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electric water heaters

red
Oct 4, 2013
5
Question

Does anyone have any experience of these? One has been installed in our rented apartment with no instructions. As far as I can see, there is no switch to turn it off. Does this mean we are constantly heating 150 litres of water? if so, this sounds kind of expensive.

clanger

It should be plugged in somewhere, ours is. We've put a timer on our plug so it's not constantly kicking in when we use a little hot water during the day. As we have a night meter we have the heater timed to warm up overnight when the electricity is a bit cheaper.

Oct 4, 2013 08:45
best

Unless you've got a night meter it makes little difference.
Alternatively you can buy a timer to apply on your plug or in the fuse box.

Oct 4, 2013 09:06
anon100

You should have two electricity meters and have a nuit tariff which is considerably cheaper. They are designed to be wired into a socket and to be on constantly because it's cheaper to keep water at a constant temp rather than let it go cold and heat from cold. How it should work is to heat in the night ready for the morning and at some point in the day it should top up for a short period. That's what ours does anyway. If it bothers you, you could flick the fuse during the day but I doubt you would save much money. We live in a 3 bed detached house, with all electric cooking, water and heating. Last year with a hot water tank that was 14 years old our electric was 238€ a month and we got 600€ back after our 12 month meter reading. We now have a new heater so I anticipate even smaller costs for the next 12 months. If you are not on a nigh time tariff I would definitely look into that though.

Oct 4, 2013 09:49
red

Thanks all - we are not on a night time tariff and there is no separate socket for it or switch. We are in a one bed apartment - usually only here 4 nights a week, so have no need for hot water at the weekends. I will be horrified if we have to spend anywhere near 200€ a month. We had a gas water heater, which heated on demand. Now we have this ugly thing installed in the bathroom. I will try to find the fuse to turn it off.

Oct 4, 2013 16:06
red

... and tracked down the plug to behind a shelf inside the kitchen, so not possible to put on a timer. The costs on electrabel compared to gas do look horrendous though so we have decided to move on.

Oct 5, 2013 09:06