Should i use immersion heater?

everlastingspirit

Ok, so my partner and I bought a house back in August but starting to use the heating, etc more so we are looknig at what we should and shouldnt be using in terms of electric gaas and water.

We currently have an oldish (but still working) boiler downstairs and an immersion tank in a cupboard over the stairs. We were speaking to my partners grand parents about bills and they said we should be using our immersion tank on a timer. So i duelly went home and checked this but notice we dont have timer on the tank (or a plug socket to use one via - wired straight into a blank plate) nor has the immersion heater been on.

So my question is would it be more economic to use it - ive included our house details and energy/water use below so let me know i you need anymore info:

Monthly payment towards gas/elec - £77.
Monthly spend is roughly this in winter (maybe a bit more)
Hot water on 2-3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in evening
Heating on 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening (yes we do get a bit cold - but we stick jumpers on and dont pay as much)
1 shower each (2 of us) round 6-7.30pm each day
In the house usually 3.30pm to 8.30am (partner finishes earlier than me)
I think we are on Economy 7? as electric meter shows a normal and low readings.

Thansk for any advice.

Also on a side note - is it more beneficial to use a gas boiler to heat a house or a gas fire in the living room? (seems to heat room quickly and travels upstairs)

Ben

Mark_Hewitt

Ditch it all and get a combi boiler, hot water on demand at all times.

Voyager2002

Immersion heaters are horribly expensive. If you need to use it, be sure to switch off the instant you have finished.

espresso

Use your gas boiler to heat the hot water when it's heating the house and leave the immersion heater as an emergency backup. Unless you heat the water during the seven economy seven hours during the night, you will be paying the high rate electricity units, which will likely be more expensive than a standard rate tariff unit!

I would suggest that you use your central heating and use the gas fire to supplement the heating if/when necessary.

HappyMJ

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

Ditch it all and get a combi boiler, hot water on demand at all times.

Right...What's the cost of that then?

espresso

HappyMJ wrote: »

Right...What's the cost of that then?

Irrelevant the OP didn't ask about a new boiler!

macman

If you heat and hot water your house using a gas boiler, then why are you on E7? It's very unlikely that you are using the minimum 33% on cheap rate to make it worthwhile over a single rate tariff. All your consumption outisde the 7 cheap night hours is being charged at a premium rate.
Gas is still cheaper than cheap-rate electricity per kWh.
You can't begin to get control over your usage/bills if you don't know what tariff you are on-it's clearly shown on your bills.

everlastingspirit

macman wrote: »

If you heat and hot water your house using a gas boiler, then why are you on E7? It's very unlikely that you are using the minimum 33% on cheap rate to make it worthwhile over a single rate tariff. All your consumption outisde the 7 cheap night hours is being charged at a premium rate.
Gas is still cheaper than cheap-rate electricity per kWh.
You can't begin to get control over your usage/bills if you don't know what tariff you are on-it's clearly shown on your bills.

Hi

Im on a Scottish Power fixed online deal til Mid 2013. I just presumed im on economy 7 due to the fact i have 2 different readings that i enter online?

Sorry im new to this as the house we were renting before we bought was a combi boiler only so never had to think about an immersion tank.

Thanks to all for your help so far.

Note ref getting a new boiler - would love to but its a bit much to pay out when we have only just bought!

HappyMJ

everlastingspirit wrote: »

Hi

Im on a Scottish Power fixed online deal til Mid 2013. I just presumed im on economy 7 due to the fact i have 2 different readings that i enter online?

Sorry im new to this as the house we were renting before we bought was a combi boiler only so never had to think about an immersion tank.

Thanks to all for your help so far.

Note ref getting a new boiler - would love to but its a bit much to pay out when we have only just bought!

Scottish Power is one of those tariffs where it is better to be on E7 as the standard rate is higher than the day rate of E7. Very weird...

But......When comparing tariffs add the two meter readings together and compare using a normal non E7 tariff to see if another supplier can beat ScottishPower's E7 pricing. It will involve a bit of writing down and manually comparing but you'll get there. If you need help just ask.

Ben84

Generally it makes no sense for a house with gas heating to be on an economy 7 tariff as despite offering lower rates overnight, the day rates tend to be higher than a flat rate tariff. You have to use a significant percentage of your total electric consumption overnight to break even. You'd need to plot a graph with your relevant costs to see where this is, but generally I'd expect it to be somewhere around 40% of your total kWh being consumed in the cheap hours. Only houses with electric storage heaters are likely to get anywhere close to this amount at the right times.

Anyway, if you can find your boiler's efficiency and tell me how much a kWh of gas and electric costs you, I can work out what the cost per kWh for heating water with each option. I already suspect though it will be in the favour of using the gas boiler as gas is just generally so much cheaper. Even my ancient 1970s back boiler (guessed efficiency ~65%) worked out the cheaper way to make hot water.

undaunted

I'd be surprised if an immersion on a timer were cheaper than gas personally but it shouldn't be a huge cost to have a timer put in if that's how you do want to do things.