New Immersion heater or keep old?

snowqueen555

Is it worth me replacing this with a smaller modern cylinder? It would only be for hot taps living on my own, as the shower is an electric unit on its own. This is an electric only flat so I'm wondering if the outlay is worth it in the long run?

QrizB

In my opinion, replacing it is unlikely to save you enough to recoup the cost of the replacement.

If the system is otherwise satisfactory, you might as well stick with it.

Niv

what do you use hot water for? Just the dishes? Then use a kettle, would work out cheaper.

Swipe

You'd be better off keeping it and using the kettle instead if you don't need much hot water

IOWJJBTM2025

Apologies in advance for my ignorance and am hopeful that someone else will chip in to correct me but I do have questions.
Question - is that a rubber lid on the copper tank that does not look to be fitted properly?
Is the overflow output connection and piping plastic?
Electric cabling could be better.
Has got 2 x immersion heaters - assume you select if you want a half tank or full tank of hot water.
Should there be an insulation jacket to make it more energy efficient.

molerat

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

Apologies in advance for my ignorance and am hopeful that someone else will chip in to correct me but I do have questions.
Question - is that a rubber lid on the copper tank that does not look to be fitted properly?
Is the overflow output connection and piping plastic?
Electric cabling could be better.
Has got 2 x immersion heaters - assume you select if you want a half tank or full tank of hot water.
Should there be an insulation jacket to make it more energy efficient.

The top part is the cold header tank, there is no "loft tank", so the lid is just a loose fitting cover and there is no reason for the overflow not to be plastic.

QrizB

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

Question - is that a rubber lid on the copper tank that does not look to be fitted properly?

It's a combination tank. The top part is an open vented cold-water header tank that feeds the lower half, which is heated.

Here's a similar tank that's available to buy today:
https://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/telford-maxistore-direct-copper-combination-cylinder-bcd12045ev

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

Is the overflow output connection and piping plastic?

Yes, as is normal for a cold water header tank.

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

Has got 2 x immersion heaters - assume you select if you want a half tank or full tank of hot water.

Yes, as is normal for an Economy 7 hot water tank.

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

Should there be an insulation jacket to make it more energy efficient.

No, it's a pre-insulated foam-sprayed tank. (You can add a jacket if you want but the savings will be small.)

Podseas

My nephew had similar a while back with a flat with electric shower and immersion heated tank used just for hot taps.He switched off the immersion and just used kettle for doing the dishes or filling a bowl of hot water. 
Saved a fair amount of money compared to heating a big tank of water that was hardly used each day. 
Depends if you can do without the convenience of having hot water available at your basin and sink.

Alternatively you could get under sink/basin heaters for hot water and do away with the large tank.

WiserMiser

Savings would be small, so unlikely to be cost effective.  It could also be problematic when you sell the property.

The electric shower is a bit of a no-no if you have storage heaters.

You are probably using the traditional arrangement of the E7 switched circuit heating the tank using the lower element with the upper one on the 24h circuit left switched off.

If so, a quick and inexpensive solution would be to leave the lower element switched off and fit the upper element with an electronic timer set to E7 times.  Critically important to get the timing correct, fit one of the NSH outlets with a neon indicator if necessary so you can see at a glance when the E7 circuits are live.

Consider a tariff where you can switch to be billed at single rate in the summer.

Swipe

An electric shower is ok if you shower during off peak rate

RedFraggle

Has it got a timer? Our thermal store is just for hot taps as we use the electric shower in our ensuite. I had a timer fitted so it only charges for 2 hours a night as that's plenty. 
I like warm water for bathroom taps so didn't want the "boiler a kettle" option.