Immersion Heater

bobobalde

Hello,

I am looking for a bit of advice as I have read quite a few contradictory items online with regards to immersion heaters.

I have just moved into a new build home which has solar panels - in my previous house I had a combi boiler and an electric shower, in the new house it is a regular boiler (big hot water tank etc) and regular 'mixer' showers.

When we moved in, the immersion was switched on and I have left it that way ever since, my question is should I be doing this? It doesn't appear to have a timer on it and the switch for it is 'hard wired' in the sense that I couldn't put a timer on myself (its not a plug in a socket).
My thoughts have always been that the solar panels are powering it through the day most likely, but I dont want to leave it on if it is a waste of money.

The problem is I have very little knowledge of a heating system, having previously had a combi boiler for 8 years I got used to having hot water on demand. If I turn the Immersion off do I then have to program the hot water to come on via the control panel on my boiler, how long should I have it on for. If I put the central heating on does that have the same effect as putting the hot water on? Should I just leave the immersion on? Reading about, some people say leave the immersion on, others say turn it off, others say have it on a timer. I only need hot water for a morning shower and giving the kids a bath at night.

Thanks.

dogshome

With a gas boiler feeding a hot water tank, leaving an Electric Immersion heater on 24/7 isn't good - It's burning 3Kwh an hour at a cost of, depending on your tariff, of appx 42pence, and even though it has a thermostat which will turn it off when it's hot enough, it will still burn money.

With a regime of a bath a night - ( 2 Kids in the same bath ?) - and one morning shower, that big insulated hot water tank when heated is cabable of supplying both from just being heated once in 24 hours.

Experiment with the tank heating timer set on 'Constant' to see how long it takes to heat the water so that the tank feels warm underneath, then programme the control panel for this amount of time in the afternoon every day

macman

As above, it's insane to heat your hot water by immersion with a gas CH system-the kWh cost will be about a third as much with gas.
The immersion exists to act as a backup should the boiler fail, so switch it off.
How the DHW works in combination with the CH depends on your programmer, but most modern systems work the two independently. You probably need an hour or more in the morning, and possibly a further evening cycle.

bobobalde

Thanks alot for that.