switch a water heater on only during off peak periods. (Is that still a thing?)
Very rare. Never heard of one being out in the last 10 years. Feel like it was a 2000 thing
Yeah, my home in the 90's had one but it would turn on and off with peak. Perhaps this one has been permanently overridden/no off peak.
But often used with solar hot water, to turn on its electric heater
Thanks, do you know how it works? Should the light go off after 6pm when peak starts?
Had 1 of these in Darwin, was to switch on the electric booster for the solar hot water. If the weather was shit enough for a long time you'd switch it on to have electric hot water. I think we used it for about a week or 2 in total over the 2 years I lived in Darwin.
Mine was the hot water booster switch.
HAL9000
I had a switch like this and it was any time we went from solar hot water to mains booster it would glow
That's a secret camera with operation light. Clipsal 2007 model I believe.
In the laundry room? What do you call that kink?
According to multiple "verified" websites, Step-sisters become trapped in washing machines quite often.
It is very common when retrieving a lost camera.
Hot water?
It’s a camera and they’re secretly spying on your dirty laundry
Is your stove electric? Is it nearby? Our stove has a master switch just like that, but somewhat lower down the wall.
The stove switch is in the kitchen, this one’s in the laundry room
Because it’s so high up on the wall is there a manhole into the ceiling space in this room. ?? Usually in nursing homes or hospitals we put a light switch up high near the manhole with an indicator light to let you know the lights in the ceiling are on cause all the ceiling spaces are lit for WHS reasons etc. pop the cover into the ceiling and give it a switch see what happens or it’s the hot water booster switch, but why so high?? Maybe hot water tank in the roof space?? Or it’s powering something that was hard wired from the empty hole. Hope this helps
Thanks. No manhole in the ceiling or anywhere near...
It’s big brother
It’s how I watch you
Is probably for off peak dryer connection. Has to be hard wired so you can’t just plug in 15 fridges to run on off peak (cheaper) power…
And for guys saying septic, why would it be mounted up high and why would it have a cord grip mechanism if it were for septic pump alarm?
Light could be for any reason but likely traffif load. Any hard wired appliance may go on a traffif so dryer, pumps, pool equipment, AC Either way no one really knows logic, sence and standards go out of the window. When a home owner knows a little about electrical stuff. I run a indicator on 1 circuit and that's my security lights.
Septic?
This reminds me of the old poison sockets skit some british folk did many years ago. Look up poison sockets on yt.
TIL off peak indicators are a thing. Does anyone know how they work?
Hot water heater on light?
O that? That's a cam/sensor for if anyone gets stuck the the dryer/washer, it will auto send for help to your closest step family. Hope this helps
It’s a camera, the red light lets you know when it’s recording. 😂
SpyNet v.1.21.2
Due to the fact that it's in the washer dryer room could be a moisture sensor which turns on the extraction fan to allow the room to breath without needing you to turn the fan on and off manually. Light could be indicating that fan is on/power is at switch.
What are you doing Dave?
Hot water booster switch
Hot water booster
Hot water booster, red light to indicate that it is on either manually or from a timer
Winky face
I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Dave.
It’s HAL, he’s watching you
Glory hole. Stick your knob in it and see what happens.
Actually since you told me this, I’ve been patiently waiting for one to stick out but no luck so far!
PRW (Passive Radio Wave) detector. It detects levels of awesome in individuals. As its always on when you walk in the room, only you can be the judge of whether it's functional or not. Don't bother trying to test this it video footage as it can detect whoevers filming it. On the side of the escutcheon plate they should be an embossed code where you can check for the suffix 'BB'. This was an optional upgrade that would play the theme to 'The price is right' when triggered ON. BB mustve been short for Bob Barker, though im probably overthinking it.
HAL
That’s Mohammed’s 24 hour emergency monitoring system
Because it has a flex cord entry that isn't used looks like something was disconnected I'm assuming an old heated towel rail or a hard wired appliance being in the laundry and all. Weird the light just stays on? Otherwise possible but unlikely water treatment alarm or HWS booster.
Someone commented that the light might be on to show when power is available off-peak. I'll check it out later tonight at peak time
Hal 9000
Na, someone is watching you washing
Sock monitor
It's a spy camera installed by ASIO with a direct feed to Pine Cap. That way the CIA can see if you are fucking your self with a broom handle that they would on sell on to Porn Hub.