Central heating / Hot water set up and electricity usage

[bingobob]

Hi, looking for some advice on my central heating/hot water set up and the amount of electricity it's using. I had been under the impression that my gas boiler was feeding my storage tank as dictated by the timer on my control panel, however having had a look around it tonight it looks my tank actually has a thermostat and electric heater attached, the heater is attached to a box which then goes directly under floor and into fuse box at front of house, with no means of switching it off.

does this mean the electric heater (is this an immersion heater) is running 24hrs a day and that the control panel timer is having no effect, or is the boiler heating hot water 2 hrs a day in addition to the electric heater?

My electricity consumption is roughly 28Kw/hrs a day (10,000 a year) which is more than double the average. Through the use of electricity meters and switching stuff on and off I've come to believe that my heating/hot water can be the only cause.

question is can this set up be responsible for nearly 4000 Kw/hrs a year, using almost 8 Kw every night?

I have attached photos of everything to my profile

 

[stem]

Electricity usage is dependant on so many things, It is almost impossible to make generalisations when comparing your consumption with others, however, from what you say, and looking at the cable photo, I think you are probably correct.

Immersion heaters are usually rated at 3kW but will switch on and off to keep the cylinder hot as required. This depends on use, which if you have a family that all take a bath every day will be a lot more than one person that takes a 2 minute shower. Your cylinder insulation is poor, so you will loose heat there too.

The best way to find out if the immersion is live, is to check it out with a multimeter, if you are competent to do so. Otherwise leave the hot water switched off at the programmer for a few days and see if you run out of water, (or not)

The immersion heater should have a 2 pole switch adjacent to it for isolation. It should also really be fed from a dedicated fuse/MCB in the consumer unit, if you can trace the cable back you should be able to remove the fuse or switch off the MCB.

However, often, there is another switch for the immersion, usually in the kitchen and fitted with a red light. If the immersion is never used, then people sometimes fit cupboards, or cladding over the top. Even if there is a switch elsewhere, there should still be one near the immersion heater too.
Having said all of that the installation looks definitely dodgy, I would disconnect it immediately and then if you think you may want to use it in the future, or as a back up, get it wired properly.

 

[Tipper]

If the immersion heater is directly fed from the fusebox as you suggest and is fed from a separate fuseway why not take the fuse out and see what happens to your hot water.

Your boiler plumbing is obviously set up to heat the hot water cylinder.

 

[TicklyT]

Immersion heaters are usually fed from a 15 Amp fuse or a 16 Amp MCB in the fuse box / consumer unit if that helps to narrow things down a bit.

 

[big-all]

the immersion is nothing to to do with the gas heating or normal hot water
they will never be interconnected when the gas is the main supply and the electric is back up heating that is only ever used normaly when the boiler breaks down every 6 years or so

some people will use the immersion during the summer when heating isnt required but thats a different argument lol

 

[Agile]

We cannot see clearly but you seem to have a capped off tube and this may be the boiler fed supply previously used to heat the water.

The immersion should have a switch spur by the cylinder.

I recommend you get a competent heating engineer who can do electrical work to examine your system and correct it.

Electricity costs about four times the price of gas!

Tony

 

[bingobob]

thanks for the help everyone. I've switched off the hot water at the boiler control panel, if I have hot water in the morning it's obviously the immersion heater.

Will get a timer fitted to the immersion heater and see what happens with that off and the central heating hot water on.

More trial and error to go.

 

[Agile]

You would be better getting a heating engineer to see why the boiler is not heating the hot water.

Tony

 

[tamz]

On old Howden 6 bolt side entry made in New Stevenson! Never seen one of those in ages

It looks like you have an old house so the wiring for the immersion may be direct from the fuse box.
Take the cover off the immersion and test for live supply (if you feel competent to do so )

If it is live? don't bother with fitting a timer to immersion. Follow the flex from the immersion. It must go into some kind of joint box not far from the tank. Fit a 20 amp double pole switch (preferably with a neon so you know when it is on) here and turn it off.

Fit another tank jacket, some glass wool or some old carpet on top of the one that is already there. Save you some money on lost heat.