How do I set Ecodan Heating

Reed_Richards

Up until April you could get a heat pump subsidy under the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.  This required that you used an accredited installer who should have known what they were doing and, by and large, I think they did.  Or there were Government subsidies administered by some local councils, which I think is the type of scheme that got you your heat pump.  I don't think these latter schemes were nearly so careful about who they got to do their installations and you seem to be a client who is suffering as a result.

I have my hot water on between 6:30 and 22:30.  In winter the cylinder get heated at 6:30, taking about 20 minutes to bring it back up to temperature.  If we use a lot of hot water it may go through one more heating cycle during the day but that is all.  How long it is on during the day is a complete red herring; if I set mine to be on just between 6:30 and 7:30 it would save me very little money and just mean that every so often the hot water was too cool to wash the dishes in the evening.

My cylinder temperature is set to 50 C, which is plenty warm enough for us, in fact we have a blending valve on the cylinder outlet that brings it down a bit.  A setting on my heat pump means that the cylinder is not heated until the temperature drops below 45 C, one reason why it does not matter to me how long my hot water heating is on for.  Once a week an immersion heater is invoked to bring the cylinder temperature up to 60 C as a precaution against Legionella.  If you can get away with setting your hot water temperature to 50 C or less that could save you a lot of money, if it is set to more than that now.

If your solid fuel boiler was burning peat that you cut yourself or some other free fuel then it is inevitable that your heat pump will be costing you more to run.  If you had to pay for your fuel then a properly installed heat pump should have running costs similar to other non-electric heating systems.    

Scoobnut

I think starting from the begining. is a good Idea. My water is set to heat between 5 am through to 6 pm. My heating is set to a schedule too, from 7am at 18 degrees then from 11pm at 15. If I could reduce our bill just a little would be good.

Mstty

Are you tracking your daily usage of electricity?

It would be good if you are to see the changes you make deliver savings.

On post 2 of this post I suggested just heating your water once a day. I don't know how many of you are in the house but 45 mins for 2 people and 1 hour 30 mins for 4 people.

Your heating can stay as it is if you are used to having it cut in on colder days likes today and yesterday or you could look at the scheduler and turn it off completely until September. 

Reed_Richards

@Mssty is fixated with heating your hot water once a day.  I don't agree.  Either it will make very little difference to your bill or you will save money but frequently run out of hot water.  

Mstty

Hi @Reed_Richards I consider that very rude as I can back up our way of heating hot water with proof. I am not fixated but it is the way we heat our hot water from the ASHP in summer and we have seen some good cheap results. You won't come back with any figures as I know from my own having heating on all day doesn't beat heat what you need.....but thanks for being rude. 

This is a step I am offering the OP to try and to report back if it saves them some money. The point of their post not to try and undermine another member of the board.

Perhaps you can prove you can beat the following figures for heating water all day?

Here are my graphs 4am every day 45 mins a day enough for us in this house showers, washing up and hand washing. 1kWh a day plus a 3kWh burn once a week for Legionnaires

Mstty

@Scoobnut hopefully the graphs above help you see how you can manually take control of your hot water heating and control the costs. Apologies for the crossfire it's not uncommon for people on this forum to have differing opinions but at least mine are backed up with real data for the energy usage.

It would be interesting if you can and do monitor your daily usage. Change to a heat the hot water once or twice a day if you wish compared with how you do it now to see if there is a reduction in energy costs for you? Maybe start at two hours and if you have enough water at the end of the say reduce it to 1 hour 45 and so on. We started at one hour and settled for 45 mins in the very hot summer days we will definitely go down to 30 mins as we don't want hot hot showers then.

k_man

@Mstty

If when you have your hot water on for long periods when you don't use it, it uses much more energy... then that suggests your tank is poorly insulated 😉

If the below is true for heating (higher heat loss than others experience is due to poor insulation) then it would apply to hot water too:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79233676/#Comment_79233676

Mstty

k_man said:

@Mstty

If when you have your hot water on for long periods when you don't use it, it uses much more energy... then that suggests your tank is poorly insulated 😉

If the below is true for heating (higher heat loss than others experience is due to poor insulation) then it would apply to hot water too:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79233676/#Comment_79233676

@k_man Think you meant to tag @reed_richards as I don't have my hot water on for long periods and don't advocate it either?????

k_man

But isn't the reason you don't leave it on or advocate it, because it uses much more energy?

Just trying to point out the slight irony.
Nevermind, moment has passed

matelodave

Why no try it both ways to see what works for you - on all day or just for an hour or so. I'm guessing that most people with an ASHP or even aGSHP have a reasonably well insulated modern tank, so the heat loss 

I'm of the hour a a day persuasion but in the end suck it and see, life's too short to argue about something this trivial