How long should I heat this boiler up for?

[camdenish]

In the spirit of trying to save gas I have been playing around with the time controls on the water tank.

The thing is I don’t really understand how it works. I think the small black tank is the emergency immersion tank, and the big green tank is the standard everyday one? Am I right?

In the morning I’ve been giving it 40 minutes to heat up from cold. Well coldish, as it won’t have been on since the night before. Then I have a shower. I’m wondering if I could cut this time down so the boiler is heating WHEN I am having a shower.

We might need another shower in the morning and the n some hot water during the day, not loads as we do dishes in the dishwasher. Then I put it on again in the evening for two hours. But I think I’m putting it on too early. I think it should be on while the showers baths are needed. Rather than in prior to theses, and off during them.

Of course I’m trying various different configurations but I thought someone may know how long a tank like this needs to heat up.

We don’t have the radiators on much as it’s quite a warm house. I don’t know if this makes a difference either way.

www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-British-Standard-Hot-Water-Cylinder-Jacket---457-x-1066mm-PK4/p/210203

cheaper at Screwfix

www.screwfix.com/p/hot-water-cylinder-jacket-18-x-80mm-x-1219mm/43483

Thanks, will get onto it.

even a yellow one will stay hot enough for a bath the next day (if you don't use it). yellow must be at least 30 years old, I think

You made me go look as the conversion from a school was only in the late 00’s, so shouldn’t be 30 years old.

It has a solid white exterior, no foam and not yellow . I knew it was a pale colour so went with yellow… 😂. It does seem very effective and the water will stay hot for a while.

We’ve had it checked fairly recently and the gas bloke seemed to be of the opinion this type of boiler/tank set up is pretty long lasting as you can just keep replacing parts, and you rarely need a whole new boiler.

A hard white shell is most likely a modern unvented cylinder, which can give the best hot water supply you can get.

(If it's white, it won't need a red jacket)

I think I’m scarred by a childhood of the immersion being a decadent expense.
Same here!
I was referring to Legionella when I said bacteria but maybe I'm wrong about that. I also grew up thinking you couldn't drink the water from the bathroom cold tap in case mice were swimming in the tank , however my plumber put me right on that one.

We have no gas and kerosene is astronomical atm, I wonder whether it's still cheaper to use the oil boiler rather than immersion. I do have a back boiler to the stove so that gives hot water when lit.
Now that's a complicated set of pipes and tanks.....

"...I also grew up thinking you couldn't drink the water from the bathroom cold tap in case mice were swimming in the tank...."

Drowned pigeons are more common

It depends on regional practice, and the sort of plumbing you have. In some districts the bathroom cold taps are fed from the loft cold tank, and in others they are fed from the rising main.

plumbers in one district are sometimes astonished that somewhere else it's done differently. I would guess it used to be the rules or practice laid down by the local water company.

the loft tank is a buffer so you can, for a while, draw water from taps faster than the incoming supply can deliver it. And it will even work, for a while, if the incoming supply actually fails.

I think I saw an archive letter from Dean Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) written around 1720, complaining that he was paying for a piped water supply in London, and it only reached the downstairs taps. I have never been able to find the letter again so perhaps I am mistaken.

The practice of buffer tanks in English homes dates back at least four hundred years. Other countries, that provided municial water later, often started with better flow and pressure and some do not use such tanks.

if you have an older house, the incoming water pipe is probably very small, and will not run a decent bath or shower. You can usually correct this by running a new, larger pipe in blue plastic right out to the pavement. It is not as difficult or expensive as you might think.

The practice of buffer tanks in English homes dates back at least four hundred years.

One of my relatives had a house where the water had to be pumped from a well up to a holding tank in the loft. It was the 1960s though.

I had one of those.