Heating hot water tank all day

[ro250]

We have a new condensing boiler on a sealed system. Our heating controls are quite basic and only allow heating + hot water on and off on 2 timed cycles per day but not individually (i.e. we can’t have heating times different to hot water times). What we normally do is manually switch off the hot water after it’s been on a while as we need heating to remain on.

I realise that once the hot water tank is to temperature it stops calling for heat anyway, but I wondered whether we should just leave it on all the time and us switching it off is pointless? The tank is in the middle of the house upstairs and lagged with a some sort of solid foam.

I also realise we should get a more sophisticated timer but we’ve just had lots of work done and I’d like a break from tradesman visits!

I suppose what I don’t know is how much heat the tank loses and therefore if we’d be wasting heating the tank say in the evening when the water won’t be used until the next morning?

[ro250]

Sure, I know we could get a new timer, I'm asking in relation to our current setup.

[ro250]

Alucidnation said:

ro250 said:

Sure, I know we could get a new timer, I'm asking in relation to our current setup.

That’s why I asked what programmer you have got

One that doesn't support separate times for heating and hot water!

[ro250]

devnull said:

I think you need to do a test.

Have your hot water tank heated up to temp, and not heating. Do a task such as washing your hands with hot water, washing up etc, see how long the tank then starts calling for heat.

I leave mine on continuously - its about 5 minutes for the tank to come on, call for heat and turn off in the scenarios I described above.

That's an option I can try. I've always thought that was less efficient than heating the tank in one go but now wonder if there is any difference.

[ro250]

MOBB said:

Huntsman said:

We had no control of our hot water, were bleeding heat and gas.

We just had a hive put in, temperature in the pantry where the boiler is has dropped significantly, but we still have plenty of HW when we need it.

Get a Hive.

This :-)

I'm not convinced I need a Hive. Like a lot of families, our life follows a routine most of the time so we can set our heating and hot water to come on at set times to fit around that (nothwithstanding my original post where I'd prefer a slightly more sophisticated timer to control heating and HW separately).

It's incredibly rare I have ever felt it would have been beneficial to control my heating when I'm out. I don't need it to be smart. I have a thermostat which kicks in when the house temperature drops.

To me, these systems seem to be solving a problem which didn't exist and I'm quite confident there's a data gathering incentive for Centrica with the Hive system as is the case with most of these new internet of things products.