Would you have the hot water on all day?

[LittleBookofCalm]

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

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.uswitch.com/energy-saving/guides/heating-on-all-the-time/amp/

For most homes, having it on a timer uses less energy and is cheaper.

If you're not sure, take a meter reading, leave it on low all week, take another reading, then have it on a timer for a week, then take another meter reading. Compare how much energy you use one week to how much you use the next week. Then you'll know which way is cheaper for your household.

This is an article updated on 29/10/2018

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/

Our water comes on at 6, as does the heating, then both off at 8. Heating comes back on at 4 until 11. Both of us have showers in the morning, and I often have a second one after work - plenty of hot water. At weekends we tend to have both on constant at this time of year as I will often have a long bath of an afternoon if we’re not going out.

If you are going out do you not bother with a bath?
Piglet John will make mince meat of us educate or at least try if he's around. He's/she's quite the genius on these matters. And boyo it's so freaking complicated. Well it is in my home anyway

Insulate your tank, and everything else. It will save a fortune and keep the water hot, if you need extra put the water on again for an hour as you use it, then back on timer. Only if you use loads of water all day is it worth leaving it on, but lag your tank. Turn the water temp down to the hottest you will need, adding cold to hot is silly

We have a combi boiler so (no pun intended) we have hot water on tap 🙈 with 8 of us in the house it’s a lot easier. I’m the only one that showers in the morning but everyone else in the evening. My FIL has it like you though OP

Do people still have non combo boilers? Thought that would be very unusual?

Our new build came with a sealed condenser system. It’s really efficient.

I'm not particularly young but I didn't know about turning hot water on and off! My hot water just comes out of the hot taps and I turn the thermostat up when I want the heating on.

I am assuming from PP's that I must have a combi then.....

Traditional boilers have been around a lot longer than combis. They are also simpler with less to go wrong on them. I liked the combis we had in past houses, but for out current one the traditional boiler and water cylinder work well. They must be 30 years old so still working but not as energy efficient as newer ones.

thanks to this thread i have turned the temperature of the hot water up, as no longer young dc to worry about.

Do people still have non combo boilers? Thought that would be very unusual?

I did some googling as a result of this thread just to confirm I hadn't missed anything. (A neighbour with an identical flat has converted to combi, but I'm not planning to change, so want to be sure I'm right about pros and cons.) I eventually found a guide that says something like if you have two showers that could be in use at the same time, then 99% of the time you will be better of not having a combi.

That is indeed the exact scenario that made me suspicious of changing.

Combis are suitable for properties with only one bathroom, once you could have two showers on the go at once, you're generally outside what they can cope with. The issue is not just the ability of the combi to heat water fast enough, but of the mains to supply enough water. The cold and hot water tanks in a non-combi system mean they can cope with a higher peak demand.

To put this in context, I once measured my shower as putting out 12 litres a minute. When I was googling yesterday, I came across a page that said being able to get 15 litres a minute from your mains was considered good water pressure. I also read that not everywhere has good water pressure, and that in any case water pressure varies by time of day. So even if you could get 24 litres a minute to run two showers at the same time in the afternoon, you wouldn't necessarily be able to do so at 8pm in the evening.

We have two bathrooms but electric showers.

We have Warm Air heating, amazing fast will heat the house from cold in 15min. but its old now (30 odd years)
It also heats the water 24/7 we can't fit a timer, and replacement boiler will be around £8k and the engineer has already said it will never last as long as our current one. So we are staying put. It costs a little more to run. But I consider a warm house and hot water my biggest luxury.

Firesuit with 2 teenage DDs and 2 bathrooms and 3 other HH members I am grateful to our combi for making sure both bathrooms are not out of commission for hours on end at once. Have also been known to do the dishes to turn the shower cold on occasion.

I once stayed in a place in Australia where each ensuite had its own HW cylinder, heated by solar.

That meant that any profligate person who used all the HW would have to do without until replenished, but other people would not be inconvenienced. It also discouraged excessive water use.

It seemed like an ideal arrangement for HMOs or big families. Over here you might heat them all from a common boiler.

It's definitely more expensive to have it on all day rather than on demand.

I tested this out over a 2 month period. Never again - my bills were 4x higher!