Immersion heater installations – Everything you need to know about immersion heaters

Nowadays, the cost of living appears to be increasing on a near daily basis, whereas incomes sadly seem to be stuck firmly where they are. Because of this, getting our household bills down and making our homes more energy efficient is absolutely essential. As far as household energy bills are concerned, heating your water is considered one of the largest costs any homeowner will face, especially if your boiler is considered old and inefficient. Lately however, there has been a huge surge in the number of immersion heater installations taking place all across the globe, due largely to the fact that immersion heaters these days are now able to provide so many benefits and advantages. Now, immersion heaters in general, are considered to be more costly than combi boilers, and whilst it is true that having an immersion heater solely, would be more costly, if used as a backup, and used sensibly, immersion heaters can actually prove incredibly useful and energy efficient.

What exactly is an immersion heater? – An immersion heater is a form of water heater that uses electricity to heat the water, as opposed to gas. It is designed to fit snugly inside a cylindrical hot water vessel that uses heating elements to heat the water inside of the vessel. If you think of an immersion heater as a giant electric kettle, similar to the ones found in Europe, and you basically have the premise behind an immersion heater. They are plugged into a power supply at the mains, and the great thing about them is the fact that they can be switched on and off at your leisure. Obviously you don’t need hot water 24 hours a day, so you basically just switch the device on when you want hot water, and when you’re finished, the device can be switched off.

What are the main benefits of immersion heaters? – Some of the main benefits associated with immersion heaters include:

• Automatic shut off features – As immersion heaters are now so advanced, many of them are equipped with thermostats, which means that once the water reaches a certain pre-set temperature, it will automatically shut off, so there is no risk of you forgetting to switch it off, and there’s no need for you to constantly have to get up and down, switching it off and on again.
• Great as a backup supply – Let’s face it, if anything ever goes wrong with our boilers, having no heating or hot water can make life pretty miserable, especially during the colder months of the year. The great thing about immersion heaters is the fact that they act as great backup hot water supplies. They aren’t connected to your boiler, so if anything goes wrong with your boiler, your immersion heater won’t be affected, so you will still be able to get hot water.
• Keeps water hot for several hours – Another benefit of immersion heaters is the fact that they’re very well insulated nowadays, so they can keep water hot for several hours, even after the device has been switched off.
• Can be used during cheaper hours – Many immersion heaters are equipped with timers which allow users to set them to turn on and off during hours when electricity tariffs are cheaper, meaning that they will heat the water for cheaper, and then when you wake up the next morning, you can have a hot bath or shower, having heated the water for much cheaper than it would have cost to have used them during the day.
• Peace of mind – At the end of the day, one of main benefits associated with immersion heaters is their convenience. If you have one as a backup device for example, you don’t have to use it constantly, but it’s nice to know that, should anything happen to your combi boiler, you’ll still be able to get some hot water and heat your home etc.

Potential drawbacks – Now we’ll look at some of the less desirable characteristics of immersion heaters. These include:

• Can be more expensive – If your primary source of hot water is an immersion heater, heating water using electricity is much more expensive than by using gas, so an immersion heater as your sole heat source for water can get pretty pricey, although as mentioned, you can set them to heat the water during times when energy tariffs are cheaper.
• Doesn’t heat the water right away – The good thing about using gas combi boilers to heat your water is the fact that they heat the water up within a matter of seconds, so you can get hot water right away. With an immersion heater, once you switch the device on, it can take a couple of hours to heat the water up, so taking a hot bath or shower etc, can’t be a spur of the moment decision.