Newbie Question - Water Heater on or off?
Hi guys,
First post from me as a newbie to the club along with being a newbie to caravanning in general too!
Firstly, i've already learnt a lot from everyone's posts and I feel that joining the CC has already been greatly justified, very chuffed with that.
Secondly, it's been eye opening to see how many discussions there are on weights etc and I realise that there are so many people who are towing out on the road illegally, either through blissful ignorance or choice. We had an absolute nightmare couple of weeks where we had to learn very quickly about the minefield of towing laws and essentially were told that our car was not suitable for the van that we wanted (Alfa 147) so we researched online and found that a diesel Focus 1.8 had a towing capacity that suited. Found a suitable Focus and bought it (after checking the V5 twice to confirm that the braked capacity was enough) only to find out later that the plated weights told a different story and that wasn't suitable either.....we'd just paid £5k in cash that afternoon and then I found this out. Fortunately, the dealer had a nice CRV in good nick so we swapped for that 
AAAAaaanyway......my question! We are venturing out this weekend for our 1st trip in the caravan and I wanted to know whether you guys recommend leaving the water heater on at all times or do you just switch it on prior to needing it? I hate wasted energy so would prefer to turn it off before bedtime and on again in the morning but if it takes forever to heat up (we intend on showering in the van) then that might not be practical.
Advice please oh wise ones 
Comments
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Hi Mike. Our water heater only works off electric. We tend to turn it on when we need the hot water. It doesn't take long to warm up.
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Thanks Kerry. We will have an EHU so intend on using that. How long is not long btw? 30 mins?
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Ditto here. As soon as I wake up I flick the water heater switch and the kettle on and have a cup of tea and think about getting up while it warms up. It goes off again until I need it perhaps for washing up later.
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Great, thanks guys. I'll pop it on prior to when it's actually needed then.
Cheers, Mike
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I leave it on all the time. The water heater is fitted with a thermostat which keeps the water at the required temperature. If the temp drops a bit the thermostat will enable the power to kick in for a very short time to bring the water back up to the right
temp.Thermostats are fitted for that very purpose to only use small amounts of energy and give you hot water on demand.
If you turn the water heater off it will use a lot of energy to reheat the water from cold and will take a fair time.
It's been proved in the industry that letting the thermostat do its job will use no more power, and maybe even less, than heating from cold.
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I leave the water heater on all the time as well for reasons highlighted above.
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We do the same as TW and W. It uses very little energy keeping it warm and if we turn it off we invariably forget to put it on, until we run the tap for washing the dishes, At this time of year though, with the type of heating we have, if we are heating the van we are also heating the water.
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"...at this time of year, though...."
....not outside in your shorts, Steve.....
...weather unbelievable here near the Exe estuary.....at Budleigh Salterton yesterday, it really was Factor 20 weather....
Back OT......agree, in winter, the heating will do it for you....in summer (for the odd bit of washing up, just boil a kettle, or for a shower flick it on as part of the 'morning cuppa' routine...
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OK, makes sense with the thermostat bit. I think then what i'll do is turn it off at night and flick it on in the morning as part of that cuppa routine and let it do it's thing. We only intend on being in the van for the morning and evening as plan on being
out for the daytime but i'll leave it on thorugh the day based on feedback given. Seems silly to leave it on all night even if it uses little energy as i'll definately not be getting up to do the dishes.Thanks all!
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OK, makes sense with the thermostat bit. I think then what i'll do is turn it off at night and flick it on in the morning as part of that cuppa routine and let it do it's thing. We only intend on being in the van for the morning and evening as plan on being
out for the daytime but i'll leave it on thorugh the day based on feedback given. Seems silly to leave it on all night even if it uses little energy as i'll definately not be getting up to do the dishes.Thanks all!
It's your choice, Mike, but you're doing a bit of fence sitting there. Why only let the thermostat do its job by day but turn the boiler off overnight?
If you leave the boiler on overnight when no cold water will be added to the boiler to replace used hot, the thermostat will trigger the use of only negligible power. Turning it off and then on in the morning will use more power
to heat from the decreased temp all in one go.Up to you.
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I support TW's view and we do the same both in the van and at home.
peedee
Yes, PD, we do the same at home as well. We let the thermostat do its job and just have different temp settings for the heating throughout the 24 hr period.
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It depends where we are, but 90% of the time we would leave it on, 100% on if in UK.
