Oil versus Electricity For Heating Water

GlynD

sheerdelight wrote: »

Glynd
The reason you get hot water in a few minutes is that you have an external Willis type immersion heater. It heats a small amount of water in a heater at the side of the main cylinder and feeds it in to the top of the tank. Hot water becomes available within a few minutes of switching it on. This type of heater is popular in Northern Ireland where it was originally designed and (is still?) manufactured.

Compare this to the immersion heater that goes inside a hot water cylinder. Often featuring two elements this has to heat the whole tank. You wait ages to heat water as you are heating the whole tank of water and the temperature rises slowly. These are commom in GB and also present here unfortunately. Maybe OK if you have Economy 7 off peak heating, but at any time of the day or night, very slow.

Even if my oil burner could heat water only I would still prefer to use a Willis type to heat water as you can switch it on to heat for a few minutes for a few litres of hot water or leave it on for as long as necessary to heat the whole tank. Depends what your requirements are.

Washing machines these days only have a cold feed as do dishwashers. Some people may have showers or baths that do require cylinder stored hot water. If you have electric showers too there will be even less need for large tanks of hot water.

That's fascinating, I never knew that. If these Willis immersion heaters are so efficient at providing small quantities of hot water quickly I wonder why they've never caught on over the pond in GB? Any ideas?

Let's ask the rest of the board. If you are English, Scottish or Welsh, would you prfer to have this Willis type immersion heater which heats up small quantities really quickly or would you prefer to have the "in tank" heater which takes ages to heat an entire tank which you may not need for washing dishes, floors, having a shave or whatever? Would it put you off that the heater is made in Northern Ireland?

tommie

GlynD wrote: »

Would it put you off that the heater is made in Northern Ireland?

My goodness, what sort of questions that??! Why on earth should it?

To me that would be a plus point after seeing the all to familiar "Made in China" plastered over everything that comes into this country of ours.

GlynD

tommie wrote: »

My goodness, what sort of questions that??! Why on earth should it?

To me that would be a plus point after seeing the all to familiar "Made in China" plastered over everything that comes into this country of ours.

Odd question I know but I have come across people who are hostile to Northern Ireland. There's also the fact that we don't have a particularly strong reputation for manufacturing in this modern world of ours.

We used to have. Aircraft and shipbuilding were two of our biggest industries. As you probably know the Titanic was built in Belfast (It was ok when it left here sorr!)