Don't understand the switch

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Hi

Dumb question but for the life of me I can't understand these switches.

So I just got a €650 electric bill which has naturally bothered me quite a bit.

I believe the bill is because of the immersion system. I took a look at the switches but I'm not sure what their positions mean.

When I look at this image, I see it as follows:

Sink ON
System ON



Am I understanding this in/correctly? Please help.

rayfitzharris

Nathalia Round Hive wrote: »

Hi

Dumb question but for the life of me I can't understand these switches.

So I just got a €650 electric bill which has naturally bothered me quite a bit.

I believe the bill is because of the immersion system. I took a look at the switches but I'm not sure what their positions mean.

When I look at this image, I see it as follows:

Sink ON

System ON



Am I understanding this in/correctly? Please help.

If wired correctly it's currently bath on system off

freddyuk

You have two power settings for your immersion heater. "SINK" is a heater which just heats the top of the cylinder for washing etc. ie. smaller quantities of hot water.
"Bath" means the immersion is full power and will heat more water in the cylinder so will be on longer to heat more water.Each will switch off when the thermostat says they should.
Your photo says the system is off IE. the immersion is not switched on at all therefore if the switch is correct it is not the immersion using your power .
Check your electricity meter. With the switch off as it is now. If you are using 2-3 (kWh)units per hour suspect the immersion is on and is therefore wired incorrectly. Make sure the oven, washing machine, dishwasher, is not running at the time.

freddyuk

You have two power settings for your immersion heater. "SINK" is a heater which just heats the top of the cylinder for washing etc. ie. smaller quantities of hot water.
"Bath" means the immersion is full power and will heat more water in the cylinder so will be on longer to heat more water.Each will switch off when the thermostat says they should.
Your photo says the system is off IE. the immersion is not switched on at all therefore if the switch is correct it is not the immersion using your power .
Check your electricity meter. With the switch off as it is now. If you are using 2-3 (kWh)units per hour suspect the immersion is on and is therefore wired incorrectly. Make sure the oven, washing machine, dishwasher, is not running at the time.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Thank you rayfitzharris and freddyuk.

I did some testing and the plot thickens!

From the time of taking that photo (Wednesday 21:34) to this morning (Thursday 07:25) the house hold used 3 units of Electricity. My wife did shower on Wednesday night. I feel this is still high?

This morning I purposefully used all available hot water showering. We arrived home (Thursday 18:30) and the meter had gone up by 2 units of Electricity.

I have just finished taking another shower and the water was hot (Thursday 23:00). This indicates that the immersion system is ON.

@rayfitzharris, @freddyuk: It seems that you are correct in that this system is wired incorrectly.

What I did before taking a shower was turn off the Immersion switch at the distribution board and then again, purposefully use all the hot water.

Let's see what tomorrow brings in hot water and units of electricity used.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

This morning another 3 units of electricity was used
and
The taps had hot water...

This is the state of the distribution board and the immersion switch:


So after purposefully using all the hot water and turning the immersion off at the distribution panel, I still somehow have hot water. The one thing I have noticed is that the water is not scalding hot as it was before, this indicates that it's using the "Sink" setting for heating.

Anyway, I'm going to call out an electrician to figure out what is going on here.

Does anyone have suggestions on a good electrician around the Dublin 13 area?

TheChizler

Does your boiler heat water?

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

TheChizler wrote: »

Does your boiler heat water?

I have no idea

My boiler switch looks similar to this:


I typically leave it off at the dial and turn it on for roughly 2 hours per day. The house is well insulated so it doesn't need much heating.

Even after turning the immersion off at the distribution board the water was hot this morning, it does strongly indicate that the boiler is heating the water.

I'll turn it off tonight and run another test.

It still doesn't explain the €650 electricity bill

TheChizler

There's a switch for a pump, you don't have a well do you?

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

TheChizler wrote: »

There's a switch for a pump, you don't have a well do you?

We don't have a well. This system is a bit weird imo.

There is a pump in the closet where the immersion tank is. It turns itself on if we use the water for a while, whether it's the taps, shower or flushing the toilet the pump will run. Quite noisy too . It does not run when the washing machine or dishwasher is operating.

I tested the boiler theory and it's definitely the boiler heating the water. I used all the hot water last night, turned off the boiler and this morning the water was cold.

My guess would be that the immersion system is a secondary heating system. I have noticed that the closet is not as warm since I've turned off the system at the distribution board.

The €650 bill is still a mystery. The readings are correct, it's not a mistake on the meter.

Effects

Have you checked to make sure your bill isn't estimated or else that it was previously estimated and your current bill reflects the difference in previous estimates vs current reading?

JamesM

If you had your immersion switches at Bath and On, and only run your boiler for 2 hours, you will have used a lot of electricity heating your water.
Jim.

rayfitzharris

My advice, don't use the immersion at all if you can time the boiler to heat it when you need it. Hour in morning and again in evening etc. Especially if you can heat water separate from rads.

It's much cheaper to heat water with oil or gas. Using electricity is the most expensive way. It seems you're heating the tank with the heating anyway, use the immersion as a backup

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Effects wrote: »

Have you checked to make sure your bill isn't estimated or else that it was previously estimated and your current bill reflects the difference in previous estimates vs current reading?

The readings are correct and have not been estimated for many months. Hence the bill shock.

--

I've been keeping an eye on the meter twice daily and doing some investigating and the mystery has been solved.

The spike in electricity usage is attributed to two things.

My wife and I went to Rome for December holidays and on our return we had a lot of washing to do. Roughly a months worth of washing :eek: (we were lazy leading up to our holiday)

My dearest wife mistakenly used the heated option on the washing machine. With loads to wash the electricity usage quickly added up.

The primary reason for the high electricity is as follows.

We have two pets, so we hired a pet sitter to stay in our home and watch over our pets; feed them, walk them etc.. This individual did not use the boiler.. at all (you can see where this is headed). I recall being shocked that our gas usage had not climb at all while he was staying in our house.

With us in Rome for a good couple of weeks, this guy was taking a shower every single day. Which meant that the immersion system was working hard to heat up the water. He also went out and bought an electric heater to keep himself warm at night.

I did show him how to use the boiler before we left, even going as far as to print a list of "how-tos" on a piece of paper.

Alas, the guy is but a teenager who has never lived on his own so he was completely outside his element.

To summarize: I keep the immersion system turned off at the distribution board.

Wearb

The cheek of him................showering every day :rolleyes:

jimf

Wearb wrote: »

The cheek of him................showering every day :rolleyes:

ya wearb I have a shower every month whether I need it or not ;)

Wearb

jimf wrote: »

ya wearb I have a shower every month whether I need it or not ;)

Dont bother much in the winter myself:eek:. A lot of truth in "Life Gets Teejus" "too much bathing will weaken you" :pac::pac::pac:

My favourite verse

"There's a mouse a-chawin' on the pantry door.
He's been at it for at least a month or more.
When he gets through there he's sure goin' to be sore.
There ain't a durn thing in there."