Immersion with timer

Colemania

We just moved into a rental and we're having issues with getting the timer to work correctly on the immersion, the letting agent hadn't a clue and she also thought it was an electric shower when it is in fact a power shower :pac:

So we have the on/off and sink/bath switches and there is a timer under it (identical to this one)



So when I flick the switch to constant on and leave the immersion switch at "off", the water doesn't start to fill in the tank. When I do the opposite and put the switch to "on" and leave the timer off, the water still doesn't fill.

The only way the water fills is if the switch is at "on" and the timer is also on. Now this may all sound foolish and you could say I can just leave the timer work away as normal and leave the immersion switch on but from my experience in my parents place and other places, the timer on its own should enable the hot water to come on and the immersion is only used for almost instant hot water.

So basically, I'm afraid if i set the timer and leave the immersion switch on, I could unknowingly rack up the electricity costs.

Any ideas? We also have a timer in the kitchen underneath a boiler which doesn't seem to heat the water either (may well be the radiators but its been too warm for me to have them on yet)

rightjob!

The power to heat the immersion is switched through the timer.

So leave the bath/sink switch in the ON position and use the timer to control when you want hot water.

Sleeper12

Bath/sink switch needs to be on all of the time. You can switch between bath and sink as you need but the switch itself needs to be on all of the time.
The timer comes before the sink/bath switch. So switch is always on but power only gets to it if the timer is set or set to the constantly on position. Timer in the off position doesn't allow electricity to get to the switch

Colemania

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Bath/sink switch needs to be on all of the time. You can switch between bath and sink as you need but the switch itself needs to be on all of the time.
The timer comes before the sink/bath switch. So switch is always on but power only gets to it if the timer is set or set to the constantly on position. Timer in the off position doesn't allow electricity to get to the switch

Perfect, thanks lads. So I assume the setup in my parents house with the timer downstairs in the utility room and the immersion switch upstairs outside the hotpress are not linked at all?

Sleeper12

Colemania wrote: »

Perfect, thanks lads. So I assume the setup in my parents house with the timer downstairs in the utility room and the immersion switch upstairs outside the hotpress are not linked at all?

Anything is possible. I could someone wanting the timer downstairs for the hot press. It saves having to go upstairs to turn on the hot water.



I wonder if the timer downstairs is for the gas boiler?

Colemania

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Anything is possible. I could someone wanting the timer downstairs for the hot press. It saves having to go upstairs to turn on the hot water.



I wonder if the timer downstairs is for the gas boiler?

There's no gas boiler in my parents house, they have an oil tank outside. In this house, yes I'd say the timer is for the gas boiler alright that's overhead it. Maybe that just does radiators...... Trial and error I suppose!

monseiur

As others have said leave immersion switch on all the time, but beware that if you set your timer at the 'ON' position the immersion will be on constantly and you may rack up a big ESB bill. So ensure that's it's set at the 'CLOCK' position and set clock to suit your requirments, the minimum setting is 15 minutes.
The yellow neon light just beside the 'clock' marking on timer will illuminate when immersion is on

sbsquarepants

Also worth noting is the ingrained Irish fear of leaving the immersion on is founded on very little. You can leave your immersion on all the time and you just wont get an electricity bill to rival a las vegas casinos!

I left my own turned on 24 hours a day for a couple of months untill i got around to replacing a banjoed timer - the difference was barely noticeable. The vast bulk of the energy goes into heating the water from cold to wherever the cut off point is, keeping an insulated tank at that point uses very little further energy, untill you draw off the hot water and the cycle starts over.

I wouldn't recommend doing it for too long though, i can't imagine that it's too good for the immersion, but it just doesn't cost much in energy terms.

Colemania

Thanks all. Have it sorted now albeit the timer wasn't moving so we got that replaced. The timer worked in the ON and OFF positions so we just manually flicked it on each morning to get hot water. Problem was in the evenings when we'd flick it on and forget to turn it off!

Thanks for all the help

sbsquarepants

That was the exact same timer and exact same problem that i had!
Must be a thing with them.:D

Replaced it with a digital one with a boost button, much handier.