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instant hot water boiler thing?
02GF74 - 15/1/17 at 09:21 AM

Short summary, viewed house, is small, in main bedroom is a cupboard with biggest hot water tank ever, gotta be 5 ft high.

Would be good to get rid for some some.

Is a hot water tank required by law?

If not, is there some electrical hot water heater thing that can supply hot water on demand?


mackei23b - 15/1/17 at 09:26 AM

A combi boiler won't need a tank, I had one in my old flat and it worked well, modern installs these days seem to be back to hot water tanks...

Do a search for a combination biller.

Cheers
Ian


Barkalarr - 15/1/17 at 09:26 AM

It's called a combi boiler.

Had one in my old house and took about 45 mins to fill the bath up. That was about 15 years ago - I'm guessing tech has moved on, but not sure if you could run a shower off it ?


steve m - 15/1/17 at 09:30 AM

Check that the place has a gas supply first, as it sounds like its an immersion tank, and if theres no gas, then a combi boiler will be a waste of time and money


slingshot2000 - 15/1/17 at 09:47 AM

Lots of manufacturers are now offering electric combi-boilers ready for the changes to come in the Building Regs. Lots of advantages over gas.


loggyboy - 15/1/17 at 10:16 AM

Also how many bathrooms(inc ensuites/shower rooms)?
Most Combis only cope with 1. There are those who can cope with more, but they still need a cylinder, albeit a lot smaller and usually contained within the boiler or close by, but adds to cost a lot.

Will also mean a heavy replumb of house as everything will be mains fed, so needs a good mains feed to start with, or you will get no pressure.

[Edited on 15-1-17 by loggyboy]


Slimy38 - 15/1/17 at 10:38 AM

We've had combi boilers in our house since we moved in. The first one was a cheap unit that barely managed to fill the radiators (previous owners were penny pinchers). When we had an extension built we had one that had much higher capacity (higher than we would need). It's been fine, and can fill a bath very quickly with very hot water while still keeping the radiators warm.

The only issue we have is that we wanted it out of the way in the utility, which is the farthest point of the house. Which means any tap needs to run for a few seconds before hot water comes out. That's not a weakness of the boiler, more the fact that there is a fair few metres of cold water in the pipe to get rid of each time.

As mentioned ours needs a gas supply and a decent pressure water supply. It wasn't overly expensive, and the whole unit fits in a standard 600mm wall cabinet.

Two other points. You can't have it in your bedroom (they spend their days and nights doing random clicks, ticks and 'brums' so you wouldn't get much sleep) so it won't be a direct swap. And we actually miss having an airing cupboard. Our previous house had the immersion tank in a cupboard with shelves round it for storing clothes, and we didn't realise how much we used it.


cliftyhanger - 15/1/17 at 11:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Barkalarr
It's called a combi boiler.

Had one in my old house and took about 45 mins to fill the bath up. That was about 15 years ago - I'm guessing tech has moved on, but not sure if you could run a shower off it ?


tech won't help. You have just got to get more heat int the water faster. Makes me laugh when the different manufactureres claim better flow rates yet same boiler output, things in reality have changed very little. Just about to run abath from our combi,still takes a while though it is a big old boiler (30kw I think)

Back to OP.
If only electric,you can get instantaneous water heaters. Effectively an electric shower unit. Won't be ideal for a bath, but can be fine for showers and washing up etc


02GF74 - 15/1/17 at 11:50 AM

already has electric shower, has one bath and two sinks (bathroom and kitchen); not sure if gas is connected hence looking for something electrical that will replace the large immersion heater - another solution would be to fit a much smaller one.


coyoteboy - 15/1/17 at 11:51 AM

quote:

posted on 15/1/17 at 09:47 AM

Lots of manufacturers are now offering electric combi-boilers ready for the changes to come in the Building Regs. Lots of advantages over gas





Like what? Apart from electricity being 2-3 times the cost per kwh of heat I can't see much difference. Also, what change in regs?

[Edited on 15/1/17 by coyoteboy]


slingshot2000 - 15/1/17 at 11:56 AM

Electric combi-boilers have less parts to go wrong, don't require an annual gas check. The government keeps talking about no mains gas supplies to new builds, unless connected to a district heating system. How will you power a gas combi with out mains gas ?


mookaloid - 15/1/17 at 12:25 PM

If the property has no gas then the large tank is probably heated overnight using dual rate electric.

The idea of a large tank is that you can heat all the water you will need during the day using cheap overnight rates.

It probably has a second immersion heater which you can manually switch on to give it a boost if required (at the higher during the day rate)


SteveWalker - 15/1/17 at 12:32 PM

If the shower is electric and you only need hot water for the taps at the sinks, then yes you can buy electric water heaters that sit under the sink or worse looking ones that sit over it - often used for kitchen areas in office buildings. They'll probably mainly be used during peak periods, so will be expensive to run.

[Edited on 15/1/17 by SteveWalker]


coyoteboy - 15/1/17 at 02:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by slingshot2000
Electric combi-boilers have less parts to go wrong, don't require an annual gas check. The government keeps talking about no mains gas supplies to new builds, unless connected to a district heating system. How will you power a gas combi with out mains gas ?


Non-landlords don't need an annual check and I can count the number of boiler failures I've witnessed out of 6private properties on two fingers and < 200 total repair costs. Maybe slightly over playing the concerns there?!

Also on new builds maybe, but 99.5% of housing stock isn't new builds, so how does that apply to someone wanting a solution in an existing property? Plus talk is just that.

Why would you choose to pay more for heat than you need to for the foreseeable future?

[Edited on 15/1/17 by coyoteboy]


slingshot2000 - 15/1/17 at 02:24 PM

Ok, a landlord safety inspection isn't required each year in a private property, but an annual service is recommended. I was only suggesting that electric combi-boilers are available as an alternative to gas. Other contributors have suggested using 2 electric immersion heaters plus the new cylinder to suit, how economical would you suggest they are compared to an electric combi-boiler?

Manufacturers will not have done all the R&D on electric combi-boilers unless they thought there was going to be a developing market for them.

(Edited for a ghastly spelling error)

[Edited on 15/1/17 by slingshot2000]


coyoteboy - 15/1/17 at 02:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by slingshot2000
Ok, a landlord safety inspection isn't required each year in a private property, but an annual service is recommended. I was only suggesting that electric combi-boilers are available as an alternative to gas. Other contributors have suggested using 2 electric immersion heaters plus the new cylinder to suit, how economical would you suggest they are compared to an electric combi-boiler?

Manufacturers will not have done all the R&D on electric combi-boilers unless they thought there was going to be a developing market for them.

(Edited for a ghastly spelling error)

[Edited on 15/1/17 by slingshot2000]


Totally agree, I was just questioning the sanity of the option in any current property that has gas supply. In 10 years when it's becoming enforced on new properties people will have to suck up the massive running cost.


slingshot2000 - 15/1/17 at 02:50 PM

. Thanks for that !


02GF74 - 16/1/17 at 06:43 PM

It does have two immersion heater, so ^^^ is spot on. I was originally going to mention thar but didnt think it was significant.

All makes sense, seems best option is leave it.


BangedupTiger - 16/1/17 at 07:04 PM

Interested in these electric combi. How do they rate to conventional Gas combi?

Our combi has struggled ever since I installed designer radiators that carry vastly more water. Average size, 5 bed, 3 bathroom. 20 rads. Our biggest issue is cold water pressure is only around 13 lpm.

[Edited on 16/1/17 by BangedupTiger]