Immersion costs??

zipee

Hi

I have a teenager that I could shoot! He puts the immersion on for 10 and 12 hours at a time and 3 days in a row and then decides not to have the bath but go into our electric instant shower!!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Now the rows aren't working with him and am on the verge of asking him to move out!!

But how much is this costing me? How much per hour to heat electric immersion?

Many thanks!

hopalong_ie

Hi,

Your immersion is controller by a thermostat so even though it is "on" it may not be drawing current (power) all that time. It is most likly a 3000w (3Kw) dual immersion. So its 3 x the price of a unit, for me this is 14 cent ex vat so it's 42 cent ex vat per hour its running say 50 including vat. Then you would have to determine how much energy it takes to heat the tank, but from reading into it it takes about 4 - 5 hours to heat a time from cold which is room temp usually. So about two euro each time he turns it on, then i believe with a modern insulated tank you loose about 2 units of heat over 24 hours.

As you can see there is no definite answer but it should give you an idea. Other solution is to simply disable the immersion.

items

On your ESB bill you should see a mention on how much you are being charged per KWH (Kilo watt hour) then have a look at immersion, if its recently fitting it should give some details on KWH. All it takes is a bit of maths to figure out actual cost. A quick scan over net should give you a rough figure on immersion costs, type in immersion Kwh and have a look for some figures.

Immersion would'nt be working for the full 10 or 12 hours, it only comes on to heat water, once water is hot enough to immersion setting immersion switches off automatically, it will come back on when temp drops a bit, so immersion is only tipping on and off after water is first heated from cold. Modern immersions are set up to work this way, older ones are slightly different, even so they still turn off, if they didn't your cylinder would be just like a kettle, even worse.

cnocbui

Fit a programmable timer to control the immersion heater. There would then be a good chance there would be hot water available when your son needs it so he wouldn't need to bother turning it on.

With the one I have, there is a button you press to manually override the timer and switch it on, but that override self cancels the next time a programmed time comes along so it would not be possible to have it left on for days.

If your hot water cylinder is not lagged, your son would not be wasting as much as the lack of insulation. If it is lagged, the thermostat will cut in when the temp it is set to is reached and it will then not be drawing any electricity - as hopalong mentioned.