Electricity Bill Imersion

LarryMac

Hi
Just discovered wife left Emerson on from 1pm yesterday until I turned off this morning 9am when i nearly burned my hands off washing them. Dreading bill coming in now. Any rough ideas on how much this will add onto bill?

Bruthal

LarryMac wrote: »

Hi
Just discovered wife left Emerson on from 1pm yesterday until I turned off this morning 9am when i nearly burned my hands off washing them. Dreading bill coming in now. Any rough ideas on how much this will add onto bill?

The immersion bath element is 3kw, 18 cent per kw for every hour, 20 hours.

= around €11 if the element was on without a break.

In reality though, the immersion would have actually been off for most of this once the water was heated up, because the thermostat would switch it off, only coming back on for a few minutes every now and again.

I would be surprised if it was much more than €2 or €3 extra for that, especially if the cylinder is insulated.

LarryMac

robbie7730 wrote: »

LarryMac wrote: »

Hi
Just discovered wife left Emerson on from 1pm yesterday until I turned off this morning 9am when i nearly burned my hands off washing them. Dreading bill coming in now. Any rough ideas on how much this will add onto bill?

The immersion bath element is 3kw, 18 cent per kw for every hour, 20 hours.

= around €11 if the element was on without a break.

In reality though, the immersion would have actually been off for most of this once the water was heated up, because the thermostat would switch it off, only coming back on for a few minutes every now and again.

I would be surprised if it was much more than €2 or €3 extra for that, especially if the cylinder is insulated.

Cheers Robbie
Oops! Better apologise to the Wife so. Just freaked out when I saw it was on for nearly a day.... I reckoned 30 or 40 euro wasted. Used to always hear that imersion gobbled up electricity..... Old wives tail maybe! I can enjoy my Sunday now. Tanx

Bruthal

LarryMac wrote: »

Cheers Robbie
Oops! Better apologise to the Wife so. Just freaked out when I saw it was on for nearly a day.... I reckoned 30 or 40 euro wasted. Used to always hear that imersion gobbled up electricity..... Old wives tail maybe! I can enjoy my Sunday now. Tanx

Not before you wind her up first, tell her it will be €70 euro extra according to this thread:)

Edit: Maybe it wont be worth the risk:D

They do gobble electricity really, just not as much as the 3kw per hour would indicate, due to the stat going on and off. There was another tale going around, that leaving it on continuous was cheaper than only using when needed.

LarryMac

robbie7730 wrote: »

LarryMac wrote: »

Cheers Robbie
Oops! Better apologise to the Wife so. Just freaked out when I saw it was on for nearly a day.... I reckoned 30 or 40 euro wasted. Used to always hear that imersion gobbled up electricity..... Old wives tail maybe! I can enjoy my Sunday now. Tanx

Not before you wind her up first, tell her it will be €70 euro extra according to this thread:)

Edit: Maybe it wont be worth the risk:D

They do gobble electricity really, just not as much as the 3kw per hour would show, due to the stat going on and off. There was another tale going around, that leaving it on continuous was cheaper than only using when needed.

Ah that does without saying. I might tell her I'm heading out for the day and let her stew! :-)

phelixoflaherty

I think you have to add on an old green party carbon tax too. 24% or thereabouts

mattjack

LarryMac wrote: »

Ah that does without saying. I might tell her I'm heading out for the day and let her stew! :-)

Assuming she doesn,t have a Boards account.

Bruthal

phelixoflaherty wrote: »

I think you have to add on an old green party carbon tax too. 24% or thereabouts

A kwh is 16.19 cent + vat at 13.5% = 18.4 cent. That is the cost of a KWH in total including taxes.

paddymick

LarryMac wrote: »

Hi
Just discovered wife left Emerson on from 1pm yesterday until I turned off this morning 9am when i nearly burned my hands off washing them.

Im just looking at your post from another angle.

When you say you noticed the immersion was still on because you nearly burned your hands does that mean you found the water temp was a lot hotter than you would normally find.

If so Im wondering if your stat might be faulty.

Im just taking it from your posts that you only turn the immersion on when you need hot water and turn it straight off when when it has heated up.
If this is the case then you might not notice if the stat is stuck closed because you are turning it off before the water gets too hot.

So thats why I ask if you nearly burned your hands because the water was a lot hotter than you usually expect it to be because if the stat was stuck then there would be nothing to stop the water getting hotter than normal over night.

Was the water extremely hot, even close to boiling?
If the stat is working correctly then the water temp should never get hotter than it normally is no matter how long you leave the immersion on.

Bruthal

A stuck stat and immersion left on, would normally create an earthquake like noise in the house, particularly where the cylinder is upstairs. And the water would be like a freshly boiled kettle has been poured on the hands.

Still possibly a faulty stat though, if the water did go above 70 or so degrees.

paddymick

robbie7730 wrote: »

A stuck stat and immersion left on, would normally create an earthquake like noise in the house, particularly where the cylinder is upstairs. And the water would be like a freshly boiled kettle has been poured on the hands.

Most of the time yes this is what happens but I get the feeling the OP doesnt leave their immersion on alot so they might not have noticed anything other than the water temp being hotter than normal.

My own mothers was a perfect example:their overflow from the header tank was leaking for months but the old man told me it was a faulty ballcock so I thaught no more of it.

Then the mother asked me weeks later why her water was so hot and I knew straight away what was going on and her stat was fecked.

Her tank is up stairs and they never noticed anything for literally months.

Its just when the op said he nearly burned his hands it made me think the water was hotter than he normally is used too.

