Water heater in apartment question

JJB51

Hello,

Just moved into an apartment and a little confused how to best use the water heater. Currently we just put on for a few hours a day. Never seem to have any problems with hot water running out.

It's a 170l tank and is mainly used for bath/showers and washing up etc for 2 people.

So should we leave it on constantly or less than we currently do? Does it make much difference? The heating is via electric heaters so not needed for those.

Thanks in advance!!

ILuvEbico

Jbennett51 wrote: »

Hello,

Just moved into an apartment and a little confused how to best use the water heater. Currently we just put on for a few hours a day. Never seem to have any problems with hot water running out.

It's a 170l tank and is mainly used for bath/showers and washing up etc for 2 people.

So should we leave it on constantly or less than we currently do? Does it make much difference? The heating is via electric heaters so not needed for those.

Thanks in advance!!

The water heater is just a big version of your kettle, so should be used in the same way.

You only heat the water in your kettle when needed, and so the water should be heated likewise.

170l, that's a big tank! Probably designed for use using cheap rate overnight electricity on E7. Heat that up overnight, and it should easily stay warm all day without re-heating. (assuming average usage)

yangptangkipperbang

ILuvEbico wrote: »

The water heater is just a big version of your kettle, so should be used in the same way.
You only heat the water in your kettle when needed, and so the water should be heated likewise.

.......not necessarily. A kettle is a very poor analogy, a hot water storage tank should be extremely well insulated and heat loss from it during the day will not be great, a kettle cools very rapidly. It may be better to leave the immersion on all day or get a timer fitted.

OP -Try both methods for a couple of weeks and see if there is any difference.

matelodave

A high performance hot water cylinder kept at 65 degrees will lose 1.5-2kwh of heat a day (£60-£90 a year at 12p/kwh), even more if the associated pipework isn't insulated as well. An older cylinder with poor insulation will lose considerably more so make sure that it's got decent insulation and only heat it when you need hot water.

If you are on E7 try just turning it on for an hour or two early in the morning during the low rate period (usually midnight to about 7am) and see if you've got enough hot water for your daily use. Ideally have your bath or showers in the mornings rather than in the evenings to save heating the tank during the peak time. Try to avoid having it switched on during the high rate period as that will cost you even more. The cooler you keep the water the lower the heat loss.

Optimising your heating times, so that you've got enough during the day and evening so it's only hand hot when you go to bed will save you money. We get away with heating our 200l tank for an hour a day just before we get up in the morning for our morning ablutions and there's still enough for another shower at bedtime if we want, although it's not everso hot it's warm enough.

Don't waste hot water by letting it run down the sink when washing or rinsing stuff, use a bowl or put the plug-in. Flow restrictors on the shower and taps will save water as can reducing the amount of time you stand in the shower. A 10 minute shower at 10 litres/min will use 100 litres, reducing it to 5 mins will save 50 litres and reducing the flow to 5-7lpm will save another 15-20litres

JJB51

Thank you for all the replies. All very helpful!