How can this be possible?

Incisor

Milly1974 wrote: »

Does it really use that much?

The water heater doesn't have a timer, and I have to admit I don't fancy getting up at half four to put the water on for half five when I have a bath in the morning. Do you think it would cost a lot to get a timer installed?

It does have a jacket to insulate, but not very thick. Again, do these cost a lot, are they difficult to fit, and are they one-size-fits-all?

Magentasue has answered for the cylinder jacket. Timer could cost you if you call in an electrician, but heating the water continuously is probably costing you enough to pay back in under a year. If you are lucky and the water heater is on a 13Amp socket, you may be able to get a plug in timer quite cheaply [pay back in a month?], but take care it is rated for 13 Amps.

KimYeovil

Lord, I feel old. There are really young'uns out there who don't understand old-fashioned technology like immersion heaters? Crivens. Have a chat with your granny!

aloiseb

Do get an electrician to look at the boiler...water and electricity are not a safe combination + you could end up in hospital or worse.
Our immersion heater, when we moved in, had been wired up to the upstairs lighting circuit by an amateur, using all the wrong fuses, and was potentially very dangerous. On the plus side, it didn't use much electricity, as it fused all the lights the moment we switched it on! We had to use table lamps until the electrician had been....

But to get back to the point........ are you on Economy Seven electricity? It might work out cheaper for you if you have storage heaters. Our nightime electricity costs about 5p a unit as opposed to 20p for daytime. I now have to stay up very late to run the washing machine...in our area it's 12amGMT - 7am GMT, which means 1am - 8am until the clocks go back.
Having said that, it didn't cost us anything to get the supplier to switch us over to Economy 7, as we had a meter which already had the switching option. If yours doesn't, it might cost a bit to have it put in.
Good luck!

Magentasue

KimYeovil wrote: »

Lord, I feel old. There are really young'uns out there who don't understand old-fashioned technology like immersion heaters? Crivens. Have a chat with your granny!

Deep breaths, kimyeovil, I go similarly duhrrrrrrrrr when the finer points of games consoles are explained to me.

Bruce_

Install a shower. That will save a lot of water, and therefore less money to heat it.

Graham1

Milly1974 wrote: »

... and the heating is storage heaters supplemented by an open fire ...

Very easy to use that much with the storage heaters if they were on in March, April, possibly May.

Milly1974

Wow, how much more advice! Thankyou all!

My Dad is an electrician, so may ask him to have a look, although I live 250 miles from him, so might take a while. Might try fitting a better insulating jacket in the meantime.

Is it an immersion heater I have? Kim, I would love to ask my nan, but unfortunately will never have the opportunity! Instead, I will just have to apologise for my youth and offer to teach you and Sue about games consoles!

Magentasue

I think, Milly, the main points are:

- have water heater checked - for safety as well as economy
- look at tarriff (Econ7 if you don't have it)
- only heat the water you need (timer)

Mikeyorks

We had a similar configuration in a farmhouse on top of a windy Yorkshire moor - for 18 years. Storage heaters (background heat only) supplemented by big multi-fuel stoves, and water heated by immersion.

That was costing me £120 per month 4 years ago ..... when power was considerably cheaper than now. And that was purely the electricity - the several tons of coal / logs were extra.

It's likely you're on Economy 7 if you have storage heaters - but worth a check and worth shopping around for the best price. Put the immersion on a timer .... you need one that's specific for an immersion, as general purpose timers overheat. You should get one around £30 / £40 and they're easy enough to wire in (for an electrician ... it's not a job for the unknowledgeable) And replace the thermostat in the immersion at the same time (as that sounds a bit dubious) as they're less than £10. If your dad's useful - might be worth replacing the immersion at the same time. We had water from a bore hole and it ate immersions. Not one lasted more than 12 months - so I always had to keep a spare in as they always blew at weekends. Got an 'aggressive water resistant' one once - and that lasted less than 6 months - as the water used to calcify limescale around the heating rods. Which then overheated and exploded. The water tank had more bits of immersion in the bottom than it did water when we sold the house!

But - the water heating is at the margins. Regret most of your money is going into the storage heaters which are very expensive to run. A 2.4kw heater will use most of 17 units per 7 hour overnight charging period - so that's up to 120 units per week. Hence the need to be on a cheap tariff overnight, and then maximise the use of it.

Milly1974

Bruce_ wrote: »

Install a shower. That will save a lot of water, and therefore less money to heat it.

I would love to, but I have been waiting 3 months for permission to repaint the bedroom, so I dread to think how long it would take to get permission for that. We would probably be moving out shortly after!