I've recently moved into a larger house (4-bed detached) with a old floor-standing gas boiler feeding an open central heating system and hot water emersion cylinder.
The heating works fine - the problem I'm having is the length of time it takes to get hot water to the taps. Once it arrives, it's very hot and plentiful but the delay is frustrating.
As an example, it takes 2 minutes after turning the kitchen hot water tap on fully before it's anywhere near hot enough to use for washing up. For the first minute at least, it's stone cold. The heating has usually been on for hours by this point, so the cylinder should be plenty hot enough in theory. The hot water cylinder is 4-5 metres away from the kitchen sink, upstairs.
Now I've not yet had the floorboards up to know exactly where the pipes run, but even if it isn't the shortest run possible, is 2 minutes still normal ?
I had a combi boiler in my last house so have been used to a short delay (ie. 20-30 secs) before getting hot water, but past experience in houses with emersion heaters has always been that hot water often appears more instant from an emersion tank than from a combi, which is why I'm suspicious that something isn't right.
I guess the main question is, therefore, are there any other factors (besides the length of pipe runs) that affect how long it takes to get hot water from an emersion tank ?
Any comments or thoughts appreciated.
Cheers.
The heating works fine - the problem I'm having is the length of time it takes to get hot water to the taps. Once it arrives, it's very hot and plentiful but the delay is frustrating.
As an example, it takes 2 minutes after turning the kitchen hot water tap on fully before it's anywhere near hot enough to use for washing up. For the first minute at least, it's stone cold. The heating has usually been on for hours by this point, so the cylinder should be plenty hot enough in theory. The hot water cylinder is 4-5 metres away from the kitchen sink, upstairs.
Now I've not yet had the floorboards up to know exactly where the pipes run, but even if it isn't the shortest run possible, is 2 minutes still normal ?
I had a combi boiler in my last house so have been used to a short delay (ie. 20-30 secs) before getting hot water, but past experience in houses with emersion heaters has always been that hot water often appears more instant from an emersion tank than from a combi, which is why I'm suspicious that something isn't right.
I guess the main question is, therefore, are there any other factors (besides the length of pipe runs) that affect how long it takes to get hot water from an emersion tank ?
Any comments or thoughts appreciated.
Cheers.
.......or get a secondary circuit installed ....or point-of-use unvented water heaters 
