Unsure about heating water with immersion heater

[Jastinder]

Hi,

I recently moved into a new property with an immersion heater. When I left the switch on there was no hot water upstairs (maybe after am hour or so) but when I used the controls in the kitchen and set the hot water advance then the water started heating up however I've left this timer off for 3 days and the water upstairs is still hot.

So now I am confused...

1. Does leaving the switch on the immersion heater use too much energy and therefore do I manually have to turn it on when I need hot water.

2. Is the hot water advance required?


I am so used to combi boilers so any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[terryplumb]

Heating the hot water cylinder by your boiler is cheaper than by electric immersion.
The immersion should really just be treated as a back up should boiler fail. As it didn't heat when you switched the immersion on there would appear to be something amiss ,and needs checking out.
The cylinders insulation can keep the water warm for a couple of days .

 

[Jastinder]

Thanks for the swift response.

I don't have a combi boiler so I presume I will need the immersion heater for hot water upstairs e.g. bathroom taps and shower

 

[terryplumb]

It will provide hot water to all your hot taps,and possibly showers unless showers are instantaneous electric type.

 

[Jastinder]

It will provide hot water to all your hot taps,and possibly showers unless showers are instantaneous electric type.

Ok I will do some trial and error.

Hopefully I haven't used up too much electricity....

Thanks for the advice

 

[flameport]

so I presume I will need the immersion heater for hot water upstairs e.g. bathroom taps and shower

No.

Your gas boiler heats the water in the cylinder. It's controlled by the white Drayton timer.
You can use the 'advance' feature, or just set it to switch on for a couple of hours each day.

The immersion heater uses expensive electricity to heat the same cylinder.
As mentioned already, it's only there in case your gas boiler is broken.
Using it will be 3x more expensive than the gas boiler and it will take a lot longer to heat up.

 

[Jastinder]

Thanks

I've switched off the immersion heater and see if I only need it for the shower

I do have a thermostat on the immersion heater but even so going forward I'll only turn it on if required for the shower

 

[Johntheo5]

You should have a bath/sink option on that top mounted immersion, right hand switch next to the on/off switch, above.
The sink element will heat ~ 30L of water to 60C, which only takes around 40 minutes, cost ~ 90p, enough to give a 8 minute shower at 40C & 6LPM or 5 minutes at 40c & 10LPM flowrate.

 

[robinbanks]

Hi,

I recently moved into a new property with an immersion heater.

Does your new property have a functioning gas boiler or not?

 

[Jastinder]

Does your new property have a functioning gas boiler or not?

Valiant ecofit pure

Don't think it is a combi

 

[Jastinder]

You should have a bath/sink option on that top mounted immersion, right hand switch next to the on/off switch, above.
The sink element will heat ~ 30L of water to 60C, which only takes around 40 minutes, cost ~ 90p, enough to give a 8 minute shower at 40C & 6LPM or 5 minutes at 40c & 10LPM flowrate.

With the thermostat would that reduce electricity usage? E.g. stop boiling at a vetting temp

Just worried by what you're saying about cost per min/hour as I left the switch on for a couple of days

Only an additional switch for the shower

 

[Jastinder]

With the thermostat would that reduce electricity usage? E.g. stop boiling at a vetting temp

Just worried by what you're saying about cost per min/hour as I left the switch on for a couple of days

Only an additional switch for the shower

Stop boiling at a certain temperature **

 

[Johntheo5]

Gas heating is the cheapest form of water heating and you should be able to programme that from the controller.

Re the immersion, the thermostat will shut off the power at 60C (or whatever the immersion thermostat is set to), it will then restore the power until the temperature fall by ~ 8C and so on.
Have a look on the top of the immersion element (top of cylinder) and see what it say re single or double element.

 

[robinbanks]

As the property has a working gas boiler, i'd have expected that it would be the primary source of heat for the cylinder, rather than the immersion. Immersion's a backup, not something you'd leave on (because then it will use its own internal thermostat and keep the tank hot, possibly hotter than the boiler would, meaning you'd be paying to use electricity to generate hotter water even after the boiler has quit doing so)

Stop boiling at a certain temperature **

You can hit Edit under your post to add or change bits

 

[Jastinder]

Gas heating is the cheapest form of water heating and you should be able to programme that from the controller.

Re the immersion, the thermostat will shut off the power at 60C (or whatever the immersion thermostat is set to), it will then restore the power until the temperature fall by ~ 8C and so on.
Have a look on the top of the immersion element (top of cylinder) and see what it say re single or double element.

Thank you for clarifying about the thermostat.

Better to learn now before the bill gets higher!