Anyone have a smart hot water cylinder? (Mixergy?)

[housemadd]

After much lobbying and angst about the impending economic doom, I've persuaded DH that we should modernise our old gravity fed water system with a shiny new water main and shiny new unvented cylinder.

I'm used to combi boilers. I hate how with hot water cylinders you're paying (and destroying the planet) to heat water that you don't need, and then when you do need hot water, you run out. It's like adding insult to injury.

One plumber told us about smart cylinders, which have faster recovery times and can be a bit strategic/eco about when the water gets heated. Mixergy was the brand he mentioned, but I don't know if there are others. This sounds like exactly what I want to get my cylinder to behave a bit more like a combi. I'm a bit wary, though, because all the other plumbers we've talked to have said it's not very different from what a normal cylinder does anyway. And Mixergy are a small and new brand, so they don't have the name of something like a Megaflo.

Anyone have any experiences? Good or bad?

bump

I can't really see how they'd be much different to what you currently have. It's still a large tank of water that you need to heat up.

Personally, for cost reasons if nothing else & assuming no issues with water pressure you're trying to solve, I'd keep the gravity fed system & just upgrade bits of it if needed - smart controls, top efficiency boiler, lagged pipes etc.

Worth mentioning that it's not really destroying the planet - only a very small amount of heat escapes from a modern HW tank & even then it ultimately contributes to hearing the Interior of your house.

>> hate how with hot water cylinders you're paying (and destroying the planet) to heat water that you don't need.

A modern cylinder is very well insulated so once you've heated it up the water stays hot for ages - days and days. So you're not really wasting energy (well much really). You only waste energy if you don't use what you heat up.

All new cylinders publish their average standing heat loss. For example, this 150l tank has a published standing loss of 68W - about 1.6 Kwh of energy.

>> and then when you do need hot water, you run out.
Get the correctly sized cylinder and this shouldn't be a problem.