Emersion heating

Richard tea

Hello all,

I have read through some old posts but im a little confused. During the winter months we heat the water through the Kerosene heating. During the summer months I would like to use the immersion to heat the water. At the moment there is a 2 switches. On/Off & Bath/sink. Its easy to forget that its switched on so I would like to have a timer installed. It would be perfect if it came on every morning for 1 hour and turned off by itself. The water is only used for hand washing so doesnt need to be piping hot.

So Is there such a device/timer that will do this?

Also how would I work out or find the cost of using the immersion? I haven't a clue what system it is.

kieran.

Yes time switch such as these http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=clock+switch#category=cat830950 should do the trick for you.

freddyuk

I use this device and it works perfectly with 4 time settings per day 5/7 days per week with simple override button for instant "on". Should be wired into your immersion circuit by someone competent from a dedicated fused circuit.
Even more efficient would be to wire in a tank thermostat so you are switching off when tank temperature is reached but you probably only use it for 15 - 20 minutes at a time.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SELECTRIC-24-HR-DIGITAL-IMMERSION-HEATER-TIME-SWITCH-TIMER-ENERGY-SAVING-LG-DIHT-/221713118127?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item339f21b3af

PeteFalk78

With regards to heating from boiler
If
1) Your hot water can be zoned seperately from central heating
2) Your boiler is serviced correctly
then (and taking into account the cheap oil prices at the moment)
You would be saving much more money using the boiler to heat the water

I dipped my tank in April last year (last time I used my CH) and dipped it again late Sept (just before I started to use my CH).
After having the boiler on 1 hour each day I only used 80 litres of fuel in approx 5 months (around 60euro)

freddyuk

Cost of using standard immersion (3 kw) is €0.18 per kWh so an immersion on for 1 hour uses 3 kWh which = 3*€0.18 = €0.54. If it is a standard cylinder and you do not want a full cylinder of hot water then probably 30 minutes will be enough.

Wearb

I have had this discussion before, so will not go into detail.
I just want to say that I believe oil to be a cheaper option, even allowing for losses.

One more thing; an immersion gives out 3kw/h. Oil boiler about 7 times that.
I know that immersion is 100% efficient. Even if oil was only 50% (and it is more ) you can now make a better comparison

Irish Steve

As mentioned above, it would be worth considering using the boiler for hot water all the year round, the costings for Kerosene (especially now) make it cheaper than using peak rate electric, and there's no harm in running the boiler regularly during the summer months, things like the circulating pump and the burner get used regularly rather than sitting there for several months with no activity.

One of the deciders will be how the hot water is controlled now, ideally, it should be a separate zone on the system, with a dual time clock to control when it operates, and a tank thermostat to turn off when the tank is up to temperature. There's no reason not to run it for a shorter period than required to heat the whole tank.

A more expensive but also more effective solution is to use an external heat exchanger on the hot water, as that will give hot water at "usable" temperatures in one pass through the unit, so there's high temperature hot water on the top of the tank within a few minutes of firing the boiler.

I've been using one here for a long time, and it makes a huge difference to the performance of the hot water system, 15 minutes of boiler time will give us enough hot water for the simple stuff, (there's hot water after 5 minutes, just not much) and also provides heat into the bathroom, as the radiator there is not zoned, so works with any heat source being active.

Richard tea

Thanks for the info everyone. I get what your saying about the oil heating. My boiler is approx 15 years old. There is a timer dial in the kitchen that controls this. There are no fancy zoned heating:(

So just to clarify my best option is to turn off all the rads and use the kero boiler for 30 mins each morning.

Wearb

Make sure everything is well insulated.

It can be a little more complicated than turning off all the rads. If you have an open heating system, I would check to see if you have any water coming out the pipe over small tank in attic. You may need to turn back switch in circulating pump.

After you have that sorted out- you will only need to do it once- you can experiment with how long you need your boiler on. Be careful of water being too hot. You may need to turn boiler stat down a bit.