Programming HW times...advice needed

[dazzystar]

Hi all,

I've discovered that my HW has been programmed to come on at 6:30am - 8:00am and then again at4:30pm until 10:30pm every day!

This is madness I think.

Does anyone know how long, on average, it takes to heat up a cylinder of HW?

TIA
Daz

 

[Dan Robinson]

Why is it madness?

If you have a thermostat it will switch off whenever the cylinder reaches the temperature it is set to.

All that will happen between those times is that the cylinder will top up if you draw off any water.

What would be madness is if you:

A - didn't have a properly lagged cylinder
B - not thermostat on the side.

 

[dazzystar]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. We constantly hear the boiler going on and off whilst it heats up the HW (topping up I assume) so I thought if I limit this by the programmer that we would be saving energy. I do understand that if we drain the cylinder and the programmer has turned the HW off then we'll have no HW.

As long as we have HW during peak times (shower / bath time, washing up, etc.) then that's fine.

Cheers
Daz

 

[Dan Robinson]

You need to make sure that you have a thermostat that works on side of the cylinder - normally a third of the way up. Set it somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees.

If there isn't one, it will pay to get the system checked and have one fitted.

 

[dazzystar]

I do have a thermostat fitted to the cylinder. It was set to 80 degrees but is now back to 60!

 

[Agile]

I do have a thermostat fitted to the cylinder. It was set to 80 degrees but is now back to 60!

Now that is the madness!

In most installations the boiler would never be turned off and would stay cycling all the time.

The boiler flow should be about 10 c above the set HW temp.

Tony

 

[dazzystar]

Thanks Tony. My boiler doesn't have a temperature setting, just 1 to 4 then max.

 

[Agile]

That is the temperature setting!

Just its not calibrated in degrees!

You would have to measure the temp of the flow at a few settings.

Normally 70-80 C and probably about 3.5 - 4.0 for those temps.

Tony