Water Heater Removal/Replacement With Small Water Heater

honeywes

I have recently moved to an all electric flat.  It has a water heater but the bath has been replaced with an electric shower.  Therefore I only need to heat enough water on a daily basis for washing dishes, cleaning up etc.  I have been leaving the water heater on all the time and consequently now have a hefty bill!!  I have now turned it off!! It doesn't seem to have a timer or thermostat and is a  What are my options - can I have it removed and replaced with a small water heater which would just heat enough water for my daily needs? My previous property had both gas and electric and the water was heated by a combi boiler so no water heater was involved.  The label on the heater says 'Elson Opal , Economy 7, Direct Electric Hot Water Tank, 120 litres.  What are my options please?

cx6

for washing up, cleaning up etc boil a kettle that is the cheapest way.

MakingUpGround

We've got an immersion heater only too at the moment, I'm waiting for a timer to be fitted. Can get one for £20 but the one i want is more as it's simpler to use and has a boost button. At the moment I've brought a cheaper timer clock from tesco for £2.40 I've stuck on the wall and set it every time we turn the immersion on. We find 45mins is enough to heat the tank once a day 

Gerry1

What is your room heating?  If you have Night Storage Heaters you should be on Economy 7 and your immersion heater should only be operational on the overnight E7 rate.  If there are two immersion heaters, make sure the upper one (possibly marked Boost) is left switched off.

If you're using panel heaters, oil filled radiators, electric fires, fan heater, etc (but not NSHs) your bills will be astronomical.  If so, at least make sure you're on single rate.  Simplest thing then would be a local timer that you can program the immersion heater to come on for an hour or two, with the facility to boost it by an hour if you run out of hot water or have been away.

cx6

if you have a separate electric shower, why heat 120 litres of water at all - timer or not ?

Gerry1

cx6 said:

if you have a separate electric shower, why heat 120 litres of water at all - timer or not ?

Because it costs a fortune if the instantaneous electric shower is using E7 peak rate.

QrizB

honeywes said:

What are my options please?

Can we have a bit more info please?

• Do you own your flat, or rent?
• How do you heat your flat?
• Do you have an Economy 7 electricity tariff, or single-rate, or something else?

Gerry1 said:

Because it costs a fortune if the instantaneous electric shower is using E7 peak rate.

OP there are some calculations for the energy cost of showers in this thread.

A five-minute instantaneous electric shower takes around 0.75kWh:

• Typical E7 night rate @ 20p/kWh - 15p
• Single rate @ 28p/kWh - 21p
• Typical E7 day rate @ 36p/kWh - 27p
  

Shedman

Using the shower and filling a washing up bowl with enough hot water (say 3-5 litres) would only have the shower on for less than 1 minute so 5p or so.  

However a 1.7 litre kettle's worth would probably be enough (as water would be at 100° rather than probably 55° for shower) and more convenient and a 3kw kettle would probably take about 3 mins to boil so would again be around 5p at the peak E7 rate. 

That's what my stepdaughter does in her all electric flat and doesn't use the immersion heater at all (although she has been warned about making sure water temp is set high enough to avoid legionella should she ever use it but given electricity prices that's highly unlikely)

Ultrasonic

Shedman said:

Using the shower and filling a washing up bowl with enough hot water (say 3-5 litres) would only have the shower on for less than 1 minute so 5p or so.  

However a 1.7 litre kettle's worth would probably be enough (as water would be at 100° rather than probably 55° for shower) and more convenient and a 3kw kettle would probably take about 3 mins to boil so would again be around 5p at the peak E7 rate. 

That's what my stepdaughter does in her all electric flat and doesn't use the immersion heater at all (although she has been warned about making sure water temp is set high enough to avoid legionella should she ever use it but given electricity prices that's highly unlikely)

Not sure what that last bit meant? I don't think legionella will modify their behaviour based on electricity prices...

I would definitely use a kettle over a shower to fill a washing up bowl myself.  

Shedman

Ultrasonic said:

Shedman said:

Using the shower and filling a washing up bowl with enough hot water (say 3-5 litres) would only have the shower on for less than 1 minute so 5p or so.  

However a 1.7 litre kettle's worth would probably be enough (as water would be at 100° rather than probably 55° for shower) and more convenient and a 3kw kettle would probably take about 3 mins to boil so would again be around 5p at the peak E7 rate. 

That's what my stepdaughter does in her all electric flat and doesn't use the immersion heater at all (although she has been warned about making sure water temp is set high enough to avoid legionella should she ever use it but given electricity prices that's highly unlikely)

Not sure what that last bit meant? I don't think legionella will modify their behaviour based on electricity prices...

I would definitely use a kettle over a shower to fill a washing up bowl myself.  

Yeah maybe a bit unclear.  Last bit just meant that if you leave the hot water cylinder tank unused for a long period it is advisable (as far as I was aware) to make sure water is heated to around 60° for a reasonable period (and to run taps for a while) in order to kill of and clear any legionella bugs, but that in her case I just don't think she'll be ever use the hot water cylinder anyway as it costs too much to heat up so not an issue for her.  Just thought it best to raise awareness of potential legionella issues.