To be fed up with DH turning off the hot water?!

[Daffodil2018]

Just that really. I'm on mat leave at the moment so in the house most of the day. Every single time I go to run the hot tap, only cold comes out so I go and check the water tank and - lo and behold - he's turned the hot water completely off AGAIN. He does it all the time.

This is so fucking annoying on many levels. I want to wash my hands in hot water after changing a nappy. I don't want to have to wait half an hour to run DD a warm bath each evening. There is a timer setting, which he could just leave it on, but NO. Off entirely.

I've asked him so many times not to do it and he either LIES (!!!) about it or says "but we don't need it on all the time". He is being a stingy bastard if you ask me. Alright for him going off to his office all day.

I literally do nothing except look after the baby at the moment and I think having hot water to wash my hands/her stuff in is not just hygienically necessary but a basic comfort too. AIBU?!

I can't imagine why anyone would have anything but a Combi boiler these days.

I didn’t in my last house because I didn’t have a gas supply and there wasn’t a single external wall that was far enough from a window. (Tiny terrace house)

@Gth1234 He's a div. It's more efficient to keep a tank warm than to keep having to heat it up from cold every time.

why would you even think that? My MIL in a retirement complex left her hot water on permanently. Saved her a fortune when we realised, and turned it off.

Because it is, I have my electric on a key system (I can physically see the cost of everything) it costs far more to keep reheating a tank of water twice a day then it does to keep one warm permanently. Maybe not for you Nan but for some of us/or some emersions it does.
So to answer your question "why you would even think that?" Well for me personally I actually know as a FACT.

I live in an oldish house, probably about 50/60 years old. I have a combi boiler. My dsis lives in a new build house about 5/10 years old and has a water tank. These are both HA houses.

Red flags here for me. I have just mustered up the courage to leave my husband of 15 years after years of controlling behaviour. It started with things like this. Being a 'div' is not an excuse, you have asked him reasonably and he continues to ignore you.

I’d be standing by his hot shower with a big bucket of cold water, and tossing it in. Extra points if it’s the nappy bucket.

Tell him it was him being a tosser that gave you the idea.

Quick update - he has not touched the controls and having it on the timer seems to be working well! You still have to run the tap for a bit to get the hot water flowing but that's pretty standard from what I can tell.

Just to reassure people, this is not a red flag for abuse, although I really appreciate the concern. He is a lovely man! We just needed to have a calm chat about it I think as previous attempts had always been rather heated ... unlike the water (boom boom).

@bustergonad

sorry - you are so obviously wrong. It just cannot possibly to true that it is efficient to maintain hot water at a temperature above ambient.

Anyway, here's a link

www.cse.org.uk/advice/energy-saving-tips/energy-mythbuster

Glad you got hot water/basic necessities Daffodil2018, just hope it isn't temporary until he thinks you've calmed down. 'Heated' arguments over you having a basic necessity like hot water is still concerning. You know your DH, we can only go off your posts, but I still find his opinions iffy.

@Gth1234 I am not wrong, I checked for myself, to reheat the water to run a bath etc costs a lot more than to keep the immersion warm all day. Once the tank is warm it doesn't cost much to keep it that way, to reheat all the water in the tank from cold costs a lot more. You can believe what you like but for me personally I prefer to keep it on and I find it's very cost effective. Also, if the water stays hot in the tank for a good few hours then I'm not actually using any electric until it gets below the desired temperate, and surely then it will only need to warm it up for a bit. I don't get the logic of heating from cold twice a day being better then keeping it topped up all day.
For my electric per week I'd spend about £25 I do not have gas so that's everything. In the winter with the central heating on it's obviously more.

Also who wants to live in a world where you've got to wait for hot water to wash your hands, or do the washing up? We are not living in the 3rd world. I want hot water when I turn the tap on not an hour after I've flicked the switch! Hence why the op started this thread!

If/when he turns it off again I'd be throwing a cold cup of water at him when he's in the shower. That'll remind him!

But you aren't heating from cold to hot twice a day as the tank insulation keeps the water hot. You are merely bringing it back up to temperature.

