Hot water boiler

[susan6540_0]

Hi,

Please excuse my ignorance and i'm sorry if i do not explain the technical bit correctly.

Can anyone help?
We have a cold water tank in the loft and a hot water tank in the airing cupboard. We run on economy 7 electriciy and our tank of water is wamed up by an immersion which comes on automatically at night when the economy 7 kicks in. The other night our fuse blew and we had no hot water (well it was luke warm from - i assume- the remains of the hot water from the day before )

We replaced the fuse (which we tested with a fuse tester and it was dead). Last night I listened out for the boiler and the night immesion was working but when having a shower this morning the water was at best luke warm not as hot as it was before.

I do have an emergency immersion which i can put on at any time which i have been using to top up the hot water the past couple of days. This has a seperate power switch fromt he overnight immesion.

I rang a friend of the family who is a plumber to see if he could help and he said that he only deals with Gas boilers so he really didn't have an idea. So I rang British Gas to enquire about there homesure plan and they wouldn't take us on either because it was an electrical boiler, they told use we would need to see an electrician.

The question is who should i go to: an Electrician or a plumber, it is so confusing! Any input would be greatly appriciated as i really don't know where to start! As i do not know anyone who can help I think I will probably have to pick a number from the telephone directory, but as i don't really know who can help it makes it more difficult.

Oh and the boiler was new in January 2006 it was replaced a couple of months before we moved in.

Thank you.

Susan.

 

[JohnD]

the fuse that blew - is it 15Amp, and does it run only the lower immersion heater and nothing else? this is VERY important. Is it actually a fuse with fusewire or a cartridge in it, or an MCB like a switch?

It sounds like your immersion element has a fault, possibly leading to a partial or intermittent short circuit. Or it might be the cable or connection that is at fault.

Old immersion heaters do go faulty, but you say your is only 2 years old. they normally last much longer. if your cylinder and immersions are that new, the cylinder should be covered in rigid foam insulation, blueish or greenish.

(sometimes when a vendor claims something is new, they are not telling the truth)

If you call in an electrician, you can ask him to see if there is a fault in the circuit, or if the immersion heater is faulty. However, if he discovers that it is, you will then need a plumber to change it (make sure you get an Incalloy element which has a long life).

on the other hand if you get a plumber out first, and it turns out to be an electrical fault, you will have changed the immersion needlessly

Do you see any signs of overheating or damage round the immersion heater, the switch, the cable or the fuse? Does the fuseholder seem loose?

BTW we do not call this a boiler. It is a hot water cylinder.

If you can post pics of the cylinder, immersion heater caps, cables and fusebox, we might spot something amiss.
http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=99672

 

[susan6540_0]

Thank you so much for reply and all the information you have given me, it gives me a really good start to know where to begin.
In answer to your questions: It is a 15Amp which runs only the overnight immersion, there is a separate fuse which is also a 15Amp does the emergency immersion. The fuse goes into a cartridge which slides into the fuse box. The cylinder has also got the rigid foam insulation in green.

There was also damage last year to the power switches which were replaced, this happened first to the overnight switch and then a few months later to the immersion switch. It looked as if both had burnt out.

So thank you for your advise, sorry for calling it a boiler this is probably where i was confusing things for everyone! I do like to ask the questions and try to understand how things work, but as this is my first house, it is a very steep learning curve! I think next stop will be an electrician, I will let you know how i get on.

Thank you!

Susan