How do economy 7 immersion heaters work

How to use an immersion heater depends on your hot water requirements. You may feel that you need a constant and steady supply of hot water at all times, in which case you could leave the heater on constantly. However, this is an extremely expensive and inefficient way of using the device.

In this case, electricity is constantly required to keep the tank hot. Setting your thermostat for a lower temperature helps to save on your energy bills, but you need to heat the temperature to a minimum of 50 degrees celsius in order to kill the bacteria that could be present in the tank. The thermostat means that the heater stops when it reaches the correct heat and only powers up again when it drops below.

You might also use a timer for your hot water immersion to come on during off peak hours, or just ahead of when your household uses the most hot water. One of the problems with an immersion heater is that you need to pre-plan when you will need to use your hot water.

Otherwise you have to wait for the entire tank to heat up before taking a shower, having a bath or doing the washing up. You cannot partially heat up the water using an immersion heater. It does not make for light reading when you ask how much does an immersion heater cost to run. The fact is that electricity is an expensive way to heat water and, because you can either heat the entire hot water cylinder up or nothing at all, there is often a large amount of wasted energy.

If you have a greater demand for hot water in your home, you might need to use it even more, making it more expensive. Timers that restrict the heating to off peak hours can help, but the water does not stay hot forever. Also, once you have used it all, you need to reheat the whole cylinder again and the immersion heater cost can quickly rise. The ideal alternative to an immersion heater is a combi boiler. Combis heat only the water that you use, meaning there is less wasted energy.

Gas is already a cheaper way to heat water than electricity, making a combi boiler a much more cost effective and efficient solution. Combi boilers take the water straight from the mains supply, so you can have the hot water you need on demand. There is no need to wait around for a tank to heat up. Because there is no hot water cylinder or tank, you can also free up space in your home by choosing a combi boiler over an immersion heater. Clever Energy Boilers recommends Worcester Bosch combi boilers, which are renowned in the industry for their build quality and reliability.

The firm has been named the best boiler manufacturer for the last ten years running by Which? These tariffs use a different kind of electricity meter which, unlike a standard meter, can track the electricity you use during the day and at night separately.

However, it could work for you if you tend to use more energy during the specified Economy 7 times. Economy 7 could be a cheaper option for those who use more energy in the night than during the day. If you're on an Economy 7 tariff, on the other hand, you'll be charged more during the day and less during the allocated Economy 7 times. That means washing clothes or running the dishwasher is a more cost-effective thing to do outside of daytime hours if you have an Economy 7 meter.

With Uswitch, you can compare Economy 7 tariffs to find a cheaper deal. Below are the current cheapest Economy 7 plans that Uswitch can help you switch to. These are the cheapest Economy 7 tariffs in the UK based on average usage, so click 'compare now' to search fro the best Economy 7 tariff and prices tailored to you:.

Prices are based on average bill sizes for a medium energy user on an Economy 7 plan paying by monthly direct debit, and averaged across all regions. This table is updated hourly from Uswitch's database of all Economy 7 plans on the open market that are available in at least 7 of 14 regions.

If you don't have Economy 7 energy but would like to switch to it you will need to go through the Economy 7 meter installation process. Switching from Economy 7 to standard feels straightforward, but you will need to contact your electricity supplier to find out more about the process. This is because you will probably need to meet some acceptance criteria to make the switch. You may also have to have a new meter installed, which your energy supplier will often charge you for. In some circumstances you may be able to arrange to carry on using your Economy 7 meter when you switch to a standard tariff; again, your current supplier should be able to tell you if this is the case.

When you do your comparison with Uswitch, we ask if you have Economy 7 - if you say that you do, we'll tailor your results so you only see relevant tariffs. Compare Economy 7 prices now to find the best electricity prices for you. Economy 7 can save money for some households, but it is not the right electricity tariff for everyone. Some people with Economy 7 find that it makes their bills more expensive, because they don't use enough energy during their Economy 7 times.

Whether or not it will be cost-effective for you will depend on a number of different factors:. Some Economy 7 plans charge almost twice the standard night rate for any electricity used in the day, which can cancel out the benefits of the cheap electricity you get at night.

