Immersion Heater, leave on or turn off advice please?

Cardew

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Equally annoying though are the claims that it costs hundreds of pounds a year extra to leave it on - so people have all the inconvenience of waiting for hot water, when the reality is it really doesn't cost much at all.

I know the site is all about saving money, but sometimes I do wonder if people take things too far for the sake of pennies.

Agreed again!

With gas CH(and a hot water tank) it is often just a few pence a week(and again the heat isn't wasted much of the year)

Some people with a combi boiler seem to think that they are saving huge amounts on Hot Water, where in fact the savings are modest.(admittedly there are space saving advantages; but disadvantages like reduced flow of hot water.)

Pincher

davidgmmafan wrote: »

I chuckle a little everytime I read the kettle example

If only you knew the implication of pre-heating, and the joy of instant hot drinking water.



This is from amazon.co.uk:

"2 Jan 2007
By Mrs. Claire Fraser "eek!" (West Midlands)

This review is from: Breville JK80 White Spectra Kettle 3000w (Kitchen & Home)

I really can't believe I am typing this - but I am in love with my kettle!! My husband bought it for my birthday - which may seem sad to some - but I was like a small child I was so excited!! It sits and glows and changes colour in the corner of my kitchen day and night! It is certainly a talking point and all my friends are now jealous and I can be smug I don't just have a boring kettle!! My only problem I have had is that I have pressed the keep warm button and my kettle duly does its thing (and when I forgot I had pressed it - it kept it warm all night too!!) handy maybe for breakfast but not so good for the electric bills!! It may have been good if the kettle turned the keep warm off after a set time - but it doesn't!! - even so I don't care - what does the occasional surge in the elctric bill matter when my kettle brightens my day every time I wander into the kitchen??!!! "


I myself have been using a Breville JK68, which has a Keep Warm
button, but it only goes blue when boiling, and doesn't change colour.

I now have a sink mounted InSinkerator HC-1100, which is plumbed in to the mains. The HC-1100 supplies filtered hot and cold water 24 hours a day.

I am not using the standard InSinkerator one cartridge water filter and have a two cartridge filter which will also supply a fridge with icemaker and chilled water. The standard InSinkerator cartridge is a rip off. Pozzani has a range of cartridges for different water impurities. In my set up, one cartridge deals with chlorine, the other deals with particulate matter. They are £15 each, whereas the Insinkerator cartridge is £75 for two, which you use one at a time. For the same money, I get four times the water, at better purity.

The lime scale is dealt with at the mains supply by an electronic scale reducer, the wire loop kind.

The end result is, I now have scum free tea in seconds.:)

Peak Load
=======

You may recall the claim that the National Grid has to cater for the nation putting on their kettle during commercial breaks simultaneously. Whereas previously, people put far too much water into the kettle, and heat an unnecessary amount FROM COLD, you only use a fraction of the electricity to bring the warm water to boiling point. Thus, using the keep warm kettle reduces the peak load. This means we need to have fewer power plants in the UK.

The Breville JK80 type kettle is NOT insulated, so you are losing a fair amount of energy throughout the day. The HC-1100 has an insulated hot water tank, so the heat loss is more acceptable.

Conclusion
========

We should be encouraging people to use insulated keep warm hot water dispensers to reduce the national peak load, and hence number of power plants.

Memo To Breville:

Bring out an insulated electric version of the Russian samovar.
It will be a smash hit, and you will be doing the environment some good.

PS

Do a £999 luxury one, call it the Czarina, make it available through the John Lewis wedding list only. Don't advertise it. It's going to be like the Amex Centurion. The halo effect will make people buy the cheaper ones.

Premier_2

An immersion heater is just like a big kettle.

Do those people who think keeping the immersion on is cheaper than turning it on and off also keep their kettle on the boil 24/7 for the odd occassion they require a cuppa, or boil the water as required?

Andy_WSM

Premier wrote: »

An immersion heater is just like a big kettle.

Do those people who think keeping the immersion on is cheaper than turning it on and off also keep their kettle on the boil 24/7 for the odd occassion they require a cuppa, or boil the water as required?

The HUGE difference being though that a kettle is not insulated and an immersion tank is (or should be!) - although not cheaper, it is only marginally more expensive to leave it switched on for the reasons stated above.