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Bit nervous about buying house with Oil heating and an immersion heater

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  • canaldumidi
    canaldumidi Posts: 3,511 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    dunstonh said:
    If you have an electric shower, and a kettle for doing the washing up, why heat up a whole cylinderful oof hot water?
    If you do heat the cylinder(either from the boiler or the immersian), make sure it is well insulated. Even if it is a modern one with built-in insulation, adding a cheap 'jacket' will keep your hot water hot for .... 24? 48 hours.
    No electric shower there at the moment, just a standard one, but it is something I was thinking of adding after I move in :smile:
    A single person who does a quick shower with little water use may be better on an electric shower.  A family drawing a lot of water in a short period would probably be better with a power shower.   

    If you are heating the tank anyway for hot water on the taps, then heating that AND using an electric shower would increase your cost.  A power shower would probably be better. 

    I went with a power shower as I am in a household of women who have no concept of using as little water as possible!
    What am I missing here? Surely a power shower (whoever is using it or however many people) will use more water and more electricity than a (non power) electric shower?
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 118,547 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    dunstonh said:
    If you have an electric shower, and a kettle for doing the washing up, why heat up a whole cylinderful oof hot water?
    If you do heat the cylinder(either from the boiler or the immersian), make sure it is well insulated. Even if it is a modern one with built-in insulation, adding a cheap 'jacket' will keep your hot water hot for .... 24? 48 hours.
    No electric shower there at the moment, just a standard one, but it is something I was thinking of adding after I move in :smile:
    A single person who does a quick shower with little water use may be better on an electric shower.  A family drawing a lot of water in a short period would probably be better with a power shower.   

    If you are heating the tank anyway for hot water on the taps, then heating that AND using an electric shower would increase your cost.  A power shower would probably be better. 

    I went with a power shower as I am in a household of women who have no concept of using as little water as possible!
    What am I missing here? Surely a power shower (whoever is using it or however many people) will use more water and more electricity than a (non power) electric shower?
    An electric shower takes it from the cold tap and heats it up.  A power shower uses hot water from the tank and improves the flow.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • I have an oil boiler in my current house, it was a really old boiler and could not find any reference on the internet, must be 30 years old at least! I upgraded to a Grant Vortex Condensing when the old one packed in. I have an immersion but it doesn't work. I have an electric shower which is instant hot water. I need to fit a shower pump for my other shower, having a vented heating system flow depends on gravity and for the upstairs and downstairs showers there is hardly any.
  • Oh, one thing, oil heats the house up very quickly so I think it has an advantage over ASHP which has to run practically all day.
  • Reed_Richards
    Reed_Richards Posts: 5,076 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Oh, one thing, oil heats the house up very quickly so I think it has an advantage over ASHP which has to run practically all day.
    As someone who changed from an oil boiler to an ASHP I know that this statement is not true.  If you have Underfloor Heating it can take "practically all day" to heat up the room(s) whichever sort of boiler you have.  Both an oil boiler and an ASHP can heat up a house quickly if you run them at near their maximum output temperature but the loss of efficiency you get by doing that is greater with an ASHP than it is with an oil boiler.
    Reed
  • nande2000
    nande2000 Posts: 217 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    I inherited an old oil system in my current house. Absolutely hated it and the constant worries about oil price. I replaced with an ASHP some 8 years ago. It’s fantastic and heats the dhw much faster the oil boiler did. 
  • ispookie666
    ispookie666 Posts: 1,194 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    We all have confirmation bias.  Each house needs X amount of heat to heat up, this can be from any source.  
    The current price of oil and the changing behaviour around Carbon foot print makes oil boilers pariah.  
    I replaced the 40 year old Mylan oil boiler with Firebird,  I'm adding A2ASHP (have two adding another one) for the living areas so that I can target heat these and have cooling.   :)
    “Don't raise your voice, improve your argument." - Desmond Tutu

    System 1 - 14 x 250W SunModule SW + Enphase ME215 microinverters (July 2015)
    System 2 - 9.2 KWp + Enphase IQ7+ and IQ8AC (Feb 22 & Sep 24) + Givenergy AC Coupled inverter + 2 * 8.2KWh Battery (May 2022) + Mitsubishi 7.1 KW and 2* Daikin 2.5 KW A2A Heat Pump
  • Twixty3
    Twixty3 Posts: 90 Forumite
    Second Anniversary 10 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    My oil heating controls do not have an hot water only option so what I do is that around May time all the radiators get turned off so the oil just heats the water as as when I want it to. 

    My immersion has been broken ever since I moved in to this house in 2014. I turned on the day I moved in on a chilly October day and it blew my electric off.  Never got it fixed and never use it.  

    I am really surprised at how little hot water I actually use over the summer via oil. My water is only on a maximum of two times a week mostly  for baths for 1-3 hrs at a time.  It’s not been on since last Sunday this week.   I do not this deliberately  with a view to saving money I just feel that there’s no point putting it on just to wash a few dishes or do some housework. I boil the kettle for those kind of things the electric shower is used when oil is not heating the water.  

    I do sometimes forget to turn the hot water off  so it may be on for hours but it doesn’t do any harm really. 

    I do not use the timer on the controls and  I just put the water (with radiators off) / heating on manually as needed. It seems to work for me doing it this way. 

    I am on a deal for electric until December and my May bill was for £51.73 but from 1st June it rose by 30%  so it will be interesting to see what this months bill, due next week, will be. I am back in the office two days a week now but still mostly at home all week. 


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