What type of heating system

System

I think that it just reinforces the point that whatever technology you buy - or inherit - you have to do your own research. What works for one person may not work for another. For example, with my 14 year old system boiler and unvented HW tank, my gas consumption has fallen from an average of 350kWh to 250kWh per month by fitting a HW thermostat with a variable temperature range. We use gas for heating and cooking. (the above averages reflect a period when the heating was off)

matelodave

We heat our 200 litre unvented HW tank once a day between 6-7 in the morning to 45 degrees. This give us enough hot water for two showers and all that we need for the rest of the day for other purposes - you can even get a couple of showers out the next day and the second one is more than adequate as the tank temperature is still around 38-39 degrees. This takes about 2kwh/day of electricity via our heatpump.

We increase the on time if we need more hot hotwater than normal, like when we've got guests staying. The system has a one shot boost if we do need more but we very seldom run out of hot water.

The water temperature is automatically boosted every Saturday to 60 degrees and held there for a short time for legionella protection and this costs another 3-4kwh. However, as the tank temperature then stays above 45 degrees it saves the Sunday morning heating cycle and therefore doesn't really cost all that much extra. I guess our hot water costs us less than 20kwh (£2.40) a week.