DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi – I’ve just moved into a house and my hot water is not being heated by the boiler (apparently it hasn’t been connected up to the timer – don’t ask me why), so until we get this fixed we are heating water by turning the immersion on.

We put this on overnight – we have the thermostat set at 60C – once the tank of water reaches 60C, does it switch off or does it just keep heating. I realise that using the immersion is not the most efficient, I just would like to know whether the heating filament is on all night (and using lots of electricity) or if it just comes on as and when the water drops below 60C.

Apologies if this is such a simple question – I’m not particularly DIY minded. For info, we have a modern water tank – a Heatrae Sadia Megaflo.

Thanks.

The immersion has an integral thermostat (that is usually adjustable) so as soon as the water reaches temperature will switch off.

If it can be arranged for the element to work on low tariff electricity, it can be as economical as being heated by any other means.

Try to put the immersion on about two hours before you will be drawing amounts of hot water as this will save energy being lost through the tank wall especially if the tank does not have proper modern foam insulation. If the hot water is used only for general washing and cleaning, one charge may be sufficient to last for 24hrs.

Thanks very much for the answer