S
sinaloa
dancinplumber suggested that I should post this in the renewable enegy forum. It started of as a question about our immersion heater but is linked to the installatiion of an ASHP - see below. Hope I have done this correctly and am not breaching any forum etiquettes.
I am a complete novice so forgive any very silly questions. Can anyone help me get to the bottom of all the conflicting advice I am getting about the potential volume of hot water my immersion heater could produce. We have just had an ASHP installed and need to rely more on our immersion heater for the volume of water we need. The ASHP seems to be at it limits to keep the house warm enough in really cold spells so to use it to heat our hot water during the day will result in the house getting cold while the water is being heated. We were advised and had hoped and expected that we could solve this problem by putting the immersion heater on a timer to reheat the water following the large usage for showers etc in the mornings. (When we had the oil boiler we used to rely entirely on the immersion heater for hot water during the summer months and did not have a problerm with shortages of hot water).We now run out of hot water if we want to shower in the afternoon/evening as well as the morning. The insulation on the tank seems to be very effective with a temperature drop at the sensor point of only a couple of degrees over12- 15 hours.
The temperature sensor on the hot water tank is towards the bottom of the tank. The firm who supplied the ASHP etc have fitted a new 29" immersion element but this has had no effect. They say that an immersion will not heat the water below the bottom of the element and certainly the temperature sensor shows that after 5 hours of the immersion being switched on the temperature of the water at the sensor point has only risen about 2 degrees (from 18 to 20 degrees). They tell me that the 29" element is the longest available and I can only expect hot water from the top 29" of the tank. The only other potential solution is to change the tank in order to have two side elements.
Other plumbers I have spoken to say that I should be able to expect an immersion heater to heat a complete tank within about an hour and a half - albeit at a high cost in electricity. That seemed to have the ring of accuracy as I understand that an immersion heater is needed with an ASHP in order to periodically boost water temperature to above 60 deg to prevent the danger of legionnaires disease.
My water tank is 1500h X 500 Diameter which I believe gives a 245l volume.
I have seen mention of dual element immersion heaters when I have looked on the internet and also mention of thermostats on the element needing to be at the bottom rather than the top but I have no idea whether this is contributing to our problem - or if I just have unrealistic expectations.
Any advice will be very much appreciated. This forum seemed to be the ideal way for me to get unbiased and reliable and expert advice.
Read more: http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/p...lying-too-little-hot-water.html#ixzz2IPozcPz5
I am a complete novice so forgive any very silly questions. Can anyone help me get to the bottom of all the conflicting advice I am getting about the potential volume of hot water my immersion heater could produce. We have just had an ASHP installed and need to rely more on our immersion heater for the volume of water we need. The ASHP seems to be at it limits to keep the house warm enough in really cold spells so to use it to heat our hot water during the day will result in the house getting cold while the water is being heated. We were advised and had hoped and expected that we could solve this problem by putting the immersion heater on a timer to reheat the water following the large usage for showers etc in the mornings. (When we had the oil boiler we used to rely entirely on the immersion heater for hot water during the summer months and did not have a problerm with shortages of hot water).We now run out of hot water if we want to shower in the afternoon/evening as well as the morning. The insulation on the tank seems to be very effective with a temperature drop at the sensor point of only a couple of degrees over12- 15 hours.
The temperature sensor on the hot water tank is towards the bottom of the tank. The firm who supplied the ASHP etc have fitted a new 29" immersion element but this has had no effect. They say that an immersion will not heat the water below the bottom of the element and certainly the temperature sensor shows that after 5 hours of the immersion being switched on the temperature of the water at the sensor point has only risen about 2 degrees (from 18 to 20 degrees). They tell me that the 29" element is the longest available and I can only expect hot water from the top 29" of the tank. The only other potential solution is to change the tank in order to have two side elements.
Other plumbers I have spoken to say that I should be able to expect an immersion heater to heat a complete tank within about an hour and a half - albeit at a high cost in electricity. That seemed to have the ring of accuracy as I understand that an immersion heater is needed with an ASHP in order to periodically boost water temperature to above 60 deg to prevent the danger of legionnaires disease.
My water tank is 1500h X 500 Diameter which I believe gives a 245l volume.
I have seen mention of dual element immersion heaters when I have looked on the internet and also mention of thermostats on the element needing to be at the bottom rather than the top but I have no idea whether this is contributing to our problem - or if I just have unrealistic expectations.
Any advice will be very much appreciated. This forum seemed to be the ideal way for me to get unbiased and reliable and expert advice.
Read more: http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/p...lying-too-little-hot-water.html#ixzz2IPozcPz5
