My Hot water and heating plans.

[sm9ai]

Hi All,

I am in the process of buying my first flat. All very exciting and as it requires a bit of work I see it as an opportunity to make some improvements. I will be staying out of the house whilst these are made but essentially it is painting the lounge and bedroom and a new kitchen and bathroom.

The first problem is the house is electric only (no gas). I hate water tanks. I need a water on demand system fitted.

Since I am re doing the bathroom my first thought was to get an electric shower. Then I only have two sinks, the bathroom and kitchen. So rather than having a water tank (taking up a valuable cupboard space) use some form of water heater like these http://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/Perfect_Water_Heaters.html
Does this seem like a good idea? or is there a better solution?

Also I would like to make all the room heaters controllable over a network so I can set them from my ipod. Slightly geeky I know but it would be pretty cool. Any ideas on how to start with this?

Thanks

 

[ianniann]

You can buy electric showers that heat the water for you. The heater you link to is not powerful enough to provide a shower with hot water. Of course an electric shower won't provide hot water anywhere other than the shower.

 

[Fluffster]

These units are only for sinks do you have a bath too? They are juicy too.

Look into a non vented cylinder heated direct with cheaper overnight electricity. If you have enough flow and pressure this would be a much better system for you. You could also have a wet heatinf system linked to say an Aztec water heater that would heat both rads and cylinder. More controllable and on demand that storage heaters.

Pete

 

[sm9ai]

Nope no baths.

I was thinking of an electric shower, plus two water heaters. One for the kitchen sink and one for the bathroom sink.

Is the power consumption bad then? I thought it would be better than a normal water heater?

Radiators will also be electric. Thanks for the idea, I will look into it.

 

[ianniann]

It takes more or less the same amount of leccy to heat water in a tank, a direct heater, or a kettle. The only major way to save money is to heat it at night and be on Economy 7. Of course electric showers do have one useful money-saving feature: they provide a pathetically low flow of hot water which limits the amount used and also discourages you from spending very long under the dribbling shower head

 

[Agile]

Hi All,

Also I would like to make all the room heaters controllable over a network so I can set them from my ipod. Slightly geeky I know but it would be pretty cool. Any ideas on how to start with this?

Thanks

So what do you do when your ipod is lost or stolen or fails?

Someone I nknow had one for just one week before it was stolen by her employee!

Tony