Advice needed on first Water Boiler

DanielRB7

Hi Everyone!

Just joined the forum today and as I am not familiar at all with boilers, I could use some help for some savings:

I have a water boiler, the model being: Kingspan Flomaster CUD1205 and it is on at all time.

I would like to know if i can turn it off during the day as i mostly use it at evening.
And could it be turned off when i go on holidays. If so, would I just need to click on the switch as in the attached picture saying, "Main Water Heater".

Is there also a possibility to reduce the heating temperature? Or it does not apply to this model.

Basically, if i understand correct, this is a boiler that store the water, so I am assuming I can leave the switch off the whole day and put it on 30min a day to get the new cold water warmed up
Here is attached a picture of my boiler as well.

Thank you very much !

Alter_ego

Bit misleading to call that a boiler. It's a hot water tank with 2 immersion heaters.  Do you also have a boiler? The top immersion heater will heat the water above it, the lower will heat the whole tank

neilmcl

It's a hot water cylinder, not a boiler, and yes you can switch it off when not in use. Do you not have a timer somewhere?

nofoollikeold

1. Its not a boiler, its an unvented direct hot water cylinder.
2. It has two electric immersion heaters.
3. If you are lucky, the lower one is connected to an Economy 7 (or similar) electricity meter.  This meter only supplies electricity at night, at a cheaper rate.  Leave it on all the time (but see below re. a timer).  This immersion will heat the whole tank of hot water, which is often enough to last the whole day, sometimes longer.  These cylinders are very well insulated.
4. If you are not lucky, the lower heater is connected to "normal" rate electricity.  However, it will have a thermostat inside it, so that when it reaches a pre-determined temperature it will switch off.  If the temperature of the water then drops it will turn on again briefly.  If you rarely use the whole tank of water, you could consider getting a timer installed on this heater.
5. The top heater is connected to normal rate electricity.  It's purpose is to provide a boost heating of the top one third of the tank in the event you run out of hot water.
6. I would expect the lower element to take 2 to 4 hours to heat the whole tank, and the upper one at least an hour to heat the top one third.  
7. If you are going to be away for any length of time, you might as well switch both elements off, but you will have a wait of at least an hour on return to get hot water.  

Le_Kirk

Is there also a possibility to reduce the heating temperature? Or it does not apply to this model.

If you turn off the electricity (at the mains) and then remove the two chrome screws on the black cap, the cap(s) will pull off and you will be able to adjust the temperature setting with a screwdriver.  Be careful not to take it too low else you will encourage legionella.

southcoastrgi

This part isn't installed correctly 

neilmcl

southcoastrgi said:

This part isn't installed correctly 

I'm sure it would be helpful to the OP and others if you gave a bit more detail than that.

nofoollikeold

The fitting with the red plastic knob joined to the cylinder is the Temperature and Pressure Relief Valve (TPRV)
There is then a short piece of pipe (called the D1 pipe) to the black plastic tun dish.  The tun dish has open sides to enable any water flowing through it to be seen. It should have no water flowing through it.  
Below the tun dish is another piece of pipe, known as the D2 pipe.
The D2 pipe:
1. Should be one size larger than the D1 pipe.  It looks to be the same size.
2. Should drop vertically for at least 300 mm before any bend or elbow.  This is to ensure that, in the event of the TPRV releasing water, the water has a clear run and doesn't spurt back out of the open sides of the tun dish.  From your photograph, there is clearly no 300 mm drop to the first elbow / bend.

neilmcl

nofoollikeold said:

The fitting with the red plastic knob joined to the cylinder is the Temperature and Pressure Relief Valve (TPRV)
There is then a short piece of pipe (called the D1 pipe) to the black plastic tun dish.  The tun dish has open sides to enable any water flowing through it to be seen. It should have no water flowing through it.  
Below the tun dish is another piece of pipe, known as the D2 pipe.
The D2 pipe:
1. Should be one size larger than the D1 pipe.  It looks to be the same size.
2. Should drop vertically for at least 300 mm before any bend or elbow.  This is to ensure that, in the event of the TPRV releasing water, the water has a clear run and doesn't spurt back out of the open sides of the tun dish.  From your photograph, there is clearly no 300 mm drop to the first elbow / bend.

Thanks for the explanation, although to me it looks like the D2 is indeed a larger diameter.