Gas Boiler vs Immersion

él statutorio

I've just rented a new place and the central heating is done via a gas boiler and the hot water is currently via the immersion.

I'm in there about a month and the immersion has been on for probably 18 hours a day. The cylinder seems to be pretty well insulated (it barely emits heat through the foam on it) but I'm worried about an electricity crippling me when it arrives.

The gas is all prepaid, via the top up cards so I can only spend what i have on the meter, there's approx 8 rads in the house and after playing with timer settings it's costing me about €2 a day to heat the house. I'm not sure if that's good or bad

I've been told by the landlord that the gas boiler will heat the water as well but he never bothered with it.....

Is it worth my while doing the hot water via the gas? From looking in the hot press I think that the pipe work looks OK, it looks like I've to turn off one pair of pipes and turn on another pair. (I can post pics if needed)

Any thoughts?

Dtp79

él statutorio wrote: »

I've just rented a new place and the central heating is done via a gas boiler and the hot water is currently via the immersion.

I'm in there about a month and the immersion has been on for probably 18 hours a day. The cylinder seems to be pretty well insulated (it barely emits heat through the foam on it) but I'm worried about an electricity crippling me when it arrives.

The gas is all prepaid, via the top up cards so I can only spend what i have on the meter, there's approx 8 rads in the house and after playing with timer settings it's costing me about €2 a day to heat the house. I'm not sure if that's good or bad

I've been told by the landlord that the gas boiler will heat the water as well but he never bothered with it.....

Is it worth my while doing the hot water via the gas? From looking in the hot press I think that the pipe work looks OK, it looks like I've to turn off one pair of pipes and turn on another pair. (I can post pics if needed)

Any thoughts?

Yes please post a few pics of the pipework in the hotpress.

él statutorio

Dtp79 wrote: »

Yes please post a few pics of the pipework in the hotpress.

Attached.

pics 1 and 2 are of the bottom of the hotpress. The fantastically drawn arrow links the 2 pics.

the X's in pic one show the 2 other stop cocks further up the pipework.

Dtp79

él statutorio wrote: »

Attached.

pics 1 and 2 are of the bottom of the hotpress. The fantastically drawn arrow links the 2 pics.

the X's in pic one show the 2 other stop cocks further up the pipework.

I can't really see what I'm looking for to be honest. Ideally there should be motorised valves in the hotpress zoning your heating and hot water seperately. Maybe there are manual valves to do this. Is there a thermostat on your cyclinder? By the way why is the immersion on 18 hours a day??

él statutorio

Dtp79 wrote: »

I can't really see what I'm looking for to be honest. Ideally there should be motorised valves in the hotpress zoning your heating and hot water seperately. Maybe there are manual valves to do this. Is there a thermostat on your cyclinder? By the way why is the immersion on 18 hours a day??

No motorised valves, just stopcocks in there and the pump (at the bottom) for upstairs. The cylinder is on the left of pic on where the pipes run off.
no thermostat that I can see but I'll take another look.
18 hours might be an exaggeration, but it tends to go on all night (8ish hours) and for probably 4ish hours during the day.

Maybe I'm worrying about nothing.

Dtp79

él statutorio wrote: »

No motorised valves, just stopcocks in there and the pump (at the bottom) for upstairs. The cylinder is on the left of pic on where the pipes run off.
no thermostat that I can see but I'll take another look.
18 hours might be an exaggeration, but it tends to go on all night (8ish hours) and for probably 4ish hours during the day.

Maybe I'm worrying about nothing.

When you say it "tends to go on" does that mean you have it switched on for that long or it comes on with a timer?

él statutorio

Dtp79 wrote: »

When you say it "tends to go on" does that mean you have it switched on for that long or it comes on with a timer?

No timer, i put it on before bed (otherwise the water is only warm in the morning). Herself then puts it on during the day to bathe the baby and that kinda thing.

Dtp79

él statutorio wrote: »

No timer, i put it on before bed (otherwise the water is only warm in the morning). Herself then puts it on during the day to bathe the baby and that kinda thing.

Unfortunately for you your system is very inefficient. No automated controls is a pain in the arse. Seeing as its a rented place you can't exactly put money into upgrading them either. It's hard to say which system is cheaper cause u can't properly control either. Seeing as your heating has no proper controls maybe get onto landlord to do something about it for you.

él statutorio

Dtp79 wrote: »

Unfortunately for you your system is very inefficient. No automated controls is a pain in the arse. Seeing as its a rented place you can't exactly put money into upgrading them either. It's hard to say which system is cheaper cause u can't properly control either. Seeing as your heating has no proper controls maybe get onto landlord to do something about it for you.

That's what I thought alright, I might just bite the bullet and buy a timer and fit it rather then getting stung with the bills for it being on all the time.