Please help clueless me understand if i’m wasting money on heating water

[Brokenbuttercup]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I’m a but clueless when it comes to house stuff (stbxh always sorted such things and I really don’t want to ask him!)

I have a system boiler with a gas boiler in the kitchen, a large water tank in the airing cupboard and a digital thermostat in the hall. It’s a new build house, and as such it’s pretty warm and doesn’t need a lot of heating. I’ve set the thermostat to standby meaning the central heating is essentially off but will guard against frost damage. Hoping to keep this off until we get to the real depths of winter.

The bit I’m struggling to understand is the hot water. My boiler is permanently on and I therefore always have a full tank of hot water. The tank is massive and I really don’t need that volume of hot water. Should I be setting a timer for my hot water? Is it constantly using gas to keep the tank full and heated or does it just top up hot water once I have used some? I’m not sure if not using any of the water to heat the radiators actually makes any difference to the amount of gas I use if it’s in the tank already and constantly being heated??

I have tried Google but it’s hurting my head. Can anyway explain how it works in layman’s terms please??

We usually shower/bath in the evenings.

Hot water on a 5am for an hour.

On again for 3 hours 4pm till 7pm.

BG have done my yearly check. I asked the same question ( boiler is 2 years old) BG advised me to keep hot water on permanently
Three of us here with short daily showers, no washing up

I have mine on for 30 mins at 5am- have done for years. That's been absolutely fine. In the last few weeks I've dropped it down to every other day and it's still fine, I just need to add slightly less cold water on the off days.
And I'm not someone who would tolerate cold showers just to save money

I've been wondering the same thing but I'm in all electric so have an immersion heater

Here’s my anecdata: we’ve always had our hot water on a timer - 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. Last week, with the price cap announcement, I decided to drop it to an hour at each time and see what difference that made.

We have not run out of hot water (2 adults showering in the mornings, 2 kids bath in the evening plus washing up) and looking at the daily spend on our Smart meter our daily usage has dropped by an average of 20-30p per day. We’re on an old fixed rate tariff that ends 31st Oct and our bills will pretty much quadruple. That 20-30p is going to become 80p-£1.20 per day on the new rate which is £24-£36 per month. It’s a no brainier!

We have our hot water on a timer. 2 hours in the morning before we wake and two hours in the evening. Our gas bill is low. We have s smart meter and at present my 4 bed detached uses around £4 a day on gas and electric. I haven’t checked it in the last week as I’m not there, dh is.

My dh is very savvy when it comes to working out these bills. He has argued with the energy customer service staff on the phone before as they have worked out the total owing incorrect and they’ve worked it out wrong and to their advantage. He’s had to get management involved and get them to work it out too. They’re clueless.

I have started heating my hot water for 1 hour per day. My appliances are cold fill and my shower is electric so I don't need a lot of hot water really.

I would ignore their advice tbh. No need for it to be on all the time if you get enough hot water by having it on for a much shorter period of time

Of course British Gas would say that 🤣. Just as I would suggest you buy something from our company every day……

Definitely far cheaper on a timer with an immersion. They use a lot of electricity.

We have the same a megaflow water tank which is really well insulated. I always thought therefore it wouldn’t really matter if the hot water was on all the time. Anyway I had it on a timer for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and heating off. Had it like that for ages. Then husband and kids went camping so I turned the hot water completely off and just used up the tank over a couple of days. When DH and the kids came back he switched the water to permanently on rather than timer. It was about 5 days before I noticed. Looking at the app we used nearly double the amount of gas on those 5 days than we had been using alt he time before on timer. So I’d say yes it makes a difference and now ours is back on timer and I’ve dropped it to one hour in the morning and 30 mins in the evening and we have enough hot water and are back to using much less gas.

Experimenting with mine.

got it down to 1hr 30 mins in the am and 1 hr 50 mins at night.

One long shower in the morning and two or three in the evening. We’ve a cold fill washing machine and a dishwasher.

we can only set for twice a day.

in addition to the number of hours it’s set for I am trying to work out what’s the best time. Is it best to heat before and during your water use period, or just before?

My hot water is on continuously and I am on a prepayment meter.
No heating on at the moment and no gas cooker and it costs us 95p per day so will leave it for now.

I have a similar set up and next to the boiler is a timer I can set which I set to heat up water for an hour twice a day. Do you have one of these? If it's similar I could guide you through it

Your set up is like ours, we too have a pressurised hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard.

You should have a control unit somewhere (ours is in the boiler cupboard in the kitchen) enabling you to set the times that the hot water heats up and central heating goes on and off.

The hot water cylinder is very well insulated so the water stays hot a long time (a bit like a giant vaccum flask).

Two of us live in the house. We use for hot water only in summer so I can see that my hot water is costing 43p per day ( currently paying 12.72p per kWh) plus the daily standing charge. The boiler heats the hot water for 40 minutes per day, the hot water cylinder thermostat is set at 60C.

For this, we each have a short shower in the morning, wash up some hand dishes once a day (most goes in the dishwasher) and occasionally have a couple of extra quick showers. Husband has a daily wet shave using hot water. We wash hands in cold water and try not to use the hot tap.

We are careful not to run the hot tap unnecessarily and manage very well on this amount of hot water.

If you cannot find a timer control for your hot water, contact a plumber who will fit one for you. I believe it is not cost effective to heat the hot water 24/7. It is also causing unnecessary wear and tear on the pump and using electricity.

We also have a water tank in an airing cupboard. I need to tweak my times. When DH has a bath he drains the entire tank! My dd just had a shower and the water went cold on her 🙄

We have the same. I only turn the hot water on for about an hour a day...it's always hot when we need it. In fact l forgot to turn it on the other day. Was still hot when l washed up. But we don't have baths, just showers and only two of us