Immersion heater timer

Joined
26 Feb 2008
Messages
78
Reaction score
0
Country
United Kingdom
Hi
Please can someone give me some advice about fitting a timer for the immersion heater in my son’s flat?

There are 2 immersion heaters, one of which only works at the Economy 7 time.

A switch in the kitchen controls both immersion heaters. They will not work, unless this is turned on.

I want to be able to set the Economy 7 heater to come on about 5 a.m.

Do I need to fit an immersion heater timer where the present Economy 7 switch is? Or could I just set an ordinary timer in the kitchen, and then leave the Economy 7 immersion heater switch turned on all the time? If I just need to put a timer in the kitchen, can anybody recommend one that would do the job?

Thanks for any help.
 
Sponsored Links
I want to be able to set the Economy 7 heater to come on about 5 a.m.
There is no point.

Each night the water only heats to the required temperature and then the power will be turned off by the thermostat and the water will stay warm because of the insulation.

If the water is too hot, turn down the thermostat.
 
I'll do that.
I was thinking in terms of only one immersion heater. Here, it can't use the high rate electricity, so it is different.
Thanks a lot.
 
When I had a dual-heater water tank the main (lower) heater was connected to the Economy 7 supply and the upper heater to the ordinary supply.

The upper one was intended to give a manual boost to top up hot water if it had cooled or much had been drawn off during the day. It could also be used if the Economy 7 heater had been turned off because we only needed a small amount of hot water, not a whole tank. That was useful in winter when the main heating was by a solid fuel boiler.

So there could be circumstances where one wanted to heat only a small amount of water (but by Economy 7), or a full tank of water during the day having already used a tank-full of Economy 7 heated water - eg lots of early morning baths or washing.

The problem with connecting an ordinary timer into either circuit is that there is no continuous supply to keep the clock going - if the Economy 7 is off then the clock stops.
I sometimes wondered if special timers existed that had independent clocks, so that either heater could be programmed to come on at predetermined times.

With our set up any electricity drawn during the Economy 7 hours was charged at E7 rate, even if not from the dedicated E7 supply.
You could presumably have any kind of set up you wanted, but it just got too complicated so I stopped bothering.
 
Sponsored Links
Economy 7 is a tariff not a system. Many years ago we had the white meter and items connected to that meter only worked at the set times. But this was a problem with items like a washing machine or tumble drier which you may want to run over night but also at times during the day.

So we have seen the white meter replaced with a single meter and it is up to the user to set the time not the DNO when items are used the DNO only sets the time when the charge changes.

Where I live now we have gas so don't see the split tariff meters much but do see them enough to know one has to be careful. I have seen all sorts of methods including large contactors which switch on banks of storage heaters and also seen the time clocks working these get the time wrong and cause huge bills.

With the twin immersion heater or any other water heater be it gas, solar, or a back boiler one method is to have the upper immersion set at a lower temperature to the lower one so it will auto cut in should you be running out of water but only heat a small amount at the top of the tank.

Thermostatic Mixing Valves (TMV) are often used to ensure the water at the tap is not too hot as to reduce the bottom immersion heater temperature would cause the upper one to cut in too soon.

My daughter did this with gas central heating and an immersion heater she reduced the water temperature of the central heating which resulted in a large electric bill as the immersion heater was set higher than the central heating.

So two questions what are you trying to do and what system have you got? Then we can answer correctly as it is so easy to give wrong advice when we don't know exactly what system is installed.
 
Hi
Thanks for the replies.
I put the immersion heater on low (50) all night, on Economy 7, and it used a lot of units. I'm starting to think about a timer again.
My son lives by himself, has a shower at 6 a.m. and is the at work all day, so does not need much water. One problem is that the shower is from the immersion heater, not an instant one.
If I wanted to put a timer in the kitchen, can anyone recommend one. I have attached three photos.
 
If you swapped the cables between switches and left the bottom heater off at all times and just allowed the economy 7 to heat top that would make some sense.

But to fit a timer or use any other method to reduce temperature would mean water in total not hot enough.

Only the Irish have worked out how to heat a cylinder from the top down.
not joking they have. This system would work with a timer as it heats from top down. The idea is within minutes of switching on you can draw hot water the longer it is left on the more water it heats and will heat whole of cylinder in the end.

But except for the clever northern Irish the rest of us can't seem to work this out. Click on picture for link.
 
Hi
An update to this is that the water was boiling hot, and using lots of units.
I have now replaced the thermostat.
There were no instructions, so I have rewired the new one the same as the last. See photo attached.
Could anybody please confirm this is OK.
Thanks.
 
An update to this is that the water was boiling hot, and using lots of units. I have now replaced the thermostat.
There were no instructions, so I have rewired the new one the same as the last. See photo attached. Could anybody please confirm this is OK.
Assuming that the blue and green/yellow ('earth') are connected to the right places (we can't really see from your pic), that looks fine.

Kind Regards, John
 
I put the immersion heater on low (50) all night, on Economy 7, and it used a lot of units. I'm starting to think about a timer again.
The laws of physics are what they are, and nothing can change the specific heat of water.

A timer will only save electricity consumption if you set it so that the water doesn't get heated up enough.

Is it a hard water area?


My son lives by himself, has a shower at 6 a.m. and is the at work all day, so does not need much water.
Surely the off-peak period ends not long after he leaves for work, so when would you have the timer go off?
 
Assuming that the blue and green/yellow ('earth') are connected to the right places (we can't really see from your pic), that looks fine.
Dunno - it looks to me as if the thermostat is in the neutral.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top