In summer, if on a metered pitch (common in Germany) we would only heat the water when we actually want to use it, and then probably use gas for that. We would also use the site facilities more than we usually do.
At home, our HW is always on.
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while in the caravan the hot water is always on, but at home it's a combi boiler so hot water is on demand
Same here.
Read somewhere a trial has been done with domestic immersion heaters and they concluded it uses less energy to leave them on all the time. Probably the same with caravan heaters.
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while in the caravan the hot water is always on, but at home it's a combi boiler so hot water is on demand
Same here.
Read somewhere a trial has been done with domestic immersion heaters and they concluded it uses less energy to leave them on all the time. Probably the same with caravan heaters.
All depends on the efficiency of the thermal insulation.
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while in the caravan the hot water is always on, but at home it's a combi boiler so hot water is on demand
Same here.
Read somewhere a trial has been done with domestic immersion heaters and they concluded it uses less energy to leave them on all the time. Probably the same with caravan heaters.
+1 Fysh. Domestic heating that is
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All depends on the efficiency of the thermal insulation.
From memory it was a standard domestic copper hot water tank fitted with a jacket and a 3kw immersion heater. Then they did the testing.
Not sure the insulation would make any difference (in the test I mentioned) as it was under controlled conditions with the same tank and insulation jacket
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When I use my caravan (only used it once so far) I'm on holiday. I'm wanting to have a good relaxing fun time. Don't want to think about energy saving, recycling or anything like that. So, my plan is simple. I turn on the heater an forget about it.
Until packing up to leave.That said - grey water recycling. Taking to water out of the wastemaster to fill the toilet flush, is very convenient. So, this kind of recycling makes loads of sense. And it's less work than a trip down to the water tap to fill the watering can.
As for energy saving, I've got a project for next year to swap all the bulbs out from halogen to LED. (Only going to use the van once more this year, so it's ok for now and I've spent a fortune so need to let my wallet start to recover) This will mostly
likely end up in a bigger saving in power terms, than from turning the heater on and off (or not as the case may be)0 -
Hi Mike
You have learnt the hard way on your initiation into caravanning with your choice of car so you do right to ask on here where you will get advice from those with experience.
You have been given good advice from more than one post on how to go on. That advice is from experience.
Switch it on and leave it on.
If asking for advice in future it is always a good idea to mention what type of outfit you have as it can mean a more accurate answer
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Sorry but I switch it on and off as suits us. It takes very little to time to heat up the water but it may be some take longer. This is the fifth caravan with a water heater and we have always been happy with the speed. we do however use the higher mixed
gas and electric setting although that seems to use very little gas.0 -
I appear to be in the minority in that I turn mine off when not required. The tank is moderately well insulated and retains a modicum of heat. Just needs a quick boost when hot water is required.
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I leave it on all the time. The water heater is fitted with a thermostat which keeps the water at the required temperature. If the temp drops a bit the thermostat will enable the power to kick in for a very short time to bring the water back up to the right temp.
Thermostats are fitted for that very purpose to only use small amounts of energy and give you hot water on demand.
If you turn the water heater off it will use a lot of energy to reheat the water from cold and will take a fair time.
It's been proved in the industry that letting the thermostat do its job will use no more power, and maybe even less, than heating from cold.
Methinks you have rewritten the basic rules of physics with that statement.
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We are in the camp of switching it on and leaving it on, especially at this time of year when we often do the dishes in the van. We have a combi boiler so if the heating is on it will keep the water hot, we leave the heating on at a very low setting overnight
and when out of the van, it then doesn't take long to heat up on return.When away in hot weather we tend to do everything in the facilities block, so quiet often don't even bother putting the water heater on at all as its under one of the beds and makes it rather warm to sleep on. When in temps of 25c and above not required.
Agree with TW and others its more efficient to let the thermostat do its work.
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I appear to be in the minority in that I turn mine off when not required. The tank is moderately well insulated and retains a modicum of heat. Just needs a quick boost when hot water is required.
+1, don't think it is anywhere near as well insulated as domestic (even grade 3 caravans touted as "all year" are only about 1/3 or less as well insulated as standard homes) so better to switch it off when not required if you care at all about energy use.
Previous posting about changing to LED bulbs: whilst this will certainly eke out your 12V battery life, it is only likely to save a tiny amount of energy compared to that used in heating.
For a really detailed read:
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Can you explain please?
Me too, I'm very interested
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