Immersion heater; repositioning and adding extra insulation

[Al Ackero]

Hi,

I've just bought an old house with no central heating. The water is heated by an immersion heater which is located up in the drafty loft.

As there is a lot of free space in the corner of the upstairs bathroom, I am thinking of relocating it there. I'd build a corner cupboard and position the tank as high as possible in the cupboard, to give good water flow rate to the hot taps in the same room. Is there any reason why this would not be a good idea?

I'd also like to add a lot of extra insulation to the heater so that the water will stay warm for longer after the power is turned off. Has anyone any suggestions about ways to add optimal insulation? I'm thinking of wrapping a duvet or two around it and packing every spare cubic inch of the cupboard with additional hollow-fibre wadding from old pillows etc. Would that be sensible?

Many thanks,

Al

[Clot]

I presume that there is a cold water header tank above the hot tank? If so, then the head of the hot water is dictated by this rather than the position of the immersion tank.

Bringing the immersion tank into the bathroom can help to add some heat to the bathroom. A modern foam insulated tank will also help to preserve the heat.

You could build an airing cupboard in the bathroom with the tank based at floor level and the space above the tank (in the cupboard) shelved for airing clothes.

[NT]

Insulate the tank welll and it makes little difference where it is.

Yes to scrap insulation. You can build a box around the lot out of thin sheet material, or possibly even cardboard, and fill it up with junk insulation. Make the box a good bit bigger than you have insulation for, you will accumuklate more soon enough.

Just be careful not to enclose the lead for the immersion element in insulation, or you could create a fire.

NT

[cynic]

There was a penchant for installing "all in one" combined cylinders with header tank located on top of the hot water unit at one time. These are still available but because of volume sales cost a lot more than a standard cylinder plus a separate head tank. If the OP has separate units fine but if not the height above the taps may be critical

[Al Ackroyd]

----- Original Message ----- From: "cynic" Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 12:06 PM Subject: Re: Immersion heater; repositioning and adding extra insulation

Thank you all for the replies. My rather old-looking tank does have a header tank at the top. So, do I need to make sure the hot water oulet on the tank is above the level of the bath and sink taps? How high above the taps does the outlet need to be, to give adequate flow out of the taps (roughly)?

Al

[Appin]

The message from NT contains these words:

More to the point, make sure that it's in heat resistant cable that can take the temperatures likely to be encountered. Butyl rubber cable for preference.