Hot water when living alone

Daisy_Dumpling

Hi.

A few weeks ago I asked a question about vented hot water cylinders as we'd been recommended to fit one. Then a friend asked why I need a tank of water heated when I live alone for most of the week. My husband works away and is only at home for the weekends and we use the shower mostly anyway which heats its own water.

I thought this a very sensible question.

So. Bearing in mind I'm mostly alone with just two of us at a weekend (no children), would a combo boiler be the sensible option rather than a condensing heat only boiler and a vented cylinder?

Many thanks

Daisy

Cardew

The heat loss from a well insulated hot water tank is very low. It is measured to a British Standard(often marked on the tank) and is a loss of typically between 1kWh and 2 kWh every 24 hours when the water is at a constant 65C.


So using gas between 5p and 10p a day. However in practice if you have water on timed heating the tank isn't at 65C for 24/7; so the losses are likely to be well below 5p to 10p a day.


In any case the heat that is lost from the tank isn't really lost as it warms the fabric of the house - which is why most HW tanks are in airing cupboards.


In some cases Combi boilers can be more expensive to run, depending on pipe runs etc.


There is absolutely no way that spending a couple of thousand pounds or more to fit a Combi can be justified in money saving terms.