Any plumbers in the house!

[ColchesterFC]

I would think if a combi boiler has been fitted the immersion would be redundant.
But the electrical connection might still be live to the switch.
It would be very hard to say from your description alone.

The immersion is still very much live and working, we've switched it on to test it. It's not something that I will look to do myself and would be getting in a professional to carry out the work, it was more a question of whether we still need the immersion or whether we can get someone in to get it removed and solely have the combi for water heating.

 

[PJ87]

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd piggyback on this one to ask a plumbing (?) related question, at least I assume that I need a plumber to answer it.

We've recently bought a house and in one of the bedrooms there is a built in cupboard with an electric immersion tank in it. There is also a combi boiler fitted downstairs. Does this mean that the immersion is redundant and we can get it taken out? The reason for the question is that we want to extend the shower room and fit a bath, and extending into this cupboard area looks like it would be the best/easiest option (as per the image below). Any advice or suggestions gratefully received.

View attachment 44918

We had looked at extending the bathroom to incorporate the separate toilet into one room but that would involve moving the toilet to make room for the bath so figured that would be more expensive.

Whatever you do don't get rid of it! How old is the boiler? If it's anywhere near replacing you will be running out of time for gas .. heat pumps etc need immersion tanks to keep the water warm so don't be ripping it out!

Ironically the future of heating our hot water is the past ways

 

[clubchamp98]

The immersion is still very much live and working, we've switched it on to test it. It's not something that I will look to do myself and would be getting in a professional to carry out the work, it was more a question of whether we still need the immersion or whether we can get someone in to get it removed and solely have the combi for water heating.

Yes you can get it removed.
The combi does the heating and hot water so I am a bit suprized it wasn’t removed when the combi was installed.

 

[PJ87]

Yes you can get it removed.
The combi does the heating and hot water so I am a bit suprized it wasn’t removed when the combi was installed.

If I had a tank still (wish I had) I would be heating my hot water over night on the cheap rate

 

[Fade and Die]

Having an immersion heater if you have a combi is pointless…using electricity to heat a tank of water which you may or may not use is wasteful and other times you might have a bath, use it all up then have to wait 20 minutes to heat up some more to have a shave!

Can’t beat hot water on demand. No waste, get as much as you need every time.

(Also the idea that gas boilers are going to be banned is ridiculous!)

 

[PJ87]

Having an immersion heater if you have a combi is pointless…using electricity to heat a tank of water which you may or may not use is wasteful and other times you might have a bath, use it all up then have to wait 20 minutes to heat up some more to have a shave!

Can’t beat hot water on demand. No waste, get as much as you need every time.

(Also the idea that gas boilers are going to be banned is ridiculous!)

Whilst ridiculous it currently is the situation we are in come 2025 though isn't it

Heat pumps ATM