DIN Rail Timer Clocks

[Darkness]

Neighbour is having a 300l Hot water tank installed in an outbuilding and wants the two immersion heating elements on two separate timers and both can be run independently or can be on at the same time.

He likes everything tidy and instead of having two separate time clocks installed which he finds a clutter, someone told him to install two DIN type time clocks. He has a 2nd large CU with loads a spare ways to hold the timers.

Can anyone recommend a time clock suitable for this? I guess two will be required. If someone can suggest an alternative way of doing it then let me know and I will tell him.

 

[EFLImpudence]

He should not have, nor does he need, both on at the same time, there are proprietary timers made for the purpose of ensuring this; either changing over one circuit or managing two circuits.

 

[SUNRAY]

Neighbour is having a 300l Hot water tank installed in an outbuilding and wants the two immersion heating elements on two separate timers and both can be run independently or can be on at the same time.

He likes everything tidy and instead of having two separate time clocks installed which he finds a clutter, someone told him to install two DIN type time clocks. He has a 2nd large CU with loads a spare ways to hold the timers.

Can anyone recommend a time clock suitable for this? I guess two will be required. If someone can suggest an alternative way of doing it then let me know and I will tell him.

2 channel timer, my first google hit:

16 Amp 7 Day/24HR Digital Timer - 2 Channel | Timeguard (TR 612 top3)

 

[Darkness]

Is that more for lights and what’s the 2 channels for?

Not cheap if he wants two.

 

[JohnW2]

He should not have, nor does he need, both on at the same time, ....

I suppose that 'depends'. To heat 300 L or water 'from cold', say from 18°C to 62°C, with just one 3kW immersion should take a bit over 5 hours - which might be longer than he would like.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Darkness]

I suppose that 'depends'. To heat 300 L or water 'from cold', say from 18°C to 62°C, with just one 3kW immersion should take a bit over 5 hours - which might be longer than he would like.

Kind Regards, John

That’s his reason for using the two. Also, I never understood why you never see hot water tanks with two heater elements at the bottom which would speed the heating up faster.

 

[JohnW2]

That’s his reason for using the two.

As I suspected.

Also, I never understood why you never see hot water tanks with two heater elements at the bottom which would speed the heating up faster.

In terms of domestic situations, probably because it's not something that many people would need. It's unusual to have a domestic hot water cylinder bigger than about 140 litres and, even if it is totally emptied of hot water, a single 3 kW immersion will heat that up 'to temp' in a couple of hours - which is quick enough for most people.

Indeed, "totally emptied of hot water" is fairly unusual (since showers are far more popular than baths these days) - so for most people, the full contents of the cylinder would be heated up to temp pretty quickly (nothing like 2 hours) after hot water was used.

The situation is probably very different in commercial situations.

Kind Regards, John

 

[flameport]

Also, I never understood why you never see hot water tanks with two heater elements at the bottom which would speed the heating up faster

For those situations a higher power immersion heater is used, such as 6kW, 9kW or 12kW.
It's still a single element assembly which fits into a single hole in the cylinder.

 

[SUNRAY]

For those situations a higher power immersion heater is used, such as 6kW, 9kW or 12kW.
It's still a single element assembly which fits into a single hole in the cylinder.

I've often worked with 3 phase of 6KW & 9KW but not seen any elements over 3KW or more than 3 elements in one unit. I'm not saying they don't exist, just that I've not seen any.

Generally for large commercial installations they tend to use multiple heaters rather than go bigger and extra (more than required) to allow for failures to reduce drain down frequency.