Hot water systems

mrsyardbroom

We are currently heating a whole copper tank of water day and night with an immersion heater. I think it must be cheaper to get rid of the tank and the overhead cold water tank and just use instant water heaters. Where do we start? Does anyone else use instant heaters or any other system that would be cheaper? I should explain that our shower is used a lot more than the bath and the washng machine can heat the water itself.

Davesnave

Instant water heating isn't great if you live in a hard water area, unless you also invest in a water softener, which will not be free to run either.

Do you really heat the whole tank? I don't; I heat the top bit with a short immersion and (usually!:o) remember to turn it off, but it could run from a timer.

Others will want to know, "Do you have gas?"

lstar337

mrsyardbroom wrote: »

We are currently heating a whole copper tank of water day and night with an immersion heater. I think it must be cheaper to get rid of the tank and the overhead cold water tank and just use instant water heaters. Where do we start? Does anyone else use instant heaters or any other system that would be cheaper? I should explain that our shower is used a lot more than the bath and the washng machine can heat the water itself.

You don't need to heat the tank day and night, just an hour or so per day. If it is insulated well it will not lose much of its heat and will not require much to bring it up to temp the next morning.

If it is not insulated well then fix that problem!

Instant water heaters are not very good, will need their own wiring if you want any kind of flow rate other than a dribble, and will need to be put everywhere there is a hot tap.

I would stick with the tank if I were you.

mrsyardbroom

We don't have gas. The other consderaton is that we have a small cottage and we'd have a bit more room if we got rid of the hot water tank.