Boiler Hot Water Timer - How long is yours on for?

wordsearch

Our new flat has a gas boiler with timer settings for both the heating and the hot water. Obviously the heating is off completely! But I'm not entirely sure what to do about the hot water one.

Last time I had something like this was five years ago. And that house was ancient, so the hot water needed to be on pretty consistently.

Right now I've got it for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening - just wondering what other people do and how well it works for them?

Mr.Generous

Same for me, an hour twice a day but I flick it off after about 30 - 40 minutes if I'm about and its hot enough after that. Its an old timer and an hour is the least I can set it for until I can be bothered changing it.

gonebust

When do you need hot water? No point having it on in the morning if you all shower/bath in the evening

Most of our hot water is used after 5pm so ours comes on then for an hour. We have a dishwasher so other then showering, we don't really need hot hot water. If I need hotter then what's left in the tank, I boil a kettle

If we have guests, I just change the times to suit

JJ_Egan

Zero hours unless required .

Cardew

On timing of the water heater, I think people need to get potential savings in perspective.

If you have a modern well insulated(foam) tank the heat losses are surprisingly low. These are tested to a British Standard and the results are usually stamped on the tank(albeit often cannot be seen!). A typical loss over 24 hours is 1kWh to 1.5kWh with the water at 65C. My 180litre tank loses 1.3kWh a day.

Now in practice I doubt if many people keep a full tank at 65C, and it would be very difficult(and inconvenient) to time the heating so all hot water was used every day; in practice there will usually be some warm water in the tank - and hence heat loss.

The difference for myself in keeping the water 24/7 at, say, 50C and trying to guess hot water requirements would be impossible to calculate accurately, but I estimate it is less than 0.5kWh a day.

It is also pertinent to point out that for much of the year that 'heat loss' goes to heat the fabric of the house.

I am NOT advocating that the water heating should be left on 24/7, but as said above savings, for the most careful juggling with boiler timings, are not great.

AndyPK

3 hours in the evening

KTF

We normally have showers around 8 so the hot water is timed to come on between 0700 - 0800.

In reality it normally clicks off at 0730 as the tank is up to temperature by then anyway.

After that it lasts for the rest of the day.

Bigphil1474

We have ours on at 4:30am for 1 hour - I like a nice hot bath on a morning before work - and then on again at 5pm - 6pm. We have an electric shower though so the hot water on an evening is mainly for washing up.

reeac

Cardew wrote: »

On timing of the water heater, I think people need to get potential savings in perspective.

If you have a modern well insulated(foam) tank the heat losses are surprisingly low. These are tested to a British Standard and the results are usually stamped on the tank(albeit often cannot be seen!). A typical loss over 24 hours is 1kWh to 1.5kWh with the water at 65C. My 180litre tank loses 1.3kWh a day.

Now in practice I doubt if many people keep a full tank at 65C, and it would be very difficult(and inconvenient) to time the heating so all hot water was used every day; in practice there will usually be some warm water in the tank - and hence heat loss.

The difference for myself in keeping the water 24/7 at, say, 50C and trying to guess hot water requirements would be impossible to calculate accurately, but I estimate it is less than 0.5kWh a day.

It is also pertinent to point out that for much of the year that 'heat loss' goes to heat the fabric of the house.

I am NOT advocating that the water heating should be left on 24/7, but as said above savings, for the most careful juggling with boiler timings, are not great.

Nice to see a sense of perspective on energy matters. Some years ago I attended a series of meetings on sustainability issues and frequently people spent ages agonising over trivial effects such as the difference between a metric and an Imperial ton or the prevalence of Tesco plastic bags but then swanned off on long haul holidays to Cuba and Australia.

DUTR

reeac wrote: »

Nice to see a sense of perspective on energy matters. Some years ago I attended a series of meetings on sustainability issues and frequently people spent ages agonising over trivial effects such as the difference between a metric and an Imperial ton or the prevalence of Tesco plastic bags but then swanned off on long haul holidays to Cuba and Australia.

Well ya save money to spend elsewhere, as for the OP's question, mine is on every other day for an hour or less, and I have an old >25yrs old, gravity vented heating system and the cylinder has a seperate jacket on it.

Cardew

reeac wrote: »

Nice to see a sense of perspective on energy matters.

I get the impression some people think that having the hot water on for one hour a day costs one tenth of having it on for 10 hours a day.

It is the same as standby consumption for TVs etc, some people think that switching them off at the mains is a huge contributor to electricity savings.