Help me understand our heating...

pimento

There are two adults in our house and we each have a shower a day and I wash up. I have the hot water on for 40 mins between 5.20am and 6am and that provides enough hot water.

ganderson1804

Hi everyone, thanks for the responses. I feel really unadequately knowledgeable about all this...


I saw a couple of comments last night so went and looked at my hot water tank. From what I can tell it is insulated... but the pipes around it are not. It has a red cylinder box on the top and a white temp control around it. I took a picture - see below... (I hope...)


Also - and this may be a stupid thing to say... my shower, I think, is electric. It is pumped (downstairs) but its a modern shower with a dial for on / off and a temp dial. Does the water tank even feed this?!
http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx23/ganderson1804/photo.jpg

peachyprice

The red thing on the top is the immersion heater, makes sure this is turned off. The small white box on the front is a thermostat that determines the temperature of the water in the tank, the lower the temp the less your boiler will use maintaining hot water. Try turning it down a bit and see if your water is still hot enough for your requirements.

If your shower has a separate pump it will be fed by the cylinder, if it's a sealed unit with it's own on/off switch on the wall or a ceiling pull cord it will be electric.

southcoastrgi

hot water should be stored at a min of 55d, one post above said their h/w is 45-50 this temp is a massive breeding ground for legionella

cyclonebri1

It's a good point and needed saying, but I have some experience in this at industrial level.

It can only occur in near or stagnant water, but it is largely spread in aerosol form, and yes that can happen during showering.
Given the OP's wash regime it will not happen, but a quick zap up to 65c once per week will give reassurance

lstar337

Ganderson1804 wrote: »

Looks ok, but I would put another jacket on it. It'll save you money and a brand new one will only be about £30.

getmore4less

In warm weather go on summer holiday for two weeks and you could have a tank of cold water sitting in the risk temp range.

as above the reality for domestic situation is different to the commercial.

the rec for homes seems to be the weekly high temp zap.

probably worth doing shower heads every few months.

Ectophile

The tank itself looks like a modern foam-insulated one, so it should stay hot all day. It would be a good idea to get some foam pipe lagging from a DIY store, and insulate all the pipes going in and out of the tank to reduce the heat loss even more.

cyclonebri1

:eek:

getmore4less wrote: »

In warm weather go on summer holiday for two weeks and you could have a tank of cold water sitting in the risk temp range.

as above the reality for domestic situation is different to the commercial.

the rec for homes seems to be the weekly high temp zap.

probably worth doing shower heads every few months.

I was the health and safety advisor in the situation I mentioned earlier.
The regime I put in place required the shower head to be sterilized and then operated once per week, not every few months.

But yes, it is a slightly different situation, we didn't know which shower was being but the end result can be the same:eek: