Electric Water Tank - Timer Help!

michaelsft

Hi all, I have just moved into a new flat that is all electric and the shower and taps rely on a water tank that I need to set for hot water.

I think I've got the hand of the timer but I would love a little guidance. It's just me in the flat though I often have guests and I'd hate to have no hot water for showers ever. Below is an image of the tank and the timer.

Anyway, I've set it to manual boost and then set the timer for early in the morning before I wake up for two hours each day, then if I need more hot water I can hit the boost button and wait an hour. My main question is, looking at the images, is two hours between 5am and 7am enough time to heat the water? I've never used one of these before so I don't know what's appropriate. The default time setting is for five hours but that seems excessive. There are three times to set but I left the others as their default (on and off at the same time so effectively turned off) - the difference between this and the timed boost... I'm not sure though I guess it's easier to set the timed boost on the fly for one offs?

A final point, I have a (poor) manual that espouses how good this is is for economy 7 tariffs but in this building all the meters are standard. Seems a weird choice happened somewhere!

Thanks for reading, hope someone can help!
Michael

michaelsft

Thanks but like I said, I'm not on eco7, my meter is just a standard one so I'm on a regular rate all the time. I'm trying to figure out if 2 hours between 5 and 7am will be sufficient to provide a hot shower or 2/3 if I have guests in the morning from 8 or 9am onwards.

southcoastrgi

Look at this, they recommend they are left on all the time.

https://www.telford-group.com/clear_downloads/1499678427-756079.pdf

tonyh66

once the full tank is hot, the thermostat should switch the heat off so 2 or 3 hours in the morning should be enough.

Owain_Moneysaver

The point of that (it's a thermal store not a hot water cylinder) is that you can have mains pressure hot water without having an unvented cylinder under pressure, so you don't need discharge pipe to the outside which is a problem in many flats.

The electrics look odd to me though.

coffeehound

Worth noting that the manual boost heater is the upper element which doesn’t heat the whole tank volume. The timed heater is the lower element which does heat the full tank volume. Therefore the boost heater might be ideal for when it is just yourself, but the timed heater would give more stored heat capacity for multiple showers etc.

J_B

michaelsft wrote: »

I'm not on eco7, my meter is just a standard one so I'm on a regular rate all the time.

Maybe you ought to get E7

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

The point of that (it's a thermal store not a hot water cylinder) is that you can have mains pressure hot water without having an unvented cylinder under pressure, so you don't need discharge pipe to the outside which is a problem in many flats.

Can you explain the difference please?

markin

.............

thorganby

As already explained it is not a conventional hot water cylinder where you heat up some water and then use that heated water until it runs out.

The water in the tank is maintained at the correct temperature by thermostats, so that mains pressure cold water supplied to the property is heated up as it passes though a heat exchanger in this heat store.

Developers fit these without much thought about running costs but the manufacturers do state that they are for use with low tariff supplies:



When the store is up to temperature, the immersion heater should only need to come on for a short periods to get the store back up to it normal operating temperature and the heat loss should be low in a well insulated tank although they do not seem to quote heat loss figures.

"Telford Copper Cylinders do not recommend fitting timer controls to thermal stores, stats will control water heaters. All units are fitted with a factory set thermostatic mixing valve set at 51C"

Try using as it is designed to be used on 24/7 and see how much electricity is actually used over a week and switch to the cheapest tariff that you can find.

As well as learning how to use this water heater, I suggest that you learn how to configure your XR so that you don't reveal your address!

michaelsft

thorganby wrote: »

As well as learning how to use this water heater, I suggest that you learn how to configure your XR so that you don't reveal your address!

Umm... did you download the image and check the latitude/longitude figures in the metadata?

markin

That location puts me in the middle of the sea...