Which is best, hot water boiler on all day or once/twice per day? (merged threads)

Canucklehead

emma_and_her_brood wrote: »

Interesting.
Or builder told us to set it to that to save money and to ensure our kids don't get accidently scalded.

Good morning: Your builder needs to improve his plumbing knowledge.;) You could have TMVs installed to prevent scalding.

HTH

Canucklehead

unsure

With winter coming we're obviously getting concerned about fuel bills (who isn't?). I discoverd my wife has the hot water on "constant"- always available 24 hours a day. She says that because the tanks is well lagged (can't even feel any warmth on the coating...and the cupbaord it's in just stays at room temp) it's not costing money and the water stays hot for next morn, whereas if it was turned off overnight it would cool and cost more to reheat in the morning.
My own feeling is that if tank is well-insulated water should stay warm/hot and a saving be made by turning off at night --- at the minor inconvenience of not being able to take a bath in the midlde of the night and then a hot shower first thing in the morning which is not a very likely scenario(...and we do have a separate electric shower if needed in such an eventuality).
Can anyone tell me who is right?

Also, last time I costed it (about a year ago) using the immersion to heat water for a bath worked out at about 15p. So I'm beginning to wonder if we should have centrally-heated hot water on less and use immersion more since it only takes about 10 mins to heat a bath's worth to a very good temp. I work from home but really don't need hot water much in the day and could use immersion if required.
Any thoughts or wisdom to share please?

latecomer

Turn it off overnight. I agree with your thinking, if the tank if well lagged then it should retain its heat well and only need a little heating in the morning. I recently fitted a new heating controller to get more control over the timing of the hot water and central heating.

unsure

Thanks latecomer,
now I just have to persuade The Boss -- that should provide some free heat generation!!!!

sweetnskint

i have mine turned off but it turns itself on for one hour in mornings to get water hot!-should be fine....

27col

There's no point in leaving it on at night, especially as you have a well insulated tank. As has been suggested, just turn it on a short while before you get up. I doubt that the temperature drop overnight is very high. However, if a boiler is not on, then it can't use any gas, which has to be a good thing.

TimBuckTeeth

Switching the water heating off overnight will save money. Set the timer to come on when needed or manually switch it on 30 minutes to a hour before a bath.

I would not use the immersion heater at all, as it will cost more than using gas to heat the water. An immersion heater is only really needed if the boiler breaks down, or to help the boiler heat the water if hot water is needed more quickly or used at high rate.

EliteHeat

TimBuckTeeth wrote: »

I would not use the immersion heater at all, as it will cost more than using gas to heat the water. An immersion heater is only really needed if the boiler breaks down, or to help the boiler heat the water if hot water is needed more quickly or used at high rate.

Exactly right, good advice.

unsure

Thanks all,
Turned boiler off over night. The sky did not fall in and there were no icicles in the shower head when I turned it on this morning! Temp was a wee bit cooler than previously but perfectly adequate for showering and shaving. even The Boss was convinced. We'll probably turn the water on a little earlier to get the heat up a bit but I think we've made a breakthrough....now if I can just get her to stop belieivng in those supermarket premium brands we'll really be onto a winner!

Immersion will remain as emergency standby.

bwgames

I've wondered about this too. The problem is I have an all-electric flat, with *no* timer controls at all. However, I'm on Economy 10, which the immersion heater boiler is wired up for. At the moment, the off-peak switch is on permanently, so I get 10 hours of heating it a day, which seems rather excessive for a 1bed flat.

But, conversely, the electricity is very cheap, 6.6p/kWh.
Just wondering if it'd be worth just leaving it on during the night, that'd be 5 hours.