Am I saving money turning the boiler down?

frogga

In a quest to save money I turned the thermostat on the water heating tank down from 60 to 50. This means that a lot more water is being "run off" to fill the bath et.c and then we are running out of hot water. It then has to heat up a whole tank full again. Would it cost less to put it back on 60 and just add cold to the bath et.c therefore only using 1/2 tank full?

By the way it's no good telling me to have shallower baths ~ it's not me!! Mr Frog is not money saving AT ALL and WONT economise so I have to do it all with out him noticing! I am trying to educate him but it's a lost cause ~ he thinks only boiling the kettle with enough water for what you need , and turning lights off is "way over the top":eek:

Also we have an electric emersion heater just for the water, would it be cheaper to use that to heat the water instead of the boiler?

Going to work now but will have a look at what you all think when I come home xx

ceridwen

Hi

I am no expert - but would think it could actually be costlier to turn your thermostat down from what you say (what with the reheating bit).

Re immersion heater v. boiler - you could try an experiment. Use the immersion heater one day (with everything else electric in the place off apart from your fridge etc) and then do the same the next day with using the boiler instead (ditto) and check the number of units used both ways by seeing the reading on your electric meter before and after waterheating.

patchwork_cat

Hi
I have had this thought, too. I haven't actually turned it down, but sometimes even on 60 we run out of water and I thought that if I turned it down we would run out even faster.

If we have more than 3 showers in the morning the 4 th runs out of water, unless I have the timer on then.

Mind my son is 14 and has epic showers! I bang on the door, but the message isn't getting through!

Pink.

Hi frogga,

This is a great thread for the fuel and other heating board so I've moved it over there so that you can get some more replies.

Pink

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: A good source of advice is the National Energy Foundation...
http://www.nef.org.uk/actonCO2/energymyths.htm

In regard to your HW cylinder, the thermostat should be set at a minimum of 60 deg C to prevent legionella bacteria from developing in your hot water. http://www.iphe.org.uk/databyte/legionella.pdf

HTH

Canucklehead

frogga

Thanks for that , I'll change it back!!

owned_by_2_Siamese

Now I'm worried ! After many weeks of tinkering - we set the cylinder thermostat to between 45 & 50 degrees - hot enough for baths and showers and washing up without scalding - on the basis that every degree we heat the water by uses more energy - but I never thought of the legionnaires problem! We have a mainsflow system so the water we use passes through the stored tank in a coil to heat up - rather than stored (the stored water just gets circulated and re-heated - never used). Only thought I had - remembering that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing(!) the cylinderstat is near the base of the tank, if the water at the base of the tank is 45 degrees isn't the top hotter ? if I recall the hot water rises - so could it be that f the bttom of the tank is 45 the top part could well be hotter ? Or am I on a different planet !!!! (some would say yes without any prompting!)

basil01_2

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Hi
I have had this thought, too. I haven't actually turned it down, but sometimes even on 60 we run out of water and I thought that if I turned it down we would run out even faster.

If we have more than 3 showers in the morning the 4 th runs out of water, unless I have the timer on then.

Mind my son is 14 and has epic showers! I bang on the door, but the message isn't getting through!

Hi Patchwork
Have you tried sending him in for the shower last (i.e. the shower no 4)? Once the water goes cold he'll be out quite quick I'd think!
Basil;)