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AIBU?

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Original poster

Would you have the hot water on all day?

167 replies

LittleBookofCalm · 30/10/2018 07:48

I have it on a timer, same as the heating
however if you want a shower or bath in the middle of the day in my house, you need to make sure there is hot water.

do others do the same?
this is a money saver in my eyes

OP posts:
Spam88 · 31/10/2018 08:05

I've always had combi boilers until we moved here 2 years ago and I can't say I've noticed any difference in terms of practical use or bills. Possibly the system boiler is cheaper because our bills are no higher than they've ever been despite having the heating on more (and heating a much larger property) and frequent baths for the little one. Other than our third day here when we didn't understand how the boiler worked, we've never run out of hot water. Plus you get the lovely warm airing cupboard ☺️

BrickByBrick · 31/10/2018 08:12

Both systems give you hot water, I am not sure why the hand wringing about having a hot water tank.

The op asked about having it on all day, not to be told the only way forwards is for her to change it to a combi. (And she may be in rented accommodation anyway)

Original poster
LittleBookofCalm · 31/10/2018 08:28

Well I like my airing cupboard, not only for socks but DH prooves his dough in there!

last night i asked a similar question i was told i was unreasonable for not having permanently running hot water.
strange indeed.
anyway it seems a timer is the way to go, ignoring the advice to change the boiler! Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
LittleBookofCalm · 31/10/2018 08:29

sorry, last time I asked the question here,

OP posts:
BabyNumberDeux · 31/10/2018 08:31

Hot water is available all day.
Heating is on all day, controlled by turning radiators on and off and by the remote thermostat.

I'm just not prepared to be cold in winter so would rather sacrifice other bills than heating!

CartwheelCath · 31/10/2018 08:32

We always had tank and timer ch whilstvi army housing. 11 different homes. Some boilers more and some tanks better insulated.

We always found to have our water on morning and night for a couple of hours worked out better than having it on constant. Most of the time we didn't need to use the boost function very often but there were times we did with 3 teens in the house and one house with a huge and ancient bath. Dh worked shifts and still managed a hot bath or shower at whatever time of day or night
We now live with in our own home with a combi. We were told it would it marvellous. Its shit. I wash hands in cold water everytime I wash them. The boiler fires up for 30 seconds every time but The heated up water sits in the pipes where it has no insulation and goes cold pretty much instantly. We never had this problem with a tank.
I would suggest investing in good tank insulation would be better than constant hit water heating.

CartwheelCath · 31/10/2018 08:37

No dont change your boiler. You have no back up with a combi. If it goes wrong you don't have an immersion switch to flick. You have no heat and no hot water!!
Also, alot of new builds around here seem to be going back to hw tanks. Not sure why but 3 different builders locally have tanks in their show homes and not a combi boiler in sight!!
Can you tell I'm not a combi boiler fan!!Grin

OlderThanAverageforMN · 31/10/2018 08:39

Large house, standard boiler and tank. On timer, we were always running out of hot water, daily baths and showers all at the same time, so always needing to put the immersion on. Over the last couple of years we have gone to putting the hot water on all day, rather than boosting with the immersion, and my bills have gone down. The other thing we did was increase the thermostat on the tank, so the water is now very hot, rather than just hot, now the DC are older they can cope with boiling water coming out of the taps and this means you need less to fill a bath, as you can mix with cold.

OlderThanAverageforMN · 31/10/2018 08:41

Additionally, my plumber won't install combi boilers as they are so problematic. When our, now 20 year old boiler ceases to function, he will replace with the same updated version. Never had an issue with it in all these years Shock

BrickByBrick · 31/10/2018 08:42

Well I like my airing cupboard, not only for socks but DH prooves his dough in there!

The multi functions of an airing cupboard.

And my socks are still wet this morning.

Cheerfulasever · 31/10/2018 08:55

Hot water all day! Couldn't stand waiting for it to heat up!!

