Immersion tank

Danielle78

Hi I’m just wondering if anyone has the same tank to see if it’s wired up correctly, the e7 wire is going to the top and the boost is going to the bottom is that right? My jan electric bill was £300 for a tiny 2 bed house 😱

Danielle78

This is the tank 

neilmcl

Essentially you have two immersion heaters, the one at the top will just heat the top half of the tanks whereas the one at the bottom will heat the whole tank. How they're used will depend on what controls them. Also, do you actually have an Economy 7 tariff?

Danielle78

Yes economy 7 but the e7 switch goes to the top of the tank so when it’s on it constantly boils so thinking that should go to the bottom to heat the whole tank? 

coffeehound

Even though it is going to the top rather than the bottom heater, it shouldn't be boiling the water.  This means that the thermostat (located behind the round cover) needs to be turned down.

neilmcl

Danielle78 said:

Yes economy 7 but the e7 switch goes to the top of the tank so when it’s on it constantly boils so thinking that should go to the bottom to heat the whole tank? 

Yes, but what's actually switching them on. DO you have a timer/control or are you doing it manually?

Jeepers_Creepers

Danielle, if it's as you describe, then it's wrong - as you suspect.

The cheap leccy from the E7 should be used to heat the whole tank - ie the lower immersion. Hopefully that'll last you the day.

But if you need a 'boost' before then - ie a quick bit of extra hot water - you fire up the top element for, say, 20 minutes to give you just that - a smaller amount of hot water.

George_Michael

If they are connected up wrongly, it will be a 5 minute job for someone who is competent with household electrics to switch the cables over and turn down the thermostat a bit.

twopenny

How old is the tank?

I've just had to have mine replaced and it was found the wiring was poor. The electrician said this was a regular occurance due to time with older installations. I had the same problem once the heating was flushed and working. I could hear the water in the tank boiling so I ran off the very hot water letting cold into the tank and that kept it fine for a while till it could be fixed.

New tank and clean wiring and all is working well - so far

Belenus

Danielle78, who fitted the immersion cables?

Did you arrange to have that done or did you inherit them with a new property?

If the former then you need to have words as they have cost you money by getting the wiring the wrong way around.

Also, as far as I am aware, those cables should be heat resistant 16 amp cables. Are they or are they standard cables?  I can't tell from the photographs.

PS: Welcome to the forum.

southcoastrgi

Eco7 is designed to give you cheaper rate electric through the night so during the day one should have power & none to the other one, so you need to find out which one has power during the day