Water heating always on ?

[Ridgeway]

Not sure why but for some reason we've always switched our water heating on and off manually through the day, ie once in the morning and then once in the evening, i think it goes back to our tin tent days. Just curious to know what most people do, leave it on the thermostat or switch it on/off as we had been doing ? We have a timer on the main control panel but i'm a bit paranoid about forgetting i've set it.....

 

[Bailey 15]

On electric we leave it on, use our own facilities so don’t go onff with it all day

 

[Bailey 15]

What’s that blue face about? Sorry I didn’t enter that it just came up !

 

[Figaro]

I'm like you, switch it on first thing in the morning, off after breakfast.
On again at tea time until everything is washed up and showers taken then off until morning.
Just can't see point in leaving it on.
If I had a timer if probably use that but I don't and don't find it difficult

 

[Lenny HB]

We have ours the timer in the morning like to have a shower when we get up.
Rest of the time it's off, boil a kettle for washing up.

If you leave it on all the time how often are you going to need to descale the boiler?

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[Ridgeway]

I think the topic came up as we were discussing how to avoid using the campsite facilities (seems odd when you've paid for them but maybe a good approach this year), and hence the idea of access to hot water through the day.

 

[sedge]

Only have ours on usually when we want a shower/hair wash as we're both fully proficient at giving ourselves all over washes, even in a fishing bivvy, for which we boil a kettle, as we also do to wash up. MoHo bathroom sink is by no means huge so you never need all that much hot. When the weather's scorchio it's much more refreshing to use cooler water - as long as you still use 'soap' you still get rid of perspiration everywhere. We're just not used to having full 240v mains hook up on rallies or rural campsites/aires, and therefore never have to rely on it.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Our boiler is under the bed and gets warm so we always keep it off until we need it, then use it on gas. In Spain the electricity is metered and I only put it on for Ann's hair dryer, everything else is solar.

 

[Nigel L]

Yes, switch ours on and off manually. We do have a timer facility, but still like to do it manually.
Do the same at home, get up, switch hot water on, go down make a coffee, bring it back to bed and by time coffee drank, water has heated up

 

[denisejoe]

Like sedge we just turn on when we need it for shower/hair wash. Nothing wrong with all over wash at the sink using a boiled kettle. Probably comes from our camping days and rallying, which we still do (or will do once the CCC start them up again!)

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[Reallyretired]

Ours is on all the time, usually on gas. Perhaps thats why we use quite a lot of gas. We need enough for two showers as soon as we get up so without a timer it needs to be on all night.

 

[PeteH]

Never bother. Get pitched up switch on, switch off just before leaving. the thermostat takes care of the rest, It has 2 settings 40 and 60 deg C. 40 works most of the time unless we need to shower.

I descale the Heater at least once a Year. Takes a couple of hours. In my case remove the filter, pump the Solution (Vinegar basically) in leave 30 min or so, flush, put in new filter.

 

[63720]

On in the mornings for an hour then off. On sites in Spain the cost of electricity is sometimes a hot topic so when we're there everything runs on gas.

 

[Shrimp]

While we are on Electric we leave the hot water on all the time.
Off grid-on gas-it‘s only on in the morning, rest of the time it’s hot water from the kettle!
If we use a campsite this year, which we probably won’t, we won’t be using their facilities!

 

[Pausim]

I have noticed that my off grid gas consumption is much higher if I leave the hot water on all day. Last year we spent a week on a metered ehu and I very quickly learned to turn the hot water off during the day, it was costing several extra units leaving it on. It is worth remembering that we are also paying for the electricity we use on unmetered sites but it is built into the site fees. We are quick to complain when site fees go up so perhaps we should try not to waste energy because somewhere down the line we are paying for it. There are also environmental issues but I have to be honest that I only started thinking seriously about turning things off when I realised how much it was costing.

I have now added an iNet box to my Truma heating system so I can turn the heating and hot water on and off remotely.

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[Ridgeway]

Great feedback and very interesting to read. Overall most people seem to use the manual mode with on in the morning for a couple of hours and perhaps similar in the evening.

Notice that many refer to the water heater using electricity ? ie i suppose they can switch between gas and leccy. Not sure mine does it's a Truma Combi (pretty sure 4) and the controller is like this:

If it does switch between gas and leccy then it must do it by itself, but to be honest we are 99% of the time on gas as we hardly ever have a hook up so i'd probably never have known even if it can...

Any way of checking ? i assume there's a simple heating element in water tank ?

 

[tonyidle]

Ours is always on both electricity and gas. Only turned off on the drive at home.