Worcester oil boiler and water immersion heater question

[earlycomputers]

I have a Worcester Greenstar wall mounted Danesmoor oil fired condensing boiler and a separate water heater immersion cylinder (Range Tribune HE). Please can you tell me the following?My house uses electricity and domestic kerosene oil for energy:

- Can the water immersion heater be used on it's own for just water heating (with the Worcester boiler switched off) - or would the Worcester boiler need to be switched on for heating water?

- Can the water immersion heater be switched off and we just use the Worcester boiler for water heating?

- In the above 2 scenarios, which would generally be cheaper? or is it cheaper to run them both together for water heating?

- Would the water immersion heater need the oil fuel to function, or does it just use electricity for water heating?

Many thanks anyone who can help!

 

[ShaunCorbs]

The Immersion is really just a back up so you can still have hot water

Some people use it in the summer

The immersion won't heat the heating

 

[Best]

The immersion as Shaun said is just really a back up, should you need hot water and your oil boiler had failed or being replaced, etc.
That immersion element is near the bottom of the cylinder and would be very slow to heat the water and it would therefore keep using electric at a rate of 3 kilowatt per hour, which is very expensive.
Your oil boiler, in comparison, would heat your cylinder (even if cylinder was cold) in probably little more than an hour. The oil boiler would be cycling on and off during that period on its thermostat, so would not burn kerosine for entire period. A small oil boiler has a maximum output of approx 2 litre an hour (but that is a constant burn output), so obviously to heat your hot cylinder will be very low cost with oil

 

[earlycomputers]

Many thanks. Just so I am clear then, I still need the immersion cylinder, but the Worcester boiler heats the water within it, rather than me having to switch on the immersion heater? thanks

 

[Karl]

The hot water cylinder, not “immersion cylinder” is the large volume of water which is the hot water (when heated) that comes out of your taps. Now the immersion heater is the electrical way to heat the water (expensive way) but good to have the back up. And the oil boiler (the cheaper option) heats the water in the cylinder through a coil of pipe that is on the inside of the cylinder via heat transfer.