Electric costs, usage and provider

With Scottish power. Although the immersion heater is on all the time i would have thought it uses no extra power - it cant overheat the water surely? Just heat it up again when it cools down so theres always hot water.
 
Freefaller said:
Doesn't an immersion heater work on a thermostat so it only comes on if the temperature drops by a certain amount?
Click to expand...

yes but override will make sure it is always at max temperature and emersion heaters aren't really for hot water all the time. you meant to set them for like morning and evening and the rest of the day if there's any hot water left it just sits their slowly cooling down.
typically an immersion heater is only run a couple of hours a day not 24/7 on overdrive.

Guest2 said:
With Scottish power. Although the immersion heater is on all the time i would have thought it uses no extra power - it cant overheat the water surely? Just heat it up again when it cools down so theres always hot water.
Click to expand...


that's not how they are meant to be used and why your bill is so large.
assuming normal work times, an hour or 2 in the morning so you have water when you wake up and an hour or two in the evening when you are home.
overdrive is when you run out of hot water and want some more "fast" not just left on permanently.
 
Last edited:
Yes but some are designed to just be left on. Ours was in our flat as we didn't have gas. I ended up installing a timer on instead to do that timed on/off, but it was not designed that way. I'm not saying that's correct way of doing it, but it depends on how it was installed.
 
First items on the list when I buy a house:

No electric storage heaters
No electric-only water heating

Electicity is fine in coutnries where its cheap, but in the UK gas always works out cheaper (unless you have local feed in such as solar panels/wind turbine installed).
 
Just to give you a heads up on providers, assuming you are not locked in we just changed to Sainsbury's Fixed June 2017 deal and managed to halve our bill costs.
 
Glaucus said:
yes but override will make sure it is always at max temperature and emersion heaters aren't really for hot water all the time. you meant to set them for like morning and evening and the rest of the day if there's any hot water left it just sits their slowly cooling down.
typically an immersion heater is only run a couple of hours a day not 24/7 on overdrive.


that's not how they are meant to be used and why your bill is so large.
assuming normal work times, an hour or 2 in the morning so you have water when you wake up and an hour or two in the evening when you are home.
overdrive is when you run out of hot water and want some more "fast" not just left on permanently.
Click to expand...

We tried turning off the overdrive and leaving it on the normal setting, had a showed and it was freezing.

I'll try turning it off again tonight as does (did) seem very temperamental
 
Guest2 said:
We tried turning off the overdrive and leaving it on the normal setting, had a showed and it was freezing.

I'll try turning it off again tonight as does (did) seem very temperamental
Click to expand...

sounds like your immersion heater is knackered. Also I would like to point out that you cannot be blocked from accessing your own meter and all residents should be provided with a key to access meters.
 
Last edited:
When I had an immersion heater it was only wired to a fused on/off switch, no timer or anything fancy like that. Never left it on 24/7 though, only switched it on when required and only took 30-45min to heat a full tank. Double/triple insulate your hot water cylinder and the heat will stay in the water for longer.
 
Insulating your cylinder will help the hot water stay hot for longer, but it does sound like your immersion heater is knackered if it's not making hot water on the normal setting.
 
Or he's simply using to much hot water and thus runs out.
Simplest thing is to get it inspected.

Or if you mean it only heats on overdrive, then it's *****
 
GinG said:
Just to give you a heads up on providers, assuming you are not locked in we just changed to Sainsbury's Fixed June 2017 deal and managed to halve our bill costs.
Click to expand...

Sainsbury was the cheapest for us when we used compare the Market a few days ago. I'm not sure of the exact tarrif etc, but it said we should be £200 or so better off.

Got a batman Meerkat toy as well :D.
 
Sainsburys' Fixed June 2017 e7 prices do look good indeed, ~9.5p day; ~4.5p night; ~26p standing charge for me, compared to Fixed March 2017 on Scottish Power (~12.5p day; ~5.5p night; ~20p standing).

Only negative is a ~£30 early leaving fee, whereas currently SP is free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom