Electric water heating tank - best to leave on all the time?

brig001

AFAIK, if it is a new build, the hot pipes should be insulated in the airing cupboard. Either pursue it with the builders or get some pipe insulation from a DIY shed and do it yourself. If you airing cupboard is warm, you are losing energy in there which will make the place too hot in summer and will add to the running cost.

Sorry, doesn't answer the question, but every little helps.

BexInLondon

Yes - it is a thermal store! Knew I had a name for it some where. It's called a Heat Bank... anyway, I've set it to come on tomorrow morning... will see what happens if anyone tries to have a shower in the evening!

Apparently this means our hot water is drinkable! Might start filling the kettle from the hot tap

BexInLondon

PS most of the pipes are insulated... just the odd connecting bit that isn't!

tomstickland

Are you on Econ 7?
If so it will be cheapest to run it on E7 only and have it off at other times.

If it's on conventional electricity it will be cheapest to run it only just before you need it.

BexInLondon

Now there's the rub - can't get at my meter at the moment (developers being slow to provide the key to the cupboard) and EDF haven't yet sent me any correspondence so I don't know what tariff I'm on.
Would E7 be default do you think?

TimBuckTeeth

olias wrote: »

I might be wrong, but I think the Op (or rather the engineer who came out) is referring to the fact that the cylinder will have a thermostat. Therefore once it reaches temperature, it will stop heating, thereby using no leccie. The insulation should keep it at a high temperature, and when it drops below a certain temperature it will kick in again to bring it back up to temperature (This is if it is switched on permenantly). This way it is only kicking in and using leccie for a short time periodically during the day. If you only switch it on once a day (say), for a couple of hours, then it will have to work that much harder and use more leccie by heating the water up from cold which may mean it draining leccie for a couple of hours.

Does that make sense - thought not!

Olias

Although it might appear that more power is used to heat a tank from cold, it is less than the total sum of the short periods to keep the tank constantly hot. Heat is lost at a higher rate when the temperature of the water is higher.
As an analogy take a leaking bucket (the water level corresponding to the temperature and the leak is the heat loss) - filling it once appears to use a lot of water (energy), but constantly topping it up during the day uses more.

AdrianW2

Just out of interest, what advantage does a thermal store have over an unvented cylinder in an application like the OP's where it isn't used to run radiators?

BexInLondon

Thanks TimBuckTeeth - that makes perfect sense. I like the leaking buket analogy.

Will try and 'break in' to the meter cupboard today. I have an awful fear that our first bill, if we ever get one, will be astronimical.

Found out today that Thames Water don't actually think our address exists. Free water?

brig001

AdrianW2, a thermal store is not under pressure, an internal coil is used to heat the cold water to be used. Because it is not a pressure vessel, it can be DIY fitted, doesn't need pressure vessel certification and doesn't need an annual service.

Inactive

If your electric heaters are storage heaters, you will almost certainly have economy7.