Hot water tank

[Caz42]

Hi Guys, Would really appreciate your expert advice here. Have just moved into new house and it has an Icos HE15 boiler with a hot water tank in airing cupboard upstairs. From what I've read here so far (great forum by the way) its one of those Unvented systems as the tank says that on it. The shower is a long horizontal steel thing, about 10 inches, which has taps at each end, one side turns on the water and the other side has a thermostat which we tend to keep between 30 and 35. What I need to know is,

1) How long do we need to put the hot water on for, to have enough water for 3 people to shower?

2) We presently have it on for 2 hours a day, but the last person showering often runs out of hot water and gets annoyed. How long should this boiler take to heat the full tank?

3) Is one tank of water enough for 3 people to shower or will we need to start showering at different times of the day, rather than all in the evening which we do at present?

Sorry for the long winded post, but I have no idea about these things and the manual is useless, its all about how to install the boiler! Appreciate all replies and thanks in advance

 

[GQuigley67]

don't have a shower all at the same time, give the cylinder time to heat back up. There are 2 ways of doing this with your boiler in hot water mode and with the immersion heaters if you have any.

if you leave the boiler on hot water mode, it will constantly heat up the cylinder and once it gets to a certain temperature, it will cut out, to speed up the process you could also use the immersion heater which is located on the boiler and should be activated by a switch.

If you do want to shower all the time as you have a tight schedule or whatever rip out this system and install a new combi system(if you have the budget) which is more efficient save you money on bills and instant hot water.

 

[Caz42]

Thanks for reply. This is a new house, 4 months old so I'm not ripping brand new heating system out, we saved for 12 years to afford this place. I wouldn't want a combi boiler as the pressure from the water isn't great, had that in previous house. The shower pressure with this system is fantastic, it's just that I don't know how long it should take to heat a full tank........20 mins? an hour?....I have no idea as I'm used to an electric shower. The temperature of the tank seems to be set at 65 degrees, do we need it that hot if we are keeping the thermostat on the shower at 32 degrees? I'm not even sure how this shower works. Does it take hot water from the tank and cold water from mains and mix it to the temperature I set on the shower? Sorry for rambling, I just haven't a clue about gas powered showers!

 

[GQuigley67]

my mistake i misread i thought it was an open vented system

well to answer your question I'm not too sure how long it takes to heat up these types of cylinders, I have fitted unvented units before in Commercial builds but on average I think you need at least 15 Litres of hot water for each shower but that also depends on how long you take a shower for, I would leave the boiler on hot water mode so it is constantly heating the water and keeping it at its desired temperature.

 

[Caz42]

Thank you for taking time to reply again. I had thought about leaving it on all the time but wouldn't that cost a fortune? We presently have it on for only 2 hours per day and we just got our first gas bill which is just over £300, which was a real shock to be honest as I was under impression that condensing boilers were cheaper. My largest gas bill in old house was £210 but usually averaged at about £150 in winter.

Does anyone know if I need the hot water cylinder thermostat set to 60 degrees if shower thermostat is set to 35? Thanks

 

[Bartdude]

How big is your hot water cylinder?There should be a label on it somewhere.

If you're running out of hot water then obviously it needs to be on for longer. Cylinder thermostats are usually set between 50-65,it depends how hot you want your water.If you run out of water in the evening then leave it on from say,5pm until the last person showers.Once the water reaches temperature then the boiler switches off,so it won't make a huge difference to gas consumption. Unvented cylinders usually take about 30-45minutes to heat up again.

Your gas bill is a lot but we've had an exceptionally cold spell and fuel is very expensive at the moment. Was the bill estimated? It's worth checking.

Your boiler's not the best though,the Ideal Icos is not very well thought of on here,do a search on it!!

 

[Caz42]

Thanks for info Bart. Yeah I googled the Icos and see it's not so good. Last one in old house was a Baxi and in 20 years the only thing it needed was a thermocouple costing a fiver......and it's still going strong!! Bet they don't make them like that now. The bill was estimated at £200 yes so we sent in proper reading as we always do, and got the nice large one back........will be changing supplier soon.

The tank says 150 litres on it. It never feels hot either, even though water comes out really really hot, strange as there is no jacket on it, just a metal tank! So if I turn the thermo down on the boiler to say, 40 degrees, will that be ok as showers don't need to be that hot right? Or would I then run out of water even sooner as shower doesn't then need cold water to add to the hot. I assume the shower mixes the water from the tank with cold to give required temperature I set on it? Jeez, electric showers may be rubbish but at least they are simple!

 

[Bartdude]

150 litres should be enough for 3 showers. The cylinder won't feel hot,it's very well insulated under the outer shell. You can experiment with the thermostat on the cylinder,see what works for you. Worth remembering that Legionella can't survive at 60 though. It shouldn't make much difference to your bill,the central heating does though.

With a tank full of hot water your showers should be fine,maybe the mixer has a problem. You could maybe try a water saver in the shower head too.