saving gas - what temp is your water at?

redballoon_2

I would like to know what the ideal hot water should be.

Thanks

Fritha_2

My dad the plumber always used to tell me that the best temperature to have your hot water set to was 60 degrees. Any hotter and it just all evaporates off as steam! Not sure if you could turn it down from there? I imagine that you'd end up using more to get it to the right temperature for baths, ahem, sorry, showers, and washing up and such so you'd have to heat it more? But I'd be interested to see what other people say :-)

point3

I'd like to lower the water temp too, but can't find a thermostat! :mad:
It's a Heatrae Sadia / Glow Worm combo - any ideas?
The settings are already set to Economy.

The problem with having water too hot is that, in addition to wasting energy, the hot water melts the washers and then you have to deal with leaky taps and shower heads. :rolleyes:

Pink.

Hi redballoon,

You should get more help with this on the In My Home board, so I'll move your thread over there.

Pink

alanobrien

redballoon wrote:

I would like to know what the ideal hot water should be.

Thanks

60c or more to avoid Legionnaires disease more here;


http://www.bsee.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/3618/Managing_the_risk_from_Legionnaires_disease_.html

plumb1_2

I always set the stat @ 65c

Mr_Grumpy_7

My neighbour set his to 50-55c to avoid the build up of lime scale in his hot water tank, mine was set at 60c. He still has his original hot water tank, I'm on my third in 15 years. I've now fitted a water softener so hopefully won't have anymore problems.

Maybe there is a chemist out there who can confirm my neighbours theory on the build up of lime scale requiring the water to be hotter than 50-55c.

alanobrien

Mr_Grumpy wrote:

My neighbour set his to 50-55c to avoid the build up of lime scale in his hot water tank, mine was set at 60c. He still has his original hot water tank, I'm on my third in 15 years. I've now fitted a water softener so hopefully won't have anymore problems.

Maybe there is a chemist out there who can confirm my neighbours theory on the build up of lime scale requiring the water to be hotter than 50-55c.

There is a nice complicated answer here;

http://www.me.utexas.edu/~solarlab/solscale/environ.html

In short the hotter the water the more potential for scaling.

plumb1_2

alanobrien wrote:

There is a nice complicated answer here;

http://www.me.utexas.edu/~solarlab/solscale/environ.html

In short the hotter the water the more potential for scaling.

Thats why is is good pratice to fit TM3 valves. and soon to become law.

andrewmoorcroft

redballoon wrote:

I would like to know what the ideal hot water should be.

Thanks

Ideal for what? For cost and lime scale then don't heat it!
Do you need it to be very hot for some reason or are you asking how hot does it need to be to fill a bath? You need to be more specific with your question. A warm shower is just above body temperature (37 degC) and for a bath you may need 50 degC to warm up the bath itself and allow to top up as it goes cool etc and still achieve 37-40. This is temperature for bathing and you may need a higher temp at a hot cylinder depending on the temperature drop from the tank to the tap. Can you clarify what you mean so you get a better answer.