Immersion Heater - Smart timer??

domdias

Hello,

I have an old flat with an electric boiler/immersion heater for hot water. At present it has a simple clock/mechanical timer that clicks on and off according to the pre-set time. This 24 hour timer is the same everyday. It’s very simple and easy to wire, but very inefficient and wastes huge amounts of money when I go away for a couple of days and forget to turn it off.

I could replace this with a digital timer that lets me set a 7 day cycle, but I’m after even more flexibility.

Does anyone know of a very basic timer that can be controlled by Wi-fi/an App?

Thanks

D

molerat

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Timeguard-Controlled-Timeswitch-Socket-FSTWIFI-White/dp/B07228W28L

ASavvyBuyer

molerat wrote: »

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Timeguard-Controlled-Timeswitch-Socket-FSTWIFI-White/dp/B07228W28L

We have one of these, but bought it through ebay at a cheaper price.


It works well, has multiple programmes and you can control it remotely via a smart phone.

AndyPK

1. Remember to turn it off!
2, It's not going to save you £50 of electric in a year.


It might pay itself back over 5 years I guess.
Lagging is likely to be better value for money!

EachPenny

domdias wrote: »

...It’s very simple and easy to wire, but very inefficient and wastes huge amounts of money when I go away for a couple of days and forget to turn it off.

Do you have Economy 7? Does the timer only run the immersion during E7 hours? Is the cylinder lagged?

If you are away from home for only a few days and the cylinder is properly lagged then you won't be wasting 'huge' amounts of money because if you aren't using any hot water it will stay in the cylinger nice and cosy and only need a small amount of electricity to top the heat back up. If that is being done overnight on E7 then the cost won't be astronomic.

If you allow the cylinder to cool down more while you are away for a few days then you'll need to use more electricity to bring it up to temperature when you come home. And if you have E7 and forgot to put the immersion heater on the night before then you will be paying peak rate to reheat the cylinder, or not have any hot water until the day after.

You need to do some maths to see how much it is really costing you to leave it on for a couple of days compared to switching off, and then work out how many years it would take to save you the equivalent cost of fitting a 'smart' timeswitch.

cranford

As above do your sums.
I have an immersion heater on E7 and use 100 units at the night rate a month. I also use about 20 units during the day per month on a 30 min lunch time boost. So I estimate it costs no more than £10 a month for constant hot water. If you are not in as others have said the tank will not be heating up from cold every day and even if it were and you were away for 30 days the cost in my case would be no more than £10.

jk0

Tank will only lose maybe 2kwh per day. If you are away for a month, that would be 60kwh. At 10p, only £6. Is it worth changing the timeswitch for that?


Keep you old mechanical thing IIWY. They seem to last forever, whereas modern ones are always packing up.

Cardew

domdias wrote: »

It’s very simple and easy to wire, but very inefficient and wastes huge amounts of money when I go away for a couple of days and forget to turn it off.

As explained in the posts above, when you are away it is not 'very inefficient' and does not use 'huge amounts of money'. a few pence per day.


Has the immersion heater an on/off switch? If so use that when you are away. If no on/off switch, get one fitted.

badmemory

Lagging, then again more lagging or perhaps lagging may be the answer. Then again checking the times set on the timer may be another answer. But a fancy "how much can we charge you for this" timer obviously priceless.


I do seriously wonder about this sort of "I'm on my way home so turn the heating on" kind of thing. Because if you are so conscious of how much you use then you would turn it off whilst out of the house & would (without one of these) turn it back on on your return. So how can turning it on when you are on your way home possibly save you money?