Hello
I have a system boiler with an unvented HW cylinder.
There is a Drayton LP522 timer controller.
Separate to this, there are 2 thermostats in the house for heating control (house is split into 2 radiator zones).
My question relates to the HW cylinder.
As I understand it, water in this is kept at/around 60 degrees. When the hot taps (or mixer shower) is turned on, hot water comes from this cylinder, and is mixed with cold water from the water main feed.
The Drayton LP522 is set with 2 HW on/off times, so it tells the boiler to heat the HW cylinder in the morning and in the evening. From a pipework view, there is a feed + return between the boiler and the HW cylinder, presumably into a coil within the cylinder to act as a heat exchanger and heat the water.
Also in the HW cylinder there is an immersion heater element within the cylinder.
I *think* but not 100% sure at this point, that this is cycling on and off throughout the day, on for approx 3 minutes every hour.
This was spotted during the recent setup of some monitoring for my electric consumption, using an Owl CM180 clamp meter on the house electric feed, and a EmonCMS setup. I'm seeing 3min duration usage of 3kw - which seems too high consumption to be a fridge-freezer etc.
So, my questions are:
1) Is it likely the immersion heater is doing some of the heating?
2) Which is most cost effective - heating the HW cylinder mostly with electric, mostly with gas, or a mixture? Given the time of year the boiler isn't doing any CH duties, so would be warming up from cold each time (i.e twice a day) which seems wasteful to me.
Thanks.
I have a system boiler with an unvented HW cylinder.
There is a Drayton LP522 timer controller.
Separate to this, there are 2 thermostats in the house for heating control (house is split into 2 radiator zones).
My question relates to the HW cylinder.
As I understand it, water in this is kept at/around 60 degrees. When the hot taps (or mixer shower) is turned on, hot water comes from this cylinder, and is mixed with cold water from the water main feed.
The Drayton LP522 is set with 2 HW on/off times, so it tells the boiler to heat the HW cylinder in the morning and in the evening. From a pipework view, there is a feed + return between the boiler and the HW cylinder, presumably into a coil within the cylinder to act as a heat exchanger and heat the water.
Also in the HW cylinder there is an immersion heater element within the cylinder.
I *think* but not 100% sure at this point, that this is cycling on and off throughout the day, on for approx 3 minutes every hour.
This was spotted during the recent setup of some monitoring for my electric consumption, using an Owl CM180 clamp meter on the house electric feed, and a EmonCMS setup. I'm seeing 3min duration usage of 3kw - which seems too high consumption to be a fridge-freezer etc.
So, my questions are:
1) Is it likely the immersion heater is doing some of the heating?
2) Which is most cost effective - heating the HW cylinder mostly with electric, mostly with gas, or a mixture? Given the time of year the boiler isn't doing any CH duties, so would be warming up from cold each time (i.e twice a day) which seems wasteful to me.
Thanks.