Hot water: HELP

[Leeqwertatbridlington]

Hi

Myself, partner and little one have just moved into a rented flat.

It seems you heat the hot water up with a gas boiler and then it stores the water in a talk in an airing cupboard. We have always had a combi boiler and hot water on demand so this is all new to me. Currently we have it on at 6.00 am and off at 7.30 am. We all shower between 6.40 and 7.15. Does this seem like a reasonable set up? In the evening we out it on from between 7pm and 7.30 pm.

My question is how do these work. surely when the tank is empty it fills up with cold water and u cannot shower?

The problem is we often have guests on the weekend, meaning 5 people may need to shower at one time. I am pretty sure the tank will not hold enough water for 5 people and once empty from 2 or 3 showers, how will the other two get hot water? How do we ensure there is enough hot water for everyone? Surely putting the timer on longer just keeps the water in the tank hotter longer but once it's all gone and fills up with cold, it will not heat it quick enough for the next persons shower.. In addition to the timer setting there is an advance button two which u can press and it seems to turn hot water on...presumably it turns boiler on??

Sorry for silly questions but never had such a boiler and tank before. I don't wanna be a bad host!!!!

How large is the tank . We can run 2 showers and still have enough left for a bath. Unless you have a electric shower it probably won't be enough for 5 consecutive showers though. It reheats fairly quickly and keeps warm so if you need hot water during the day may be worth having it on a little longer am so it has time to top up the temperature and isn't heating from cold in the evening. Advance simply brings forward the "on" time. Is there an electric Immersion heater on the tank too , useful as a back up if boiler ever fails or you need hot water in a hurry .

We have the exact same set up in our rented house. Crap isn't it?! Also have the 'advance' button which, as far as I can make out, just switches the boiler on until the next time it's programmed to do something (turn on or off).

I find our tank is enough for a bath and shower and a bit of washing up. I'd be surprised if you got 5 showers out of it! We have it set to come on 6.30-8am and 5-6.30pm and that covers us for ds bath in evening, washing up all bloody day and a shower for each of us per day (alternate days). I heard you need to allow about 1hr plus for the tank to heat up.

Our boiler has however packed up as of yesterday. So we have neither heating nor hot water.

I'm sure guests will understand there's not enough hot water - used to be the norm before combi boilers came along. Could they divide showers up between evening and morning? You're right - you'd have to wait for the tank to heat up again.

You may find it only takes about 20 minutes to reheat so if the hot water is used up after maybe 2 showers but you leave the water on, someone else can have a shower not much later. But you'll just need to try it and see. You could tell your guests who want a shower to have it either in the morning or before bed, not all in the morning. I usually find when I have guests that they don't seem to want to wash.

I think the Advance button just puts the hot water (or heating) on, so if you have the hot water/heating set for certain times but want it on for longer, the Advance button turns it on again without you needing to change all your timer settings. I think some Advance buttons turn it on for one hour and some turn it on until the next timer setting. You could look the instructions up on the internet if you can find the name of the boiler and the timer.

I'm in the opposite situation. I'm used to houses with a hot tank and a cold tank, but now I'm renting a house with a combi boiler. I miss the airing cupboard for drying washing and we find the combi is useless for baths as the water constantly goes cold so we have to have showers only.

Thanks guys

Spoke to my mum and she said she doesn't think 1.5 hours is long enough. But what benefit do people get by putting the hot water on longer in the morning?? Surely once the tank is full of hot water it's full and then once it's empty the hit has gone, u are left with cold and therefore having it on longer wont make a scrap of difference?!!! Regarding times, it doesn't matter if the hot water has gone off by the time yu shower does it? Because the tank keeps it warm for when u need to shower. Wat benefit is there in having an overlap time on ur timer (I'd it co,es on before u shower and off after u have showered??)

With the guests, what happens if I put it on for 1.5 hours in the morning as usual and then when person two is in the shower, I put the hot water back on amd leave a 30 minute gap after person 3 and before person 4 showers, will there then be enough hot water for the 5 would u say??

Thanks again!

Unless you use the water , no additional amount of time is going to give you more than a tank's worth without time in between to reheat the cold topping it up. Bearing in mind most of the temperature will be retained from the evening before it won't take long for the system to bring it up hot in the morning. As long as you leave a gap with system on there will be more heated ready for next person. There is an element of trial and error but I'd say for daily use 1.5 hours is enough

I actually think 1.5 hours of heating the water in the morning may be longer than necessary for 2 showers, whereas half an hour in the evening might be too short if you're using the water in the evening (washing up?) In my last house, we usually had it on for either 1 or 1.5 hours in the morning and the same in the evening. But it depends on your system and tank size so you need to just try it and see. I always found that hot water ran out more quickly in winter though I'm not sure that is logical as the tank is lagged.

Once it's heated up, you won't get more hot water by leaving it on for longer. But the water will gradually cool down when it's turned off. So if you had the water heating in the morning but didn't use it, the water in the tank will have cooled down quite a lot by the evening and probably wouldn't be hot enough to use without reheating.

With guests, I would just put the water on for longer. So whilst someone is showering and using up water, the cold water is refilling the hot tank and it is immediately starting to reheat the cold water, so there's no reason to wait until they are out of the shower. Then maybe after 2 people have had showers, get the others to wait about 15+ minutes between showers for the water to reheat. I'd expect any guest to understand you don't have an endless supply of hot water and maybe some should shower at night.

you are not running a hotel and the concept of infinite hot water is not to be expected.

of course, once the water is heated the boiler stops heating it, so it doesn't matter if the timer is 'on' - the boiler will still go off.

my experience of gas boilers is that there should be enough hot water for a shower or bath in about half an hour from stone cold, assuming your boiler is not out of the ark, your tank is properly lagged and people don't expect a 20 minute shower.

is is the eco friendly shitty system?

Ours comes on at 6.30am and goes off at 8.30am enough warm (would like to say hot but has a temperature cut off valve) water for a shower, many dishes, then DS comes in around and showers around 5/6pmish (warm) and it's back on from 5-8pm. DS2 usually has a bath around 8pm.

When we moved in a neighbour said to put it on for one hour per day , that last 1/2 a shower and that was that. I have another switch, electrical immersion heater (I think)