Sometimes when doing household chores when the water temperature has been set to 40 degrees the hot water runs out so fast and I don’t need to mix it with cold water, but when set at 60 it seems to last longer, but which way is most economical?
Shout From the Mountaintop -Take Advantage
March 12, 2012 by 6 Comments
Sometimes when doing household chores when the water temperature has been set to 40 degrees the hot water runs out so fast and I don’t need to mix it with cold water, but when set at 60 it seems to last longer, but which way is most economical?
That’s a really good quesion and one I’ve often wondered myself. I’ve never been able to get a straight answer but I go for a hotter temperature so that I have more hot water available to me at any one time cos you use less like you say cos you need to mix it with cold. There’s nothing worse than running out of hot water when you’re in the middle of a task but I’m not sure if it’s the most economical it just works best for me.
Not sure about the economy of it, but I keep my hot water set at 60 degrees, as that’s the minimum recommended to avoid legionnaires disease. If you have people at risk of being scalded (young kids etc), you may want to set it a little lower.
60 degrees and add cold as needed,
I thought Legionnaires was only caught through contaminated ‘drinking water’.
Most are set to 60 degrees, but I have always maintained that if people new how, they would turn it down to 40 for normal use, and move it up to 60 to run a bath, then turn it down again after. Same with a combi, you should always choose a boiler that has control of hot water temp, turn it to about 2 or 3 for normal use, turn it up for a bath, this is because more water comes through the bath tap so the water comes through there cooler than sink taps.
With combi and and non combi boilers don’t set the temp above 60 degrees c as above this scaling occurs in hard water areas. With hot water storage systems hotter is better as the boiler works more efficiently because the burners work better the longer they are on – especially with oil. It is better to have a hot water termostat set with a wide range to avoid the burners lighting up for short periods with slight temp drops. With water storage systems the insulation on the storage tank is v impt.
20 and wear a jumper.