Switch timer

inigma

Gerry1 said:

Yup, it's just a hot tank, NOT a boiler.  The switches are in the correct position (assuming they're labelled correctly) if the bottom heater is on an E7 overnight supply.

But the BIG question remains unanswered - what do you use for room heating?

Genuinely we rarely have heating on, we spent a bit getting our windows done, we draught excluder-ed doors.
We haven't used any heating so far this autumn or winter.
And yes pimlico plumbers pointed out the switches were upside down whilst installing the current unit

inigma

Robin9 said:

And your meter and associated equipment ?

Holes and vents - a warm air system ?

Yep that's all it is, although we're a bit scared to use it as a neighbours caught fire and we're in a high risk cladding building;

Scot_39

What does the climat electronic panel do ?

Is that linked in some way - e.g. some external thermostat control for the hot water system ?

(My HW tank relies only on a simply thermostat with a dial adjust on the tank at the immersion element)

 

Tank details at

https://www.heatraesadia.com/-/media/themes/heatrae/literature/installation-manuals/premierplus-installation-manual.pdf

The top tank is very likely a simple air diaphragm expansion tank (common on unvented tanks).

Note the as installed - timings to heat for one 3kW immersion to factory set 60C target are 99, 121 and 150sh minutes for the 3 smallest tanks (100,120 and 150l) - so at the 121 minutes 120l tank volume - thats 6kWh.

So if you think thats the major source of the 33kWh daily - that suggests you are going through several tank fulls a day.

A bathroom sink might take about 5l (but could run off 3-4l in pipe run from tank until running hot depending on locations), 

a kitchen sink basin maybe more like 10l (a full large sink easily upto double), 

a typical modern (lower) flow shower head uses 10l+ per minute - but some can be much higher

a bath more like 80l+ for an adult - a child notably less one assumes - 

but many of those will be mixed down from tank temp with cold (in a modern install often now capped a bit below 50C - by thermostatic mixers even before tap to avoid scalding vs tank at 60C min as a rule)

inigma

Scot_39 said:

What does the climat electronic panel do ?

Is that linked in some way - e.g. some external thermostat control for the hot water system ?

(My HW tank relies only on a simply thermostat with a dial adjust on the tank at the immersion element)

 

Tank details at

https://www.heatraesadia.com/-/media/themes/heatrae/literature/installation-manuals/premierplus-installation-manual.pdf

The top tank is very likely a simple air diaphragm expansion tank (common on unvented tanks).

Note the as installed - timings to heat for one 3kW immersion to factory set 60C target are 99, 121 and 150sh minutes for the 3 smallest tanks (100,120 and 150l) - so at the 121 minutes 120l tank volume - thats 6kWh.

So if you think thats the major source of the 33kWh daily - that suggests you are going through several tank fulls a day.

A bathroom sink might take about 5l (but could run off 3-4l in pipe run from tank until running hot depending on locations), 

a kitchen sink basin maybe more like 10l (a full large sink easily upto double), 

a typical modern (lower) flow shower head uses 10l+ per minute - but some can be much higher

a bath more like 80l+ for an adult - a child notably less one assumes - 

but many of those will be mixed down from tank temp with cold (in a modern install often now capped a bit below 50C - even before tap to avoid scalding vs tank at 60C min as a rule)

The climate control panel is the hot air heating system that we don't use (other than when we shower and it has a suck the steam out the bathroom function on it)

Gerry1

It's unlikely that your hot tank would get through close to 33kWh per day.  Are you absolutely sure you're not using some electrical room heating somewhere, albeit unwittingly?

If the builder was a cheapskate it's quite possible that they installed underfloor electric heating.  Very cheap to install, a bit like an electric blanket for the floor, but cripplingly expensive to run.

Check for any unlabelled switches in out of the way places that don't seem to do anything and turn them off.

You could also switch everything off at the consumer unit overnight and see whether it's chilly in the morning.  (Don't open the fridge or freezer until the power has been restored for an hour or two.)  Repeat the test during the day sometime.

Also do the Meter Sanity Test, especially if the meter is not inside your flat.

Robin9

There is something using the electricity.    

Another photo please -  of the consumer unit, make sure we can read the labels.

PS Still waiting  for your actual annual consumption (in kWh not £)

inigma

Robin9 said:

There is something using the electricity.    

Another photo please -  of the consumer unit, make sure we can read the labels.

PS Still waiting  for your actual annual consumption (in kWh not £)

Our annual usage for 2023 was 11,144 kWh

2 bed flat with 2 adults and a 4 year old.

I checked my washing machine which uses 1.07 kWh a load and my wife does love laundry but even if she did 3 loads a day every day that won't tally to 33kwh

As mentioned in 2015 in the same flat as a bachelor I was spending £15 a month on leccy so I don't think it's a case of our leccy being used by another flat. And when we go away we usually switch everything bar the fridge/freezer off and do meter readings before and after the holiday which returns a small reading of maybe 3 kWh used

Robin9

11,144 is more than treble typical usage for electric when gas is used as heating.   For your household I would guess at 4,000 plus -  there's a big gap not explained by your wife's love of washing. Underfloor would explain why the flat seems to need no other form of heating.

inigma

We are leccy only no gas in our flat

QrizB

You say that you don't have a smart meter. If you can't post a photo of the meter, can you at least tell us the make and model? Do you know how old it is?

Edit:

I guess I should add some explanation here. You say:

inigma said:

Our annual usage for 2023 was 11,144 kWh

...
As mentioned in 2015 in the same flat as a bachelor I was spending £15 a month on leccy

In 2015 I was paying 11p/kWh. £15 a month is £180 a year, which at 11p/kWh is 1600kWh/yr. So you're now pying for about 7x more electricity than you were in 2015.

There are a few possibilities, including:

1. You are really using 7x more electricity. Your hot water tank is unlikely to be responsible, unless you've got a leaking pipe somewhere and you're just losing hot water to a drain, the ground or the flat below.
2. You've been reading the wrong meter for the past eight years. There's another flat in your block that has realised they can run their heating non-stop without their bills going up, because they're paying for your electricity and you're paying for theirs.
3. Your meter is faulty and is over-reading.

Most of the posts on this thread are trying to understand your energy use and address option 1.

Gerry1 has requested a Meter Sanity Test in case the problem is option 2.

I want to know your meters make, model and age so we can draw some sort of inference on option 3.