Immersion Heater...always on!

geanfranco

Hi, a few months ago my flatmate hired the services of an electrician to fix a problem with the immersion heater (the water wasn't heating). I was away at the time overseas so wasn't party to what happened next. When the guy fixed the problem, he advised my flatmate that its better (more economical) to have the immersion heater on at all times so the water is always hot ..his theory being that it costs more electricity to heat the water on demand than have the water constantly heated.

So now the immersion doesn't essentially work (you can't set the timer)..the water is heated all the time.. Since doing this my electricity bills have doubled...month on month consistently. I don't want to use the services of this idiot again so does anyone know if its a simple job to get someone to reverse what he did back to just being able to set the immersion for certain hours of the day to come on??

Thanks in advance
J.

ptogher14

It'd be simple. Put a new timer in or reuse the old one if it's still working

Even if he bypassed the timer it should still be on a switch allowing your friend to turn it off.

2011

geanfranco wrote: »

When the guy fixed the problem, he advised my flatmate that its better (more economical) to have the immersion heater on at all times so the water is always hot ..his theory being that it costs more electricity to heat the water on demand than have the water constantly heated.

This is not a good idea as you now know.

I don't want to use the services of this idiot again so does anyone know if its a simple job to get someone to reverse what he did back to just being able to set the immersion for certain hours of the day to come on??

This is easy to fix.

You will find a local electrical contractor that can do this here:

http://www.ecssa.ie/find_contractor.html

or here:

http://www.reci.ie/ConsumerServices/...ectrician.aspx

The sooner you do this the more you will save.

zombiekiller

i am stayin in a freinds house for a few days. so he tells me his rcd is tripping the odd time but more frequently lately when hes havin a bath.

the dual element imersion is on a 20amp breaker with an old 1kw heater in bathroom on it aswel.

so i went up flicked the switch to sink it knocked out rcd. i turned rcd back on and the immersion freely switched between sink and bath with no problems.
it was a very old switch so i changed it to a new one and fed the bathroom heater threw a 13amp spur.
so when i turned back on the sink element was tripping rcd so disconnected sink and there was no trip. i had no meter with me so i assumed it was the sink thermostat so i bought a new one. when replaced it was still tripping rcd. so i checked all conections and in the immersion switch taped up bear earths as have no sleeving. i thought the thermostat is basically a switch so polarity wouldnt matter but as it wasnt the same as the bath i switched them round and was delighted that the rcd didnt trip so i closed everything back up. switched on,off and between sink and bath a few times with no promblems.
about an hour later went up had a bath had the heater on. so just to be sure before i left switched to sink and it tripped rcd again. and now when its left on bath its ok but if the on/off switch is turned off this also trips the rcd.

as i said i have no meter till tommorrow and can test the thermostats but not to sure about the testing element. thanks.

zombiekiller

sorry for the essay but wanted to tell everything. i just when up there and it is switching between sink/bath with no problems. only tried this 40 mins ago and the sink was tripping rcd but now the tank water is cold. please help im baffled.

ptogher14

Stats aren't the problem. The elements are. I'd say replace the immersion

zombiekiller

if it is the element which its looking that way. is a megger needed or can the testing be done with a multimeter and how to go about it. and how is the rcd tripping so inconsistant.

ptogher14

No testing it won't always show up. I'd disconnect the immersion (both live and neutral) don't just switch it off, for a day or two and see if the problem goes away.

2011

ptogher14 wrote: »

Stats aren't the problem. The elements are. I'd say replace the immersion

+1

I agree, this is the most likely to be the problem.