Combi boiler or a hot water tank???

Question

does anyone know which is better? we got our gas bill in yesterday for the quarter and since we havent used the central heating in months we know that it is pretty much just the heating of the water, its a combi boiler that we have. but what we want to know is will it work out cheaper in the long run to fit a hot water tank and have an immersion heater?

our bill for this quarter was about £90, but with the gas prices set to rise again we have been seriously cutting down on everything, and have insulated the house with all we can afford, loft insulation and cavity wall foam etc.

its a three bed house with one bathroom and a washing machine. would it be worth us getting a hot water tank? are they better than the combi???

thank you so so much for all answers in advance.

can i just emphasis though that its just the hot water that i'm talking about, not central heating as we have a open fire which we are planning on using in the winter more than the central heating. thanks.

Answer 1

my advice would be to stay with a combi boiler i swapped to one last august the benefits of these against a standard hot water tank and immersion heater are immense if you are paying £90 a quarter then you have a pretty good deal ok here's the statistics:

a standard water tank hold approx 40 litres of water and the immersion heater obviously has to heat all that water up that imagine it as being a big kettle it can take anything up to an hour to get hot water imagine the electricity you are using heating it all up not too mention how long your waiting for it very slow and expensive to run

a modern combi boiler is designed to heat the water on demand and typically only has to heat about 9 litres of water  this is why it is able to produce near enough instant hot water much quicker and be more energy efficient making it much cheaper to run it should also give you a much greater water pressure and because you dont need a great big water tank in your house you also have a bit more space on average the combi boiler should save you around 40% on your annual energy bill i would never go back to a tank and immersion heater but that is just my opinion ultimately the decison is yours but if i were you keep with what you got the other thing to consider too are the old systems are becoming more and more obsolete becaue everyone is swapping to combi boilers hope this helps good luck

Answer 2

Stay with the combi.

Answer 3

Hello,

It depends how much hot water you use,

we have a standard hot water tank and have it on 1 hour a day. this is plenty as we are only 2 adults and 1 child, however we also have an electric shower which is independant of the tank.

With a combi boiler yo also have to think of the amount of water you run off in order to get the hot water, especially if you have a water meter. We have a water meter and won't have a combi for this very reason.

With our washing machine i have it on cold fill only and use low temp washed where i can, it take a bit longer to wash but does not use up all the hot water in the tank as it heats it itself.

Hope this helps

ps our gas bill is about £520 a year (we don't use it for cooking) and i know i can get it cheaper if only i could be bothered to swap

Answer 4

i would of thought that the combi is better as it heats the water as you use it a bit like an electric shower.

an immersion heater heats the water like a giant kettle and keeps the water at the set temperature even if you do not use it.

an immersion heater is normally around 3 kw so would cost you one unit of electricity for every twenty minutes on

Answer 5

A combi boiler will only heat the water you draw on demand and will therefore not heat a tank full of water when you may only require a sink full.

Gas is cheaper than electricity and an imersion heater and hot water tank will cost you more to run than your current system.

However i would concider getting a back boiler installed if possible which would provide hot water when your open fire is lit.

Answer 6

Combi boilers are pretty efficient as they only heat the water you use (with some loss to pipework of course).

Immersion heaters use electricity which costs more than gas, and you still get heat loss to pipework plus escape from the hot water cylinder no matter how much insulation surrounds it.

My view is that you would be wasting money on installation and use with an immersion heated cylinder.

You didn't mention draught proofing windows and doors (I expect you have). You need at least 250 mm of loft insulation.Use eco setting on the washing machine or cooler wash temp. Take showers, not baths. When your combi expires install a condensing model as the efficiency is over 90% as opposed to older versions which can be as poor as 70 -75%.

Answer 7

The economic water heater system it's heating tank ,It's mean you have large amount of the hot water and burner only will operate when temperature it's drop .