Boiler died - does immersion work?

housebuyer143

How do I know if my immersion works? I've never used it before. It's buzzing and it's been on a half hour but the water coming out the taps isn't hot, just not freezing. 
How long does it normally take to heat a 170ltr tank? 

I can live with the boiler being dead, as long as we have hot water still 🤞

JGB1955

1 minute per litre, so just under 3 hours.

housebuyer143

JGB1955 said:

1 minute per litre, so just under 3 hours.

Thanks. That's a long time! 
I'll check back in a few hours with hopefully good news 🙏🙏

FreeBear

housebuyer143 said: I can live with the boiler being dead, as long as we have hot water still 🤞

With the weather warming up, you are not under so much pressure to get the boiler fixed. So you can avoid emergency call out fees, and shop around if it is beyond economical repair.

If you go for a new boiler, worth fitting larger radiators based on a flow temperature of 50-60°C (or lower). This would push the boiler further in to condensing mode and return slightly higher efficiency. Although, if the boiler does need replacing, have a look at heat pumps - Octopus quoted me £2700 (subject to survey) which isn't much more than a gas boiler would cost.

housebuyer143

It appears to be working! I'm just going to leave it on permanently because it's not realistic to wait 3 hours for a tank of water to heat. Dread to see my electric bill. 
It's probably a new boiler job tbh as it's 24 years old. 

tacpot12

3kW Immersion Heater vs. Gas Boiler - you can expect the boiler to heat the tank about three times more quickly as the cylinders usually have a 8kW coil in them.  

TadleyBaggie

housebuyer143 said:

It appears to be working! I'm just going to leave it on permanently because it's not realistic to wait 3 hours for a tank of water to heat. Dread to see my electric bill. 
It's probably a new boiler job tbh as it's 24 years old. 

Just hope the immersion thermostat (assuming there is one) is working!

housebuyer143

TadleyBaggie said:

housebuyer143 said:

It appears to be working! I'm just going to leave it on permanently because it's not realistic to wait 3 hours for a tank of water to heat. Dread to see my electric bill. 
It's probably a new boiler job tbh as it's 24 years old. 

Just hope the immersion thermostat (assuming there is one) is working!

Ha ha ha here's hoping. It appears to have gone off now - the buzzing has stopped. 

Veteransaver

If you have a smart meter in home display, you'll know the immersion is working because your current usage will jump up by 3kW

Albermarle

housebuyer143 said:

It appears to be working! I'm just going to leave it on permanently because it's not realistic to wait 3 hours for a tank of water to heat. Dread to see my electric bill. 
It's probably a new boiler job tbh as it's 24 years old. 

Normally though you are not heating the water from stone cold. If the tank is hot, then even if you have a couple of showers, it is likely to be still at least tepid, so will not take so long to heat up.
Although if you have an old copper hot water tank, with lagging around it, it will not keep the heat in very well compared to a modern hot water tank.
You may want to consider a combi boiler and do away with the hot water tank altogether, depending on how heavy your hot water usage is.

housebuyer143

Albermarle said:

housebuyer143 said:

It appears to be working! I'm just going to leave it on permanently because it's not realistic to wait 3 hours for a tank of water to heat. Dread to see my electric bill. 
It's probably a new boiler job tbh as it's 24 years old. 

Normally though you are not heating the water from stone cold. If the tank is hot, then even if you have a couple of showers, it is likely to be still at least tepid, so will not take so long to heat up.
Although if you have an old copper hot water tank, with lagging around it, it will not keep the heat in very well compared to a modern hot water tank.
You may want to consider a combi boiler and do away with the hot water tank altogether, depending on how heavy your hot water usage is.

Thanks, we have a megaflow cylinder so it's really good, and only 18 months old. I really like the tank and in this case it's super useful to have a back up for hot water. We don't use that much hot water really, normally only heat it 20 mins in morning and 20 mins in evening and that is normally enough. 

Good point regarding the water, it's not likely to be cold because we don't normally run the water to cold when using it. Hard to know what's best, but it's probably cheaper to turn it on for a few hours morning and evening.