Hot Water Heating

One hour at 6am but there is only me in the house.

It depends on what you use it for.
As a child the immersion heater went on half an hour before baths, as I remember. In those days washing up was done by hand but washing machines and dishwashers are all cold fill these days .
It saves both water and electricity (if you are on Economy 7) to run the dishwasher once overnight .
So to get back to your water heater, and depending on the size of your tank, an hour before you get up in the morning and perhaps 30 minutes in the evening , if you like baths, should be plenty.

Thanks Tanith.
Does that give you enough water to shower in the morning and a bath early evening?

Don’t know why I bothered

In Summer I shower morning and evening but I don’t have a bath tub anymore it was removed when the walk-in shower was installed. So can’t help with that one.

Our water heating stays on all the time, as it's a part of the air source heating system that we can't turn on/off independently of the radiator heating. As soon as the temp of the water drops to 46°, it heats up again to around 52°.

Ive been thinking that this is something that we need to take up with the landlord, to see if anything can be done about it. I am absolutely certain that for much of the year, it would be cheaper to boil a kettle for the little hot water that we use, though obviously showering would be difficult.

This coming summer, once we dont need any heating, I will put that to the test by turning the whole system off, and doing exactly that, just boiling a kettle, for our hot water.

I monitor our energy usage carefully, so should quickly see if it makes a difference.

ComeonEileen Thanks for your reply.

Does an hour in the morning and 30 minutes later actually work for you?
I need to check that my timer can be set twice a day possibly.
I currently have it on once a day.

tanith

In Summer I shower morning and evening but I don’t have a bath tub anymore it was removed when the walk-in shower was installed. So can’t help with that one.

That helps a lot thank you. Showering twice a day rather than bathing is fine.
Just don’t want to run out completely!

NotAGran55

ComeonEileen Thanks for your reply.

Does an hour in the morning and 30 minutes later actually work for you?
I need to check that my timer can be set twice a day possibly.
I currently have it on once a day.

You have made me think about mine. I have a one hour “boost” at lunchtime for both the CH and water and think I should cancel that.
As to the water, I have a large, pressurised but totally insulated cylinder and think perhaps letting the water cool right down to cold might be a bad thing as to heat it up again every morning would probably take more than an hour.
(As a child, our water tank was much smaller)
Food for thought.

We have a really well insulated hot water tank and have the water heating on all day so it keeps at temperature all the time. This cost us no more than having it timed.

In a properly insulated tank the heated water stay hot for ages after being heated. I’m interested how you manage to have your water heating 24/7 with no increase in your costs? kittylester
I’m nosy lol.

Precisely that Tanith. It stays hot so only needs heating if the temperature falls eg after a shower. If one has a shower after the water heating has gone off then the water temperature in the tank is lower and needs more heating up the next time the heating comes on.

We compared the bills over a year with previous bills and there was no appreciable difference but we had the hot water if we needed it.

We don't use lots. Just 2 showers and a bit of washing up.

We tried it with the ch too but that did make a difference.

That makes sense if it doesn't cost you more, I find mine is still perfectly hot enough all day for any usage including a second evening shower.

With respect NotAGran you have a long way to go with being greener
A shower and bath in one day. Are you having a laugh ?

I read somewhere, will look it up later, that it is more economical to leave it on all the time if the tank is well insulated.

Oldnproud

Our water heating stays on all the time, as it's a part of the air source heating system that we can't turn on/off independently of the radiator heating. As soon as the temp of the water drops to 46°, it heats up again to around 52°.

Ive been thinking that this is something that we need to take up with the landlord, to see if anything can be done about it. I am absolutely certain that for much of the year, it would be cheaper to boil a kettle for the little hot water that we use, though obviously showering would be difficult.

This coming summer, once we dont need any heating, I will put that to the test by turning the whole system off, and doing exactly that, just boiling a kettle, for our hot water.

I monitor our energy usage carefully, so should quickly see if it makes a difference.

We don’t use our air source heating for the water, instead we put the immersion heater on. Half an hour to an hour overnight (cheap rate) is sufficient for us, when it’s just the two of us having quick showers and using the dishwasher for almost all washing up (cold fill, as is washing machine).

Germanshepherdsmum

Is your immersion totally separate from the heating system?

Ours isn't, it's an integral part of it, and I've trawled through the user manual many times but not found any way of using it independantly

MerylStreep

With respect NotAGran you have a long way to go with being greener
A shower and bath in one day. Are you having a laugh ?

I would think most people would shower to start the day and again at the end of the day if they have a job that leaves them covered in dust, mud and sweat everyday surely??

Yes oldnproud, our immersion heater is separate to the heating system and we find it much more economical than using the water heater which is part of the air pump heating system like you have. The latter is great for heating the house and as you say is on continuously but is an expensive way to heat the water.

NotAGran55

MerylStreep

With respect NotAGran you have a long way to go with being greener
A shower and bath in one day. Are you having a laugh ?

I would think most people would shower to start the day and again at the end of the day if they have a job that leaves them covered in dust, mud and sweat everyday surely??

I think I wouldn't bother with the morning shower in that case.

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes oldnproud, our immersion heater is separate to the heating system and we find it much more economical than using the water heater which is part of the air pump heating system like you have. The latter is great for heating the house and as you say is on continuously but is an expensive way to heat the water.

Thanks for answering. It's really useful to know that you find a separate immersion more economical
.
I guess that as we don't have a dishwasher, and no prospect of getting one, we wouldn't save quite as much as you do, but even so, I think an immersion might still be more economical for us.

MaizieD

NotAGran55

MerylStreep

With respect NotAGran you have a long way to go with being greener
A shower and bath in one day. Are you having a laugh ?

I would think most people would shower to start the day and again at the end of the day if they have a job that leaves them covered in dust, mud and sweat everyday surely??

I think I wouldn't bother with the morning shower in that case.

Yuk!

I do some washing up by hand oldnproud, for instance I never wash the pots and pans in the dishwasher, a casserole dish might be left to soak and then washed by hand and I wash the dog’s bowls in the sink, however except when we have certain family members to stay who seem to live in the shower, our half to one hour of the immersion heater overnight is ample for the two of us. I might need to give it a quick boost if I’m using a lot of hot water on a ‘spring clean’ but that’s a rare event!

We heat our hot water (pressurised tank) for an hour at 6am and for another hour at 5pm. That gives us plenty of hot water all the time. There is an electric immersion heater inside the tank so if the gas boiler fails, we can heat the water that way. Both of us shower daily, no baths.