Hot water tank not keeping heat

Bendy_House

ForestBluebells said:

The time it’s set to is correct so I’m not sure why it doesn’t seem to work when it was fine all day heated at 5/6am ish

Are these three wee pegs pushed out far enough to engage?

Anyhoo, what can we say with fair certainly?

1) I doubt very much it's a lack of insulation. These tanks are superbly insulated as they are. Also, you have explained to us that, previously, you could have a hot shower 1 hour after the heating period (I should bludy well think so too...), but also another one 'later in the day'. Clearly, if a half-used tank manages to remain adequately hot for a half-day (or whatevs), then it isn't losing heat between 4am (end of new heating time) and the morning. It just isn't.

2) So it must be something else

3) You have tried a 15-minute 'boost' during the day, and that heated the water just fine. So, assuming that the 'boost' immersion heater element is the same as the 'economy heating' one - is it? - then we can assume the element is working just fine too.

What does that leave as the most likely cause? I guess it's that the element just isn't being turned on properly overnight, and for the required 45 minutes.

One immersion element or two?

ForestBluebells

ComicGeek said:

The immersion will turn off automatically when the storage temperature is achieved, so I would personally set it to run for 1.5-2 hrs, and just leave it to sort itself out - you won't lose much heat from the cylinder during the day, so good to make sure it's fully heated during the cheaper elec period.

I was worried it wouldn’t be setup to do that as everything is a bit shoddy in this home as the guy did everything himself who built it, he was a builder but there’s some weird choices here 😂. I’ll do an experiment tomorrow and see how much electric it used roughly having it on for longer

ForestBluebells

Bendy_House said:

ForestBluebells said:

The time it’s set to is correct so I’m not sure why it doesn’t seem to work when it was fine all day heated at 5/6am ish

Are these three wee pegs pushed out far enough to engage?

Anyhoo, what can we say with fair certainly?

1) I doubt very much it's a lack of insulation. These tanks are superbly insulated as they are. Also, you have explained to us that, previously, you could have a hot shower 1 hour after the heating period (I should bludy well think so too...), but also another one 'later in the day'. Clearly, if a half-used tank manages to remain adequately hot for a half-day (or whatevs), then it isn't losing heat between 4am (end of new heating time) and the morning. It just isn't.

2) So it must be something else

3) You have tried a 15-minute 'boost' during the day, and that heated the water just fine. So, assuming that the 'boost' immersion heater element is the same as the 'economy heating' one - is it? - then we can assume the element is working just fine too.

What does that leave as the most likely cause? I guess it's that the element just isn't being turned on properly overnight, and for the required 45 minutes.

One immersion element or two?

The 15 minute boost is me just pressing one of those buttons down in the day and then turning it off afterwards. I don’t think it has a separate boost button. 

Maybe the buttons are sticky at the period I’m trying to use it, it feels like they are fully engaged though. Definitely odd how previously heating for the same amount of time but just 2 hours later in the morning seemed fine and now it’s barely warm, yet a small 15 minute heating period just before a shower created lots of hot water.

Confusing!

Bendy_House

ForestBluebells said:

The 15 minute boost is me just pressing one of those buttons down in the day and then turning it off afterwards. I don’t think it has a separate boost button. 

Maybe the buttons are sticky at the period I’m trying to use it, it feels like they are fully engaged though. Definitely odd how previously heating for the same amount of time but just 2 hours later in the morning seemed fine and now it’s barely warm, yet a small 15 minute heating period just before a shower created lots of hot water.

Confusing!

So the 'boost' was via that same timer clock? In which case, it's obviously the same element that's being used too. Ergo - the actual heating element appears to be fine.

Yes, it's confusing, but I'm still drawn to the issue being that you are not getting the whole 45 minutes of heating-up in the early hours.

How does the economy timing work? Does the system switch from one meter to another at 4.30 in the morning? I mean, how would it 'know' that you were still trying to use 'economy' at, say, 5am?!

Could you show us a photo of the whole caboodle?

And there are no red neon indicator lights anywhere? It would be useful to have one to show when 'eco' is providing.

ForestBluebells

The economy timing is weird. I have a normal economy 7 smart meter which switches to the night meter for 7 hours overnight Summer 12.30-7.30 and Winter 11.30-6.30 however I’m on octopus go so my cheap electric is based on my smart meter sending half hourly readings to them and it’s only cheap between 12.30-4.30am, the night meter is irrelevant to cheap times but does switch on /off my storage heaters so some of the time they charge at peak prices… it still works out cheaper this way as the tariff is incredible value compared to anything on the market. 

There’s no red light it’s pretty basic setup 

theoretica

If you shower two hours earlier as an experiment is it hot?  That would confirm if it is a timing issue or a starting with colder water issue.  I need to change my boiler setting about this time of year because of the weather.

ForestBluebells

theoretica said:

If you shower two hours earlier as an experiment is it hot?  That would confirm if it is a timing issue or a starting with colder water issue.  I need to change my boiler setting about this time of year because of the weather.

Next time I get up 3-4am to pee I’ll check 😂

NSG666

As Bendy has said those pegs on the timer don't look to be pulled out fully. If the problem has started the day (or 2) after you altered the on/off times then it's more likely to be something that you have done (or not done). If it developed a few weeks later then a fault has occurred.

It's only got one element so if the 'boost' worked then the element if good.

ForestBluebells

NSG666 said:

As Bendy has said those pegs on the timer don't look to be pulled out fully. If the problem has started the day (or 2) after you altered the on/off times then it's more likely to be something that you have done (or not done). If it developed a few weeks later then a fault has occurred.

It's only got one element so if the 'boost' worked then the element if good.

I can try doing it at different times too incase those pegs for 3.15-4am are not working properly 

neilmcl

ForestBluebells said:

The economy timing is weird. I have a normal economy 7 smart meter which switches to the night meter for 7 hours overnight Summer 12.30-7.30 and Winter 11.30-6.30 however I’m on octopus go so my cheap electric is based on my smart meter sending half hourly readings to them and it’s only cheap between 12.30-4.30am, the night meter is irrelevant to cheap times but does switch on /off my storage heaters so some of the time they charge at peak prices… it still works out cheaper this way as the tariff is incredible value compared to anything on the market. 

There’s no red light it’s pretty basic setup 

That's because the Octopus Go tariff offers cheaper electricity than the standard Economy 7 tariff. They reckon it's 50% cheaper.