Hot water boiler Santon Premier - cheaper always on or not? PigletJohn?

[webminx]

Hi,
We live in a newbuild and have a large hot water tank upstairs (santon premier plus unvented) with a control downstairs (Channelplus h27xl) to turn it (and the heating) on/off. The builder told us it's cheapest to leave it on all the time, but I'm not convinced - it seems to heat the water up to a very high temperature (which keeps upstairs really hot, even in summer) and we don't need boiling hot water, nor do we need hundreds of litres every day. We turned it off just to see how it would go on Fri, and as of Monday afternoon, we still have enough hot water. Any advice? Is it energy efficient to just turn on when needed? Or use the boost function ahead of planned use (i.e. baths/showers?) TIA for any advice!

No but post some photos.

Or, as you say the controls are Dimplex, I expect the instructions will be online. You will need all the type and model numbers you can find.

You're better off starting a new thread with a title like "Dimplex Hot Water Controls"

has anyone got the instructions for the x-Dimplex program to heat the santon premier plus water tank heater dial zone 1 over night

Hi Pigletjohn...help! I have a santon premier boiler. All I want is to work out how to have hot water in the morning...there’s a Honeywell control which is set for 6-9am, next to the cylinder there are 2 switches, 1 for the boiler, 1 for the immersion.
Do I need to have the immersion on? I switched it off the other day and we ran out of hot water but I thought the immersion was switched on if the other wasn’t working??

Post some photos of the controls and the pipework.

The Santon is a cylinder, not a boiler.

Have you got a gas boiler?

We’re on oil...Just working out how to post the photos!

Controls

Pipes and cylinder

sorry for the delay. Nothing sprang out at me. You should be able to turn the immersion heater off, except when the boiler is out of action.

The time control for the boiler should turn it on, for hot water, for about an hour in the morning (before showers) and about an hour in the evening (before bathtime)

I see that your switch marked "immersion" has a fuse, which is not correct. Is the cable that comes out of it a thick, round, rubbery flex; or is it flat, shiny plastic? You should have at least one thick round rubbery flex going into the cylinder, which will be for the immersion heater. The immersion heater flex carries more current, for long periods, than any of the other cables, and enters the cylinder casing, so it is heat-resistant and thicker. There might be an upper and a lower immersion heater going into the cylinder, one neat the top and one neat the bottom, but you have only a single switch, so yours is probably near the bottom.

If you turn the immersion heater on, then (unless the cylinder is already hot) you should see your electricity meter start to flash red more rapidly (or the wheel to spin faster, if an old one).

Your timer seems to have only one setting on it (not a hot-water setting and a central-heating one) so most likely it controls hot water only. Is that right?

Yes that's right. The heating is on a separate control panel.
The immersion does have a thicker wire coming from it.
I turned the immersion off again and we have no hot water even though the boiler timer had kicked in.
If the immersion and the boiler switches are on and I can hear it working/heating, when I turn off the boiler switch nothing happens but when I turn off the immersion it all stops.

does the "immersion" switch make the electricity meter flash or turn faster?

"when I turn off the immersion it all stops."

the marking might be wrong, or the switch might have been repurposed to run the pump. Some people use the word "immersion" to mean "cylinder".

I can't see the wiring layout from your pics. Next time the system is serviced (unvented cylinders should be checked annually) ask the engineer to work out how it is wired. The switch for the immersion heater should have no effect on the boiler and its pump that heat the cylinder. The electric immersion heater should only be a fallback for use when the boiler is out of action.

Yes that's what I thought...it seems like it's wired wrong. I'll get someone out.
Thank you so much for your help...really appreciated

Hi admin. I also have the Santon premier invented hot water systems boiler. I seem to run out of hot water in under 10 mins. Which is difficult living in a large household. Is there anything I can do to ensure hot water runs constantly. My thermostat states my hot water is on "constant" but this does not reflect the water temperature. Thankyou

"Seem?"

What are the dimensions of your cylinder?

Is there a label showing its capacity?

Will it fill a bath?

If it was, say, a 300 litre cylinder (which is rather big) the only way it could run cold in ten minutes would be if you had a Niagara-like shower delivering 30 litres of water per minute.

Do you?

Post your photos please.