Advice please - not sure how our heating/water system works!

dreema_gurl

Hi, I'm a bit of a newbie here so please bear with me. We've just recently moved house and we're not quite sure how the new system works. There is a gas boiler in the kitchen with a Honeywell programmer for hot water and heating. There is also a tank in the airing cupboard that has a switch attached to it (I'm assuming this is the immersion heater) and a small thermostat knob. My question is, what's the cheapest way to get hot water? So far we've been ignoring the gas completely as we've never used it before, and been switching the immersion (??) on the boiler on overnight for hot water as we don't need heating yet. Having had a quick scroll around on the internet, I've read that gas is actually cheaper than electricity for heating water (forgive my ignorance :embarasse). Is this true? Should I be ignoring the hot water tank / immersion and be heating my water via the gas boiler instead? Many thanks for any advice!

Cardew

Depending on your gas boiler efficiency, heating water with electricity is two to three times more expensive than gas. This is assuming you have a normal electricity tariff and not Economy 7.

It is almost certain that your gas boiler will heat the water in the same tank as the immersion heater is fitted. You can get 'combi' boilers that heat the water 'instantly' but with these boilers there is normally no hot water tank.

The normal method to heat water is to experiment with timer settings to get sufficient hot water in the tank to cope with your needs. An hour a day will be about average unless you have lots of baths.

penrhyn

I'd just add that even if your hot water tank has sprayfoam insulation on it its still worthwhile to put another lagging jacket on top, you will still get enough heat leaking out to keep the airing cupboard warm.
O and the small thermostat knob regulates the temperature of the tank when using gas.

dreema_gurl

Thanks very much for the replies. So I should NOt use the immersion heater, and programme the gas boiler to come on at a certain point in the day (e.g. early morning) to heat the water? What is the advantage, then, of the immersion heater if it's so much more expensive? Why have one at all?

Cardew

dreema_gurl wrote: »

Thanks very much for the replies. So I should NOt use the immersion heater, and programme the gas boiler to come on at a certain point in the day (e.g. early morning) to heat the water? What is the advantage, then, of the immersion heater if it's so much more expensive? Why have one at all?

Often the immersion heater was fitted before CH was installed.

Some people switch off their gas completely in the summer months - especially if they use little hot water and have a boiler with a pilot light that is on constantly(they can use quite a lot of gas)

If the gas boiler breaks down you still have hot water.

Most people however will rarely use their immersion heater as you suggest.