Should I keep water heating on all day?

Y

yygaurav

Registered User
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62
Hi

We have 3 zone heating in our house.

Zone 1: Heating downstairs - connected to nest

Zone 2: Water - connect to nest

Zone 3: Connected to EPH timer based system ( 3 zone, but 2 zone are not connected since i got nest installed) - upstairs



For water we are using nest time schedule to turn on/off and specific times but we find it frustrating as water heating schedule does not match our life style so we have to turn on water on demand during the day. We have been recommended that we should keep the water heating on all day and there is a thermostat installed on the water cylinder which will only heat water when it drops below the thermostat specified value ( currently set to 65 degrees)



Is this correct? Should we keep water on all day?



Thank you
 
Depends how much money you want to spend.

Most families follow a similar routine day-to-day. Having a tank of hot water is important for showers / baths; but outside of that, why the need for a full tank of hot water all day?
 
What size is the water tank and how well is it insulated?

That will tell you how much heat will be lost, if its well insulated then leaving it on may be worthwhile, if its badly insulated then just heat the water when its required by way of a timer.

if you have a night rate electricity meter then the ideal situation is heat the water during off peak times only 11pm to 8am
 
I don't have a working central heating system so I am entirely reliant on electricity to heat my hot water. I replaced the old Horstmann e7 timer as the timer was broken when I bought the house (along with the mot electrical fixtures in the house) with their latest Secure e7+ timer which allows bluetooth access (I also later added the wifi card for remote control). This has a consumption chart in it so tells me what the actual consumption is - 2hrs of hot water on electric per day costs me around 1.5-2kwh per day in summer and 2-3kwh per day in winter. I run it only between 6am and 8am so off peak. My actual use of electricity is <200kwh per calendar month in the summer and around 250-300pcm in winter depending on how much I am actually at home - I am a one person household so my hot water usage is not high. Even at that I'm probably consuming about 20-25% of ALL my electricity usage to generate hot water so I would imagine that unless you've double insulated the tank (i.e. you've a factory installed foam installation and then add a lagging jacket on top of that), the cost of running the system 24x7 would be very considerable.
 
yygaurav said:
Hi

We have 3 zone heating in our house.

Zone 1: Heating downstairs - connected to nest

Zone 2: Water - connect to nest

Zone 3: Connected to EPH timer based system ( 3 zone, but 2 zone are not connected since i got nest installed) - upstairs



For water we are using nest time schedule to turn on/off and specific times but we find it frustrating as water heating schedule does not match our life style so we have to turn on water on demand during the day. We have been recommended that we should keep the water heating on all day and there is a thermostat installed on the water cylinder which will only heat water when it drops below the thermostat specified value ( currently set to 65 degrees)



Is this correct? Should we keep water on all day?



Thank you
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I assume you have gas fired or old central heating?
If thats the case then increase the number of hours your zone 2 is switched on to suit the times your family needs it. Using the electrical immersion to heat hot water during the months while central heating is on will cost you several times what gas or oil consumes to get the same level of heat.
Heat pump might be different so cannot make any suggestions there. Electricity is by far the most expensive way to heat water so unless you want to spend a lot of money (most electrical elements in immersion heaters are 2-3kwh which at peak could cost more than a euro per hour) I'd try to increase the schedule your nest allocates to the water heating zone.
 
We inadvertently left the immersion on bath for 4 days last week. It increased our daily usage by approx. 4 units a day. Our cylinder is less than 6 months old and insulated. In a way I was expecting it to be higher. We would only have filled the bath once in that time and used some of the water to wash up a few items. Washing machine and dishwasher are plumbed to cold.
 
AJAM said:
4 KWh a day would be roughly an extra 500 euro per year.
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Just under €400 on my current rate. Plus I don't really have a requirement to have piping hot water the whole time. Question is how much are people spending to heat hot water via electric showers or boiling kettles etc. to wash dishes.
 
Harvard said:
Just under €400 on my current rate. Plus I don't really have a requirement to have piping hot water the whole time. Question is how much are people spending to heat hot water via electric showers or boiling kettles etc. to wash dishes.
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Neither of these are cheap either. I suppose what you demonstrated was that a) you don't use all that much hot water and b) you have a well insulated hot water tank.
I don't have a wet central heating system & replaced my timer recently with one that shows actual time used and kwh consumed - its quite a lot even though the tank is factory (foam) insulated & I don't use all the hot water I heat. Electric showers and kettle boiling are basically the same thing so again its down to exactly how much hot water you are actually using as well as the size of the tank.
I do know from my reports in the app that about 1/5 of all my electricity usage is just to heat this tank.
 
Harvard said:
Question is how much are people spending to heat hot water via electric showers or boiling kettles etc. to wash dishes.
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Whatever way my plumbing runs to the kitchen sink, 6 litres of water flows from the hot tap before the hot water from the tank arrives. So running that hot tap leaves up to 6 litres of hot water behind in the pipes that slowly lose heat to the environment. Boiling the kettle is certainly going to be cheaper for me.
 
Have the same issue with running hot water tap in kitchen. Exactly six litres too.
Was thinking of getting a Quooker hot water tap or similar.

I heat my tank in the morning for showers. By late afternoon I usually have no hot water left, so I boil the kettle if I need to wash pots etc.
 
ragdal said:
Have the same issue with running hot water tap in kitchen. Exactly six litres too.
Was thinking of getting a Quooker hot water tap or similar.

I heat my tank in the morning for showers. By late afternoon I usually have no hot water left, so I boil the kettle if I need to wash pots etc.
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Those Quooker taps are awful. We have them in our work kitchens and most people struggle to use them, unless they have changed wildly in the last 4 years since ours were installed.
 
lff12 said:
Neither of these are cheap either. I suppose what you demonstrated was that a) you don't use all that much hot water and b) you have a well insulated hot water tank.
I don't have a wet central heating system & replaced my timer recently with one that shows actual time used and kwh consumed - its quite a lot even though the tank is factory (foam) insulated & I don't use all the hot water I heat. Electric showers and kettle boiling are basically the same thing so again its down to exactly how much hot water you are actually using as well as the size of the tank.
I do know from my reports in the app that about 1/5 of all my electricity usage is just to heat this tank.
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Recently changed by my plumber as the element was failing.
 
lff12 said:
Those Quooker taps are awful. We have them in our work kitchens and most people struggle to use them, unless they have changed wildly in the last 4 years since ours were installed.
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An earlier version of them was installed in my own work place about 10 years ago. They gradually disappeared over the following year.
 
lff12 said:
Those Quooker taps are awful. We have them in our work kitchens and most people struggle to use them, unless they have changed wildly in the last 4 years since ours were installed.
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We have the Zip ones in work, simple to use but too much so for use in an environment where you may have kids.
 
lff12 said:
its quite a lot even though the tank is factory (foam) insulated
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Those older copper tanks with the green factory foam aren't actually great for insulation.
Wrap an old duvet around it. It saved me roughly 0.5 KWh a day.
 
AJAM said:
Those older copper tanks with the green factory foam aren't actually great for insulation.
Wrap an old duvet around it. It saved me roughly 0.5 KWh a day.
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I had my doubts about them. Mind you a previous plumber told me it was useless putting a lagging jacket on one of these and unnecessary. I should have went with my gut.
 
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