Pulsacoil BP 180 to replace?

[Lololololo]

Hello,

I just moved in a new property (I am the owner), and now that we are in winter, I am experiencing cold shower from time to time.

The current installation is a Pulsacoil BP 180 that seems to heat during off-peak: economy 7. I usually take my shower before to go to bed, around midnight or 1am and by that time (especially on weekend), the water has been drained by other appliances or cooking etc...

When looking at the boiler, and all the buttons around, I do not see any kind of thermostat that would allow me to setup when the water needs to be boiled. I only see 3 switches:
"water pump", "off-peak", "on-peak". And all those button are on, I do not see a boost switch.

I have few questions:
1) do you think that this "on-peak" switch is the equivalent of a "boost" button but mislabeled? If that is the case, why would I ever have cold water by night?

2) if the reply to 1) is a no, how is someone supposed to force the mechanism of the Pulsacoil to boil new water? IS that possible that it was missed during the installation and I can ask a plumber to come and install it?

3) I do not know when that boiler was installed, I can only see a sticker on it saying that it was checked in 2014. I can ask a plumber to come check it out, but the reply may be biased. Do you think it is the right time to change the unit? Or maybe is it too early?

4) Finally, if I had to replace the pulsacoil, do I need to replace with the same brand? I see different storage heater online, but pulsacoil seems to be the most talked about. Is there anything out there that is more energy efficient for example? I was looking at this website where pulsacoil is not even mentioned.... and I do not see much people talking

Link removed

Thanks for reading me and thanks for your replies.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. What you have is called a thermal store, it is not a boiler.
2. The body of water inside it is heated by electricity. When you require hot water, cold water is passed through a coil within the store, the coil being surrounded by the heated water. Heat is transferred to the cold water, heating it up and supplying hot water at mains pressure.
3. They normally have two electric heating (immersion) elements.
3a. The lower one is normally connected to the Economy 7 (or similar) tariff. Thus it heats all the water in the tank on cheap rate electricity. You normally have little control over this other than an on / off switch and possibly a timer to set the times for which the Economy 7 heats the store. Even with a timer, it cannot be heated outside the normal economy tariff times.
3b. The upper one is normally connected to peak rate electricity, and heats only the upper layer (perhaps 1/3) of the store. It is intended as a "booster" to give expensive hot water if that heated by the cheap rate electricity runs out.
4. I would suggest you leave the off peak permanently connected. If you have a timer, you could use that to limit the times the store is on, but it won't make much difference.
5. From your description I'd suggest the on peak switch is your "boost" button. If the stored water is otherwise cold, this will take quite a while (around 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a guess) to provide sufficient heat for a decent shower.
6. Pictures of your store and its controls would help.

 

[Lololololo]

Thanks very much for your help, I ll take picture tonight and post it.

I think that reply quite a few of my question:
1) => on-peak = booster. Not sure thought why I had cold water during weekend though. Maybe because I pull all the hot water at once.
2) => already replied with 1)
3) => The old owner came back to me and say it was installed in 2011
4) Not sure about question 4)

 

[Terrywookfit]

Get the elements and overheat stats checked.