Help me understand my central heating system

[PDR]

(DH is away this week so nooone to ask...)

Right, I just had a plumber round to fix a leaking shower and I asked him why our hot water was bloody boiling and if he could turn it down a bit.

To cut a long story short, we have been using the immersion heater for all our hot water since we moved into the house.

Our old house had a combi boiler so this system is a little different.

There is a boiler in the garage and then a big cylinder (tank?) in a cupboard downstairs - the plumber said this was the immersion heater and it would be swallowing electricity....

He has now set the hot water to timed on the central heating panel thingy to come on 3 times a day for a couple of hours each time.

So my question is, is this the most efficient way to get hot water and what if I want a bath outside of these times?

It will certainly be more efficient to use the central heating boiler than the immersion heater. If your system is like ours (I think it's pretty usual), then the hot water tank in the cupboard will store up hot water which has been sent to it from the boiler. But it will also have an immersion heater embedded in it - a bit like a kettle element - which you can use to heat up the water if it is cold (or just tepid).

The hot water in the tank will just sit there, still hot, for quite a while. How long depends a bit on the sort of tank - modern ones have lots of insulation built in, but older ones will have much less and sometimes have a sort of quilted jacket put round the outside to help.

If he's set it to 2 hours, three times a day, you are likely to always have plenty of hot water available for a bath. The only time you might find it tricky would be if you wanted two baths right after each other at a time of day when the system isn't heating water - the first one would be fine, but the second might not be hot enough. But if the times are sensible, then that's not likely to happen, as you're not likely to have two people wanting a bath in the middle of the morning say.

6 hours worth of hot water a day is absolutely LOADS

For DS and I in high summer I heat 30 mins in morning and same again in early eveining and we have never ever EVER run out. I do have a decent jacket on my tank and it is in my airing cupboard

In winter I do 1 hour 3 times a day
Your plumber is right far better to heat the tank than run immersion constantly

Ok thank you both - house is very new (2006) so I am assuming the hot water tank is well insulated.

Maybe I will change times to 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour at night then?

DH and I both shower in the morning and DS has his bath around 6pm.

We have a dishwasher so only the odd bit of washing up.

It seems very excessive to have the hot water heating up for hours a day. And very expensive. We have our hot water on for twenty minutes in summer once a day. This covers one (very big naff corner) bath for my son a day and any worktop wiping etc. We have a dishwasher but pans and chopping boards get washed by hand. In winter when the water coming in is colder I put it on for two sessions of twenty minutes per day. This also keeps the pipes to tanks etc warm so they don't burst. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You are only re-heating warm water and costing yourself a lot of money. Turn it right down until you find the right level. Our heating/water system is ten years old so not as efficient as yours. Do you have the instruction booklet for the controls? If not try to find a copy on the internet. I'm horrified at how much this must be costing you.

Also if I want a bath and need to heat up more water I just press the switch "Hot Water Advance" for twenty minutes and that's more than enough for e very hot bath. Immersion heaters are very expensive to use.