Immersion Heater advice please.

[backrowslea]

My modernish house 1998 has a baxi boiler (cant remember the model!) for the central heating and an immersion heater for all hot water.

After reveiwing my massive electricity bill I think I need to take action! Currently my immersion heater is switched on permanently, I was led to beleive that this would be cheaper than letting water cool and reheating from cold, if this is not the case then I think I need to add a timer after the isolation switch and before the cylinder.

Is this an easy enough job to do and what timer would the experts reccomend!

On a more drastic level any ideas on a rough cost for the purchase and installation of a basic combi boiler be?

Also my elec meter has five different rates, none of which powergen have been able to accurately describe, if anyone can help I would be very grateful!

Many thanks

Mat

 

[JohnD]

1) Heating water by electricity is the most expensive way to do it

2) Leaving the immersion on 24 hrs is MORE expensive than running it intermittently

3) A well-insulated cylinder can stay hot for 24 hours

4) If you have a gas boiler, it would be very abnormal for it to be installed so it doesn't give you hot water.

Buying a new boiler - the extra efficiency will probably pay for the cost of the boiler within 10-20 years so don't splash out your £1500 or so before you need to.

questions:
Does your boiler heat the cylinder?
What insulation do you have around the cylinder and the hot pipes?
When you look at your electricity bill, how many rates (prices) does it show, and how does it identify them?

 

[plugwash]

My experiance with combi boilers means I would never reccomend them for a house. For a flat with one or two people they are tollerable but they are so slow at filling baths that bathing a family with them would be extremely difficult.

The traditional setup in this country is to have a gas boiler that both runs the central heating and heats the hot water tank. I wonder why yours wasn't installed like that.

 

[gas4you]

My experiance with combi boilers means I would never reccomend them for a house. For a flat with one or two people they are tollerable but they are so slow at filling baths that bathing a family with them would be extremely difficult.

This used to be the case and is also why I never fit the small 24Kw combi's.

I've never had any complaints about the combi's I fit, 31Kw or 37Kw if they have a lot of baths.

Problem is a lot of installers fit to a price rather than discuss the householders hot water requirements and usage before specifying the combi.

 

[backrowslea]

1) Heating water by electricity is the most expensive way to do it

2) Leaving the immersion on 24 hrs is MORE expensive than running it intermittently

3) A well-insulated cylinder can stay hot for 24 hours

4) If you have a gas boiler, it would be very abnormal for it to be installed so it doesn't give you hot water.

Buying a new boiler - the extra efficiency will probably pay for the cost of the boiler within 10-20 years so don't splash out your £1500 or so before you need to.

questions:
Does your boiler heat the cylinder?
What insulation do you have around the cylinder and the hot pipes?
When you look at your electricity bill, how many rates (prices) does it show, and how does it identify them?

My local plumber couldnt beleive that the boiler doesnt heat up the water, it seems like all of the houses on our particular street were "wired " up this way!

The cylinder has the green insulating foam around it, nothing else, from memory (i'm still at work) the pipes in the airing cupboard are not insulated, the pipes in the loft are though, by foam and then sleeving a bit like a bin liner.

I have 5 rates on the elec meter, it shows them by primary and secondary units on the bill but just figures on the actual meter.

I hope that helps and thanks for all of the replies!!


oh and sorry for my lack of knowledge, I meant a boiler to heat both house and water, assumed thats what the Combi part meant!!

 

[JohnD]

If the boiler does not heat the hw cylinder that's crazy

See if you can get a price for converting it.

This will be cheaper to run and more sensible

Not sure how to work out what the payback would be.

It will be easier if you have an indirect cylinder which already includes a coil ready for the boiler to heat it.

Some photos of the cylinder, pump, boiler and pipes around them all would be useful.

tell us what the bill says about primary and secondary units (how many of each, and the price per kWH) I expect you are on a standard rate; the fact that the meter is capable of recording day/night or other rates is not relevant unless you want to move to an economy 7 or similar tariff, which is only suitable if you have storage heaters or a swimming pool.

 

[briwire]

I have a Baxi 102E for heating and hot water. It can fill my normal size bath no problem. Granted that the water flow might not be as great as with a 22mm feed from an immersion heater, but it causes no problems at all.