Hot Water ... or rather lack of it!

Rodders53

It takes 75 min to heat up the 70 litre tank you have... via the 3 kW immersion heater = 3.75 kWh of energy. It also loses 0.91 kWh of heat per day (about 18 min @ 3 kW input per day). (From the makers' installation manual).

The immersion heater and thermostat will be behind a panel at the bottom of the cylinder.

So being ON for only 30 min a day is never going to be enough to give you sufficient hot water. :rtfm: https://www.heatraesadia.com/information/literature-library will get you the manuals etc.,. to read.

Set the immersion timer to be on for 1-1.5 hours before you typically shower and remain on for another 30 mins. That should be sufficient for 24 hours of water use by one person. But it needs a bit of a suck it and see experimentation to get things right for you! You should aim to use cheaper night rate electricity by appropriate timing, of course, if possible.

Once up to the set temperature the immersion cuts out and then cycles on/off to maintain the set temperature as heat is lost. (Use the lost heat to 'air' your washing and keep towels dry/warm).

You can check the HW temperature by running a hot tap and using any thermometer capable of reading 40 to 70 C approx dipped into a cup of that water.

I doubt installing oil-fired (nor propane gas) heating would be worthwhile (cost vs payback time), whether a combi style or system with stored hot water. But do investigate prices for installation if you want to.

Sambo84

I didn't have economy 7 when I moved in it was a weird tariff that had a day/night rate but I couldn't change tariff or supplier. Eventually I changed the meter to an economy 7 one and changed supplier and I've saved a fortune. I'm only paying £24 a month at the moment for all heating, lighting, cooking etc as everything on electric. That will probably go up to £35 a month eventually. My original tariff only had my storage heaters on the night metre and no matter what else I used at night it didn't count as night usage so I got billed the day rate for it. Now I do have economy 7 I don't know if everything is set up correctly for it, I think it's just an immersion heater in the water tank. I'll try heating it for longer though and check the temperature settings. If I can get this tank to work properly it will save me a fortune as I'm soon to replace my bathroom and if I can keep this tank it will be much better.

No wonder I've been having only luke warm showers since I moved in ��

macman

'the heaters come on by radio or something': I think the OP is referring to a teleswitch on the E7 meter, which is operated by the BBC Longwave signal.

ForestBluebells

That's it the teleswitch which changes time to the night heaters by. Radio.

ForestBluebells

I had a look and it doesn't seem to have a temperature setting anywhere that I can see? It has a cable going in near the bottom coming from the clock timer where I push down 15 min time slots to turn it on and that's it. There's a grey cover near the bottom but it says not to take that off unless the power is off?

Heedtheadvice

Correct. The thermostat to an immersion heater is usually the rod type that slides into the centre of the heater and is accessible under the cover.
Switch the power off and then check under the cover. Beware that contacts can then often be touched so it is essential that you can confirm the power actually is off!