I don't have to wait for hot water at all as the timer goes on first thing in the morning for an hour or two and then around 5pm which gives plenty enough hot water for our needs. Shower is electric so heats its own water. Appliances are cold fill so don't need hot water either

@dementedpixie exactly, so I'm not heating it up all day either.
I've seen what my electric meter says and I'm not going to save the odd 20p per day and have cold water. Sod that. If I'm on the bread line then far enough.

Fair enough.

@Princesspickle777

since he's left for work, it won't matter. He will be saving money, and when he comes back, it will be warm again in half an hour.

Still you carry on. I expect you keep the heating on all day, and open the windows if it gets too warm. Boil a kettle every few minutes in case you might have a drink. Keep the oven on all day long in case you want to cook something. That's what leaving the hot water on all day is doing.

^ sorry - not sure where princesspickle777 came from. I was trying for @bustergonad again.

^ @princesspickle777 was on page 1.
Anyway, I will withdraw now. I have to check my hot water tank.

@Gth1234 get over yourself, if you actually looked further than your nose you'd realize there aren't any savings to switching it on and off, and for your information, I actually don't use the heating much as I've just upgraded my double glazing and with the log burner it's as warm as toast. You've really got a bee in your bonnet about this. You need to do some experimenting yourself before being a real grouchy git and coming to assumptions about people you've never met.

It's NOTHING like a kettle you fool. Kettles boil and boil when they are forced to stay on, they do not re boil when going cold. I hate the people that compare the two when they are nothing a like at all.
A thermostat switches itself off at the desired temperature then switches back on when it's below the temperature. Then turns off until it cools down again. It's not a lot of electric to do this. It works pretty much the same as my electric heating, it's all very economical really.
I'd much rather pay a extra £1 or 2 a week to have hot water on tap. Call me a spoilt cow, that's what I obviously am!

Oh look, someone else has done the experiment I did, leave it on vs switch it off. Look at his results!

I won't post any more. I was just responding to the OP's view that her DH was wrong to turn the water off to save money. It does save money. Whether it is worth paying the extra money to have the water piping hot is a different argument.

It's exactly like a kettle, though. Keeping the water hot on a thermostat is exactly the same as keeping the kettle on. Having it on now and again is like putting your water in a thermos flask, and then just warming it up again when it gets too cold to wash your pots.

By the same token, I occasionally go round the house turning lights off, so the house doesn't look like Blackpool. Even though most of our lights are now LED, rather than incandescent (that's just me), and very quickly save the cost of buying the LED bulbs in the first place, they still aren't free to run. :)

Glad I could help.

This is fascinating to me as I'm in Australia and we just have hot water as soon as you turn on the tap, what's this about timers and turning hot water off and on repeatedly?

I live in the UK but am baffled by this thread! I have lived in about 8 houses and flats as an adult with one would assume all different types of boilers and have never come across switching hot water on and off or having a timer for hot water. I have always just expected hot water when I turn the hot water tap on. My energy bills have always been at quite normal levels.
I think I’m going to have to do quite a lot of googling!

"It's exactly like a kettle, though. Keeping the water hot on a thermostat is exactly the same as keeping the kettle on. Having it on now and again is like putting your water in a thermos flask, and then just warming it up again when it gets too cold to wash your pots."

Not true, a kettle switched on and left on would boil over, a thermostat turns off WHEN it reaches its set temperature. It doesn't stay on like a kettle when switched on and forced to stay on.
The water in the tank will stay warm for hours, regardless if the plug is switched on or off, when the temperature dips, my thermostats will reheat it to the set temperature yours will reheat it when you turn the switch on. Nether of them uses electric when the water is still hot. So after you've turnt yours off you are not using electric and nether am I until hours later when my tank has cooled down slightly, it will then use a little bit to get warm again then it will turn off again. It's the opposite of a kettle bring constantly forced to boil.

"Having it on now and again is like putting your water in a thermos flask, and then just warming it up again when it gets too cold to wash your pots."
You see, I do have mine on now and again, because once again my thermostat doesn't switch on until my tank goes below a certain temperature, it uses zero electric if my tank is still hot. It doesn't boil boil boil to its merry self all day long. Once it's hot it stays hot, just like yours.