ELECTRICITY SAVINGS HOW TO USE APPLIANCES ON A TIMER DURING THE NEW CHEAPER ELECTRICITY HOURS Appliances that need to be ‘triggered’, i.e. physically switched on before they function, cannot be used with a conventional timer (unless a ‘delay’ timer is built into the appliance itself). You will need to consider using a Digital Timer (DT) to operate your appliance during the cheaper hours.
The following is how to use a Digital Timer (DT) with an electrical appliance that requires it to be manually triggered (turned on manually) before it will work: e.g. dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer etc. This will only work if you have your appliance plugged into a DT that has an ‘OFF’, ‘ON’ and ‘AUTO’ function (€8.99 from Amazon.es or any electrical store). When the DT is in the 'ON' setting you can switch the appliance on regardless of set times. 'OFF' is self-explanatory - no power, and 'AUTO' sets it to turn on automatically when it hits the time/s you set on the DT. So, set the DT to the time you want the appliance to come on (say 2am) and an arbitrary time for the DT to switch off, but longer than the functioning time of the appliance. The actual appliance still needs to be turned on for it to work (manually triggered) so change the DT function to 'ON', then press the start button on the appliance (or whatever it takes to turn the appliance on); the appliance will then start to work. Then change the DT function to 'AUTO' and the appliance will switch off, but – the magic bit - will come back on during the delayed time set earlier. Basically you are telling the chip in the appliance to start but then cutting power to it temporarily using the ‘AUTO’ function on the timer. As stated above, it works on appliances that need to be manually triggered. You may not need it for your washing machine as some models have a delay timer built in. Submitted by Doug Proctor 23
