No Hot water only from Immersion

Buzza01

Hi Newbie here,
                          I recently bought a flat with these awful Storage Heaters, but i only have hot water if i turn on the Immersion which costs so bloody much!. Is there a way of having water overnight on the economy 7 tarriff?, so i have hot water to wake up to?...

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Nomally the lower immersion heater would be on an E7 circuit and left on, and the upper on a 24h circuit and left off.  You'd turn on the upper one for a short (and expensive) boost only if the water went cold during the day.

EssexHebridean

Storage heaters are a bit of a shock when you first find yourself with them aren't they - however, with a bit of effort in learning about them they can end up as a very economic way to heat, especially as with a bit of effort it means you can reduce your electricity costs for a lot of the other things you do substantially as well. Time to learn about your particular models of heaters, learn your Economy 7 times, and learn all about load-shifting! 

Gerry's already delivered the good news on the immersion heater - you should find that you have a box somewhere which may have a time clock on it, like an old fashioned timeswitch would have had - just check that is aligned with the right time (making sure to line up with the "GMT" option) and then switch it to "timed" and that should mean you see it heating the water overnight as Gerry says. It may well also be that it has a separate switch elsewhere which you need to leave switched on - these are often fitted with a handy red LED indicator too which means you can see at a glance whether it is on or not. 

Buzza01

Hi many thanks for the comments... but i cannot find any other switches that i can turn on for overnight hot water.. just the immersion on the wall, when switched on sees my Smart meter excelerate immediately

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

We have hot water via immersion (but not heating so don't have economy 7). We do have a timer installed which means the water isn't left on longer than we need. 

I'm sure there was at least one thread on MSE about whether it was cheaper to leave it on all the time or as you need, for us it's certainly cheaper as we need but it's a large water cylinder and we only user the top heating element. 

Veteransaver

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

We have hot water via immersion (but not heating so don't have economy 7). We do have a timer installed which means the water isn't left on longer than we need. 

I'm sure there was at least one thread on MSE about whether it was cheaper to leave it on all the time or as you need, for us it's certainly cheaper as we need but it's a large water cylinder and we only user the top heating element. 

It won't be cheaper, but depending on how well insulated the tank is, it may not be that much more expensive. But if you go away on holiday. Turn it off! If you have E7 though it will always be cheaper to heat it up off peak.

fisher66

You can buy special timers for high loads like immersion heaters.  You'd probably have to pay an electrician to fit it though.

Buzza01

I do have some strange switches in my airing cupboard but im unsure what they are.. i will post some pics to see if any experts can help later?. but i cannot find any timer switches

Gerry1

Have a look at the hot tank.  How many 'top hat' bulges does it have?  Follow the wires.

If there's only one immersion heater and there's no timer, then switch it on after the lower rate has kicked in and off first thing in the morning.

Swipe

I always find it worth waking a little earlier in winter on E7 to make the most of the early cheaper electricity. 

mumf

We have ours on a digital timer. Every six hours for 20 minutes. For us there is always hot water,and it’s a reasonable cost.