What type of water heater do I need?

[Terriffids]

I'm planning to have my bathroom modernised but am struggling to work out what sort of water heater I will need. Currently the water is heated in an immersion tank which is situated in a built-in cupboard in the bathroom.

As well as the boiler being old and uneconomical I think it would be better to take the whole cupboard out to give me more space as the bathroom is very small. I want to replace it with something which gives me instant hot water, both to the bathroom and to the kitchen down below. There is no gas supply where I live and I don't really want to convert to LPG or oil, I'd much rather stick with electricity.

So can anyone please point me in the right direction for what I need to be looking at? I had an appointment with B&Q last week but the salesperson didn't have a clue about water heaters, his knowledge didn't seem to stretch beyond drawing bathroom plans on his computer.

We have an electric boiler made by Heatrae Sadia. They do two types - one that feeds water into a hot water storage tank, and another that works just like a combi boiler, providing instant hot water. Both will also run a standard wet central heating system.

They aren't cheap but we love ours.

@OrangeSamphire, thank you. Can these be fitted without being connected to any form of central heating please, just purely to heat the water?

Yes they can but if you only need it for hot water I'd not invest in one of these as they are pricey. If it's just for hot water you could go for something like this to give you instant hot water:

www.fischerfutureheat.com/electric-heaters/aquafficient/?gclid=CjwKCAiA1aiMBhAUEiwACw25MagHo0396J6GIIxOV01kZncNjQrlA8AgP02Qe1ZJYZJznamuJMxzWBoC4DoQAvD_BwE

Or, this, is similar:

www.clear-heater.co.uk/inline-hot-water-system.html

Your alternative would be a hot water tank with a coil heating element built into it, which you could run off mains or solar panels.

@OrangeSamphire, thank you, that is extremely helpful