I have an elderly neighbour who I help out from time to time with small tasks around her flat. She asked me to help her find ways to reduce energy consumption( we all want that don't we).
Anyway, she lives in a flat which only has electric and she seldom uses her heaters. However she also has a fairly modern unvented hot water cylinder which the engineer has set up to come on for four hours at night. It's a typical cylinder with two thermostats. The boiler works off a horstmann timer which is basically on or off or boost. My understanding is that the minimum setting on this timer is four hours per day every day whether you want it or not once the switch is in the on position. She lives alone and doesn't really need that much hot water all the time as she has an electric shower not linked to the boiler. She will only use the bath once maybe twice a week to bathe.
This set up is all well and good where the tariff is economy seven but that's mot the case. She's charged the same rate regardless of when the energy is used.
She could, of course, just switch the thing on as and when she wants to but obviously while it's off she can't use the boost function to heat part of the tank. Also even when she switches it on it will only heat water if its within the timed hours.
I would have thought that the best solution would be to remove the timer out of the equation completely and have supplies from two different 20A dp switches, one for the whole tank and a second for the boost function. That way She's in control 24/7 providing of course she remembers to turn it off when she's heated the tank.
Does that sound reasonable?
Anyway, she lives in a flat which only has electric and she seldom uses her heaters. However she also has a fairly modern unvented hot water cylinder which the engineer has set up to come on for four hours at night. It's a typical cylinder with two thermostats. The boiler works off a horstmann timer which is basically on or off or boost. My understanding is that the minimum setting on this timer is four hours per day every day whether you want it or not once the switch is in the on position. She lives alone and doesn't really need that much hot water all the time as she has an electric shower not linked to the boiler. She will only use the bath once maybe twice a week to bathe.
This set up is all well and good where the tariff is economy seven but that's mot the case. She's charged the same rate regardless of when the energy is used.
She could, of course, just switch the thing on as and when she wants to but obviously while it's off she can't use the boost function to heat part of the tank. Also even when she switches it on it will only heat water if its within the timed hours.
I would have thought that the best solution would be to remove the timer out of the equation completely and have supplies from two different 20A dp switches, one for the whole tank and a second for the boost function. That way She's in control 24/7 providing of course she remembers to turn it off when she's heated the tank.
Does that sound reasonable?