RossPoldarkfan · 31/10/2018 09:00

I'm surprised how many people still have an old fashioned boiler with tank. A combi is so much better with instant hot water. For those who say there is no back up, you can almost always get a gas man to come out very fast in case of breakdown and the hot water tank will not give you heating.

giantbanger · 31/10/2018 09:01

Not everywhere has mains gas and not everyone has a boiler that needs replacing

dementedpixie · 31/10/2018 09:03

If you have the timer on at the right times then you dont need to wait for hot water! Doesn't need to be on all day for hot water to be available when you need it. Also haven't had issues with my 20 year old conventional boiler although parts will be harder to get hold of now.

SoupDragon · 31/10/2018 09:03

For those who say there is no back up...

Just have at least one electric shower. We've used that when there's been a fault with the boiler.

dementedpixie · 31/10/2018 09:04

If I replaced a boiler then I'd get the same as I have. I don't want a crappy combi that means you can't have hot water out multiple taps at the same time

giantbanger · 31/10/2018 09:04

This house has a new condensing boiler that was replaced less than a year before I bought the house. Why would I rip that out?

Firesuit · 31/10/2018 09:08

A tank system is always capable of out-performing a combi of the same power. Saying that is a bit of a cheat, because tank systems usually need and have less power, precisely because they can service higher demand than a combi without ever falling short. (We have a tank, we have only ever lacked hot water when the boiler was broken. And when the boiler was being replaced, we didn't have to go without hot water while the work was done, as we could use hot water from the tank.)

It's not a general characteristic of tank systems that they run out of hot water, that's a characteristic of a system that was under-powered for the demand it had. If you'd put in a system boiler that was closer in power output to the combi that you think solved your problem, you would also have stopped running out of hot water.

I doubt my mains water supply can supply water fast enough to run two power showers simultaneously. I'm not sure why, but as far as I know converting to a combi means getting rid of the cold water tank in addition to the hot water tank. So I wouldn't convert to a combi because it would restrict the amount of water I could use at a point in time, never mind the amount of hot water.

Firesuit · 31/10/2018 09:12

A combi is so much better with instant hot water.

That makes no sense. Assuming the boilers are in the same location relative to the user, the system that only heats the water when you turn the tap on cannot possibly get hot water to you faster than the system that has preheated it even before you turn the tap on. The best it can do is be just as good.

SoupDragon · 31/10/2018 09:17

I don't want a crappy combi that means you can't have hot water out multiple taps at the same time

Why would you get a crappy version of any boiler?

maggienolia · 31/10/2018 09:20

We had hot water for a few hours on Sunday only when I was growing up. As soon as the tank was full, off it went.
Rest of the week it was kettle or wash in cold

We have a combi, problem is if we go to a holiday cottage and DD has her normal marathon shower she can't get her head round the idea that there is NO MORE WATER if it's a tank system.

CandyCreeper · 31/10/2018 09:20

I dont know what I have Confused but the hot water runs out and you have to wait again, i got it replaced the other day and i thought they would change it over but didnt.

anyway back to the op mine is always on

bumblingbovine49 · 31/10/2018 09:30

We have a combi boiler so we have hot water on tap. No need to turn on the hot water. When you open a hot water tap, you get hot water.

In my previous home (a flat) we the separate hot and cold water storage which drove me a bit potty as I was used to a combi boiler growing up.

My dad had a combi fitted when we had central heating fitted in the 70s, They were very new then. As I grew up with one (as far as I could remmber anyway) I never really understood about heating the water for a bath or running out of hot water until I moved out in my 20s!!

Fluffy40 · 31/10/2018 09:40

It depends on your system, and what type of metering you have.

Speak to your energy company as each customer will be different.

We have a very well insulated hot water tank and a condensing boiler.

JennyOnAPlate · 31/10/2018 09:54

Ours goes on for an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. We'd never leave it on all day; it would cost a fortune!

We can't have a combi boiler because our house is too big with too many radiators. The major downside with them is that if they break you have no hot water until someone can come and fix it (as we discovered in our last house!)

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