The more electricity you use at night and the less you use in the day, the more money you will save with Economy 7 energy. An Economy 7 tariff is best suited to people who have electric storage heaters and a hot water tank.

The idea is that you heat up the electric storage heaters overnight and that they slowly emit the heat the next day, and that you heat all your hot water for the next day overnight too. If you heat your home and water with electricity, but don't have storage heaters or a hot water tank, Economy 7 energy probably won't be so cost-effective for you.

If you heat your home and water with gas, Economy 7 could still be a good fit for you, provided you use the bulk of your electricity at night. To make the most of Economy 7, it helps if appliances like your dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer have a timer so that you can run them overnight during the cheaper Economy 7 times. If you have storage heaters and a hot water tank, you will probably find that your home and water will be nice and warm in the morning, but will cool down again by the evening.

Think about whether or not this fits in with your lifestyle. If you work unusual hours for example, you may find that your routine fits in with Economy 7 times because you use the bulk of your electricity at night anyway. Amy: In switching, it asks me if I have an Economy 7 meter. The old lady has just moved in, and are trying to understand how Economy 7 functions.

None of my work involves the off peak supply. My understanding was that the only circuits to benefit from the off peak supply, were those circuits directly connected to the off peak CU, and then to the dual tariff meter.

Reaction score 13, Economy 7 changes the whole installation over to low rate and also can provide a separate switched supply. Thanks Dave. I've told my customer to enquire as to what tariff their on, in this case they have two separate feeds from the meter to two separate CU's, one for storage heaters etc, the other for standard circuits RFC's etc.

So if their tariff was off peak, only the storage heaters would benefit from cheaper electricity, whereas if they were on Economy 7 both CU's would benefit from cheaper electricity at the appropriate time at night? Whilst I was there, I noted that the lowest heating element on the immersion which I believe is normally for the cheapest rate came on around 3pm, which I thought was related to an Economy 10 tariff?

I think you can have an afternoon boost in any system, it all depends on how it is set up and controlled. My house is on economy 7 controlled by a radio teleswitch without a boost.

I think an off peak supply would normally have a timeswitch controlling it. Cheers, I think this install is like yours with the teleswitch there's no time switch just the meter , except they seem to have some afternoon boost. Learn something every day. PS do you use the meter to time the use of the immersion heater lower element of do you use some form of time switch i. Reaction score 2, Midwest said:. Click to expand When I confirmed my visit to site yesterday to install luminaire , the customer's daughter now looking at a time switch to be installed for the on peak immersion.

They have an economy 7 cylinder, with 2 x immersion. It appears the lower immersion off peak is not working, further investigation.

Her mother is using the upper standard rate to heat water, but forgets to turn it off. So using the standard rate to heat water, would be expensive. Does that seem correct? HandySparks - Mentor. Then maybe install a 1 hour timer to the top heater so the customer doesn't need to remember turn it off. My guess is that, as there's only one occupant, if the bottom heater worked, and heated the whole tank at off-peak rate, the top heater would generally not be needed.

Reaction score 65, Thanks for the replies chaps, bit of an Economy 7 newbie. Will find out why the bottom element isn't working. I've asked the daughter to find out what tariff they're on, so we can decide what best to do. As you've all said, most economical would be to use the cheaper rate to heat the hot water overnight.

I was just wondering whether to use the teleswitch to operate the timings. I did read somewhere that operating any immersion for 7 or 8 hours overnight was uneconomical, whatever tariff you use. Suggestion was to reduce the 'on' time with some sort of timer, with the option of a boost during the day.

I think they have that tariff. For the record, the Horstmann timer I mentioned, requires constant supply to function. It's to be installed on a permanent supply, and can reduce the hours 'on', during the cheap rate hours. The only benefit, is it will override any selected 'boost', to use cheap rate times. But it's not cheap. Think I'll suggest just having the off peak FCU, left permanently on, with a Timeguard boost timer or similar for the standard rate FCU, so they don't have to worry about turning it off.

Thanks for the assistance. Reaction score