single person use of hot water cylinder- turn it off?

Swipe

Zandoni said:

You need one of these undersink heaters, it will pay for itself in no time. 

From the comments section: This heater requires a professional installation and it is worth noting that no connections or cables are included

Just boil the kettle.

Mstty

Kettle seems best full to the brim 3kwh rated kettle taking 5 mins to boil at current capped rates is 7-8p a boil

Zandoni

Swipe said:

Zandoni said:

You need one of these undersink heaters, it will pay for itself in no time. 

From the comments section: This heater requires a professional installation and it is worth noting that no connections or cables are included

Just boil the kettle.

Although the OP said they will only boil one kettle a day for hot water I doubt that will happen, most people will defintely use more than that, I don't know the OPs financial situation so if she can afford something like this it will be worth it to try and have some sort of comfort.

Ultrasonic

boohoo2022 said:

ultrasonic- i think i assume it is firing up as it takes a good minute for the hot water to pull through the system, but thats why it got me thinking- if i only need hot water out the tap once a day how much is it costing keeping the cylinder water hot when i dont need it (or does it only get  heated when i turn the tap on?- i know i am stoopid not to know this but it never even crossed my mind how the blooming thing works til now!)

Is it really as long as a minute? The water that sits in the pipes between your tap and the hot water tank gets cold whilst just sitting there, so some time delay to getting hot water is expected but a minute would be too long. I'm not familiar with a hot water system that would behave as you describe though, since a heater in a large tank wouldn't do this.

Ultrasonic

Zandoni said:

Swipe said:

Zandoni said:

You need one of these undersink heaters, it will pay for itself in no time. 

From the comments section: This heater requires a professional installation and it is worth noting that no connections or cables are included

Just boil the kettle.

Although the OP said they will only boil one kettle a day for hot water I doubt that will happen, most people will defintely use more than that, I don't know the OPs financial situation so if she can afford something like this it will be worth it to try and have some sort of comfort.

I see no reason to doubt that the OP could just use a kettle once per day. The only hot water I use from a tap is to do washing up and as a person living on my own I do this once per day. 

boohoo2022

thanks all. so no i cant really get the under sink thing (no room would have to change the whole sink and anyway there are no fitters locally.  I can heat water on my wood stove also so doing 2 things when the weathers cold. I dont take baths either. So am gonna turn the thing off.( I dont kow why it takes so long to draw through hot water, you can hear when it "engages" (if thats the word)  and then splutters and then then hot water comes- may be a point to note despite water pressure being improved last year it is nothing like Mains Water pressure, so thats prob the reason for the longer than expected delay)

Effician

boohoo2022 said:

thanks all. so no i cant really get the under sink thing (no room would have to change the whole sink and anyway there are no fitters locally.  I can heat water on my wood stove also so doing 2 things when the weathers cold. I dont take baths either. So am gonna turn the thing off.( I dont kow why it takes so long to draw through hot water, you can hear when it "engages" (if thats the word)  and then splutters and then then hot water comes- may be a point to note despite water pressure being improved last year it is nothing like Mains Water pressure, so thats prob the reason for the longer than expected delay)

We switched the immersion off last October ( 2 of us at home most of the time ) & took the boiled kettle route , not regretted it one bit & saved a fair bit of money as well. We also have a log burner ( only form of heating) which kept us in free hot water during the colder part of winter & also cooked a fair few meals on it as well.

As always , give it a try , what have you to lose.

Ultrasonic

boohoo2022 said:

thanks all. so no i cant really get the under sink thing (no room would have to change the whole sink and anyway there are no fitters locally.  I can heat water on my wood stove also so doing 2 things when the weathers cold. I dont take baths either. So am gonna turn the thing off.( I dont kow why it takes so long to draw through hot water, you can hear when it "engages" (if thats the word)  and then splutters and then then hot water comes- may be a point to note despite water pressure being improved last year it is nothing like Mains Water pressure, so thats prob the reason for the longer than expected delay)

So initially nothing comes out of the tap, rather than cold water that then becomes hot? I'd guess that's a water pump you're waiting to start up if it is.

When switching off make sure you have both any overnight economy 7 hot water heating as well as any daytime immersion heater.

Astria

Even if I use my hot water tank to do the dishes, it can take 45 minutes to heat up if the heating isn't on (because the boiler reaches it's top temperature quickly with such little pipework and turns off), and then I can fill a bowl half full with cold water before the hot water actually starts coming through.

So know I just use the "hot" tap to fill up the kettle to boil water I'll empty into bowl. Saves energy and saves water, both of which are metered so it makes sense.

Magnitio

boohoo2022 said:

ultrasonic- i think i assume it is firing up as it takes a good minute for the hot water to pull through the system, but thats why it got me thinking- if i only need hot water out the tap once a day how much is it costing keeping the cylinder water hot when i dont need it (or does it only get  heated when i turn the tap on?- i know i am stoopid not to know this but it never even crossed my mind how the blooming thing works til now!)

A reasonably good hot water cylinder will lose heat at a rate of 50 watts. Older, less well insulated cylinders will be worse. If you don't use any hot water from the cylinder, the cost of the heat loss is around 24p per day based on a rate of 20p/kWh. That's £87 per annum. Obviously more if your unit rate is higher.

You do have to remember that during the cold season, the temperature in your house will probably benefit to some extent from the hot water cylinder's heat loss.