Immersion Heater Costs

Gremlin

Gremlin

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Any one know anything about this

Story is that last weekend my main off peak heater died
I do have secondary on peak heater in the tank that I believe only heats the top section
ATM I am turning that on for about an hour in the morning and that gives me all the hot water I need,
The tank is well insulated and I don't need that much hot water, only for washing up and a basin full for
a quick wash
What I want to know is should I be leaving it on all the time or is the short burst ok, never seem to get
completely chilled stays usuably warm overnight
 
If the short burst does what you want/need, I'd keep doing that. When we had a similar problem some years ago, all we could do was use a kettle over the weekend until we could get a plumber in to replace the immersion element.
 
If it was only the weekend I wouldn't care too much, just leave it on, but it won't get fixed till next month.
My usual plumber is out f action till then due to an injury and as it's not an emergency I can wait as I would prefer
to use someone I know I can trust
There is also the possibility that as it's a busy time for plumbers/heating engineers I wouldn't
find one anyway
 
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If the short burst provides all the hot water you need then there's no reason to change what you're doing - it's just what a time switch would normally do. There is no benefit to leaving it on unless you forget to turn it on manually once!
 
kendo1 said:
Turn it off, do not leave it on.
It's like leaving your kettle boiling all day - imagine the cost.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that, it's only on for about 30 mins, I'll make sure I turn it off.
With the off peak one I leave it on all the time, not sure if that is the right thing to do
but it does keep the cupboard warm and when I am away the water never seems to go cold
so must be a well insulated tank.

Bobsyeruncle said:
It could be a 3kw immersion heater so don't leave it on any longer than required.
Click to expand...

:eek: I only realised there were 2 heaters in the tank when I realised the wires from the switches went to different
places
 
Our CH & HW was out of action for 4 days waiting on parts.

The dip immersion heater on our tank has its own thermostat.......we left it turned on full time, sure in the knowledge that once the tank water was heated, it would only trigger if the temperature dropped and would not run for as long each time compared to (re)heating the whole tank!

FWIW
Back when I had a dual immersion heater system, working on what used to called the Economy 7 Tarrif, both the heaters each their own thermostats.

PS over a 20 year period after paying a plumber to replace them the first time it/they went wrong and watching how it was done, I did the job twice more myself. NB on the basis of time taken and relative cost when one failed I always replaced the two of them.
 
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Box Brownie said:
The dip immersion heater on our tank has its own thermostat.......we left it turned on full time, sure in the knowledge that once the tank water was heated, it would only trigger if the temperature dropped and would not run for as long each time compared to (re)heating the whole tank!
Click to expand...

This is absolutely right - the immersion heater will warm the water to a set point & then occasionally come back on again when the temperature drops a little, hence how you can leave the off-peak one switched on continuously. Without the thermostat it would boil the water in the tank (yes they can - we had a thermostat fail once :( ).
 
Just a quick note, quite often the temp cut off fails - or so I have found, more often than the element.
Just good practice to turn them off (being Scottish :) )
 
When we had immersion heaters I never turned them off, never had a stat burn-out and run the heater continuosly on. With my CH now the timer is continually on, temp controlled by main stat and room rad thermostat valves. I figure it's less expensive to bring a room back up to temp from warm to hit than from cold to hot, does depend on your insulation though in all cases incl water tanks.
 
ancient_mariner said:
This is absolutely right - the immersion heater will warm the water to a set point & then occasionally come back on again when the temperature drops a little, hence how you can leave the off-peak one switched on continuously. Without the thermostat it would boil the water in the tank (yes they can - we had a thermostat fail once :( ).
Click to expand...
kendo1 said:
Just a quick note, quite often the temp cut off fails - or so I have found, more often than the element.
Just good practice to turn them off (being Scottish :) )
Click to expand...

Re: the thermostat ~ your comments in regard to them failing.

The heaters I mentioned had separate stats, they slide into a thin tube that ran between folded heater element and wired like a light switch (act as make or brake) I did have the stat fail but it did so, as think I recall, like a lightbulb blowing i.e. heater will not run. When it happened it made sense to me because it was "failing to safe"…......it is worrying if some different design (?) does not failsafe!
 
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kendo1 said:
Just a quick note, quite often the temp cut off fails - or so I have found, more often than the element.
Just good practice to turn them off (being Scottish :) )
Click to expand...

I suspect that the heaters have been in the tank since the place was built in the 80s so I will stick with your suggestion
as it works ok so far, plenty of hot water for a days usage

This place is all electric with no gas etc. oh how I miss my open fires with back boilers and Aga
 
Box Brownie said:
When it happened it made sense to me because it was "failing to safe"…......it is worrying if some different design (?) does not failsafe!
Click to expand...

Ours did fail in the on position. There are still marks in our bedroom ceiling from when it boiled over and tried to vent into the loft tank.
 
My parents failed in the on position and we found out when the taps started emitting boiling hot steam, rather than water....

i am guessing @Gremlin lives in a soft water area. Ours is Hard and have had as little as 4 years from a pair of elements, current set are better as we had to get tank replaced 8years ago, with all the limescale taken away (12 inches or so loose in the drained tank from 25 years use).
 
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