Like I said im just looking at it from another angle..

Bruthal

paddymick wrote: »

Most of the time yes this is what happens but I get the feeling the OP doesnt leave their immersion on alot so they might not have noticed anything other than the water temp being hotter than normal.

My own mothers was a perfect example:their overflow from the header tank was leaking for months but the old man told me it was a faulty ballcock so I thaught no more of it.

Then the mother asked me weeks later why her water was so hot and I knew straight away what was going on and her stat was fecked.

Her tank is up stairs and they never noticed anything for literally months.

Its just when the op said he nearly burned his hands it made me think the water was hotter than he normally is used too.

Yea if the stat was cutting out at 90 degrees, it would seem probable.

A stuck closed stat would seem very noticable though, within 2 hours on bath. A boiling cylinder would likely be very noisy.

Certainly worth checking in the OP`s case alright, if he noticed it purely from how hot the water was. Just depends on the usage. If it was only ever put on for half an hour at a time by someone thinking it would hammer the bills, it might just never have been on long enough to fully heat.

If the immersion is kept on for a full day, maybe heat can also conduct part of the way along the pipes, further than it would if the immersion was not used more than a half hour or hour normally, meaning turning on a hot tap now results in the hot water coming out quicker than normal, giving the impression that the water is hotter than usual.

That is very noticeable in my house when the gas boiler is running for most of the day, compared to if I just run it for an hour.

Like I said im just looking at it from another angle..

And a worthwhile angle as well. Could well be a problem stat in the equation.

DublinDilbert

Yea get the stat turned down, you don't want someone having an accident. It's usually a two min job to turn it down.

Any that I've looked at are always turned up to the max. I'd guess the factory probably tests them at the max then and doesn't turn them down then. I always turn them down to 60, no one has ever noticed. I'd also guess as the bi metal strip ages, it probably isn't as accurate as the day it left the factory, so 85C could well be 90+, but that's just purely my speculation :-)

M cebee

afaik they're set to 60 from the factory

-any that i've seen are

DublinDilbert

M cebee wrote: »

afaik they're set to 60 from the factory

-any that i've seen are

I haven't done loads of them, but any that i have looked at were at the higher end of the scale. It makes sense they should come @60, Wonder who is turning them up

jayteecork

I never have the immersion on.

Have electric shower and a dishwasher.

So I wash my hands with cold water - big deal.

M cebee

DublinDilbert wrote: »

I haven't done loads of them, but any that i have looked at were at the higher end of the scale. It makes sense they should come @60, Wonder who is turning them up

plumbers maybe:pac:

pretty sure they aren't supplied with stat 'maxed out'

Bruthal

jayteecork wrote: »

I never have the immersion on.

Have electric shower and a dishwasher.

So I wash my hands with cold water - big deal.

jayteecork
Registered User


Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The Mushroom Kingdom
Posts: 5,423
Adverts | Friends

From The Magic Mushroom Kingdom is it?

creedp

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Yea get the stat turned down, you don't want someone having an accident. It's usually a two min job to turn it down.

Any that I've looked at are always turned up to the max. I'd guess the factory probably tests them at the max then and doesn't turn them down then. I always turn them down to 60, no one has ever noticed. I'd also guess as the bi metal strip ages, it probably isn't as accurate as the day it left the factory, so 85C could well be 90+, but that's just purely my speculation :-)

I have a 300l DHW cylinder and wanted to set the thermostat to 60c to avoid overheating a large qty of water when central heating is not on. When I took cap off the thermostat there was a dial with setting 0 - 5. Just wondering what these setting equate to in celcius. Currently it is set a 4 which is the way the plumber left it.

eggy81

If your stat has stuck or gone faulty as I suspect mine has as I've heard that rumbling noise a few times lately having forgotten to switch off the immersion,how do yo fix it.does it mean a whole new element or can the stats be replaced.

johnwest288

Which Stat should you be checking, I have two one inside a plastic ball enclosure on the top of the tank, And another Rectangular thermostat connected to a wire thats strapped on to the tank 3/4s of the way down

LarryMac

paddymick wrote: »

Im just looking at your post from another angle.

When you say you noticed the immersion was still on because you nearly burned your hands does that mean you found the water temp was a lot hotter than you would normally find.

If so Im wondering if your stat might be faulty.

Im just taking it from your posts that you only turn the immersion on when you need hot water and turn it straight off when when it has heated up.
If this is the case then you might not notice if the stat is stuck closed because you are turning it off before the water gets too hot.

So thats why I ask if you nearly burned your hands because the water was a lot hotter than you usually expect it to be because if the stat was stuck then there would be nothing to stop the water getting hotter than normal over night.

Was the water extremely hot, even close to boiling?
If the stat is working correctly then the water temp should never get hotter than it normally is no matter how long you leave the immersion on.

Sorry, just getting back on boards since Sunday. Well, when I say boiling I mean very hot. Enough to make me pull back my hand. Definitely hotter than expected...
But, I don't use the Immersion often. Probably 2 or 3 times in the winter only.
We heat water using the gas radiators.
Thanks

Bruthal

johnwest288 wrote: »

Which Stat should you be checking, I have two one inside a plastic ball enclosure on the top of the tank, And another Rectangular thermostat connected to a wire thats strapped on to the tank 3/4s of the way down

The one strapped onto the tank 3/4s way down is likely the central heating boiler stat for the hot water zone motorised valve.

The electric immersion one would be under the plastic or metal cover that covers the top of the immersion element, usually near the top of the tank/cylinder. The immersion element has the white cable from it to the immersion switch.