Cost of heating water?

[sandra50]

Does anyone know which is the cheapest please? To heat water from an emmersion or from a gas central heating boiler ( not a combi ). If the answer is emmersion , is it better to keep it on constantly or just when you want it? Thanks

[Ethel]

Are you on economy 7? If so, it is cheaper to use the immersion during the cheap period.

How much hot water do you use? My immersion is on for one hour a day and is more than enough for me, so it is cheaper than putting the central heating on.

[Ice.Maiden]

That's genuinely interesting Ethel, because I've wondered that myself. We don't have mains gas here, so have OFCH, but when the guy who services all the bits and bobs came round recently, he said the opposite - that it's best to use a gas boiler than an immersion heater. Perhaps other ABers could give their opinion as well.

[sandra50]

No it's not economy 7. I have the hot water on for 1 hour in the morning and then 4 - 9pm ( same as the radiators when they were on ) If I have the emmersion on we only get 1 bath from it and then it has to heat up all over again, , whereas from the boiler there's more. Having said that we usually have showers this time of year, but it's been so cold I prefer the bath. I'm trying to reduce my heating bills!

[hammerman]

I've always been told that it's best to keep your hot water on constantly.....it's cheaper to keep the heat topped up for a few minutes every hour rather than let it go cold and then re-heat the entire tank.

My GFCH does just that....the central heating is off but the water is on continuously

[hammerman]

Sorry...forgot to say that this is done through the central heating rather than the emersion.

[landscaper2]

Just come back off hols and our old boiler is sulking and refuses to start (probably something simple!) and have been using emersion this week and wondering just the same as you Sandra50.

[Buddie]

if you go by Jim Royale and my dad (both of whom used to go balistic on a regular basis, if they knew you'd switched the emmersion on for even five minutes, I'd say the boiler is most probably cheaper