Economy 7, hot water cylinder, on/off?

Bella56

Hello,
Has anyone in a flat ever tried turning their hot water cylinder off during the day, and just heating it at night (during Economy 7 cheaper times)? Not sure if it is a good idea or not, and DH thinks it will take more energy to heat up cooled water, instead of keeping it hot all the time. Our hot water cylinder doesn't have any kind of timer.
Bella

HappyMJ

That's the way it should be done. It's much cheaper heating a cylinder using cheap night rates whether it's cold, luke warm or hot.

Day rates have a premium attached to it so it's much more expensive.

If you would like to have the hot water on 24/7 then you must change your electric tariff to a 24/7 tariff too. It's not that much more expensive and the rate is cheaper overall. However, you might want to check your heating would be compatible.

Bella56

Thanks, Happy. Will give it a try and see if the bills go down! Just embarrassed I'd never thought if this before, just assumed hot water cylinders had to be on all the time as there are no dials/timers.

Game_Over

Bella56 wrote: »

Hello,
Has anyone in a flat ever tried turning their hot water cylinder off during the day, and just heating it at night (during Economy 7 cheaper times)? Not sure if it is a good idea or not, and DH thinks it will take more energy to heat up cooled water, instead of keeping it hot all the time. Our hot water cylinder doesn't have any kind of timer.
Bella

Yes, DH is absolutely right, listen to him!

Heaters always use more energy when turned off, and especially when that energy is at 2-3 times the cost of off-peak electricity.

Leave it on :cool:

Cardew

Bella56 wrote: »

Hello,
Has anyone in a flat ever tried turning their hot water cylinder off during the day, and just heating it at night (during Economy 7 cheaper times)? Not sure if it is a good idea or not, and DH thinks it will take more energy to heat up cooled water, instead of keeping it hot all the time. Our hot water cylinder doesn't have any kind of timer.
Bella

DH is completely wrong! he should read(and understand) the laws of thermodynamics!


If he was correct, then you should keep your kettle boiling all day and not let it get cold because ''it will take more energy to heat up cooled water, instead of keeping it hot all the time'


If you were to go away for, say, 2 years, would you leave the hot water cylinder on all the time because 'it will take more energy to heat up cooled water, instead of keeping it hot all the time'?

How about 1 year? 6 months? 1 month? 1 week? 1 day? 1 hour?


At what point does he feel the laws of physics cease to apply?


The longer the heater is off,the lower the amount of electricity consumed.

Bella56

The only problem being, we'll have to switch the switch on before bed - which will be around 22:30 - so it will start heating the water before the cheap hours. But, I guess it will still be saving us money during most of the day.

Bella56

Ohhh, just noticed there are 2 switches in the kitchen for the water heater - one has a red light, one doesn't - I guess one of them is for night hours?

ETA: on the storage heater, the switch with the red light is for day energy on Ec. 7, so based on that we've turned off the red switch in the kitchen - with a bit of luck, its day energy and we'll have cheap, piping hot water tomorrow morning!

Thanks everyone!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

why not get a timer fitted and set it to come on an hour or so before you get up in the morning, still on cheap rate.

macman

It's not a big investment, given that E7 cheap rate is about a third of the cost of peak rate.

Bella56

Thanks everyone. Will look into a timer - seems a waste to keep the water hot all night, if it only takes an hour to fully heat.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

will depend how well your tank is insulated, and how much heat is retained from previous day.

you can always adjust the time setting or give it a boost if needed.