Hot water - on Constant or Twice?

greenbee

Most dishwashers are cold fill only - they usually have one water inlet, so the option for both hot and cold isn't there.

Washing machines can be either both hot & cold fill, or cold fill only. Apparently it is only worth having the hot water connection if the majority of your washing is done at 50 degrees or higher. I forget where I read all of this, but I've been into it in quite a bit of detail.

My WM is plumbed for both hot & cold, but the tap to the hot hose is accessible and is switched on and off as needed, so the most cost effective source of hot water is used for each wash.

Magentasue

Never had a hot and cold fill dishwasher and my w/m is also cold fill only. I'm sure I've read that it's very difficult to find a w/m that is hot and cold fill only now. I also remember reading that it is cheaper for the w/m to heat the water unless it's a high temp wash and you have hot water sitting there. For everyday washes, it costs more for the boiler to heat the water.

amtrakuk

My washing machine has a hot and cold fill. Only having a cold supply I put a Y splitter in

Slinky

Our washing machine definitely took significant amount of hot water into it and I only ever wash at 40degrees. I found that doing the washing up straight after I'd put a load into the machine meant the hot tap ran hot straight away. This was when we had the machine under the sink. Have now moved it to a new utility area so don't get the benefit from doing this any more.

valk_scot

kingbeige wrote: »

Whilst the argument that you should only heat up the water you need makes sense it's not always practical.

Bathing and showering are fairly regular activities but the washing machine and dishwasher can be used at any time. I believe my washing machine and dishwasher are plumbed to use hot water if available otherwise they'll heat it themselves. I would guess that it would be cheaper for them to use the gas heated water than to heat it electrically themselves. They are used roughly once a day each in my household.

Could this be worth considering?

When I had an immersion tank it used to heat up using cheap electricity at night...the timer for that was set from 2am to 4am or thereabouts. What I did was to put my washing machine on a timer too, for midnight, so it washed using any remnants of hot water or heated it's own if it had to, rather than swipe all the hot water during the day.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'd also check exactly how long it takes for every last drop of hot water to leave the cylinder. We can get about 3 days out of one hour's heating!

vl2588

I heat my water tank for an hour each night when it is cheap and that does me fine but it is used almost exclusively for washing up. I wonder if I could get it down to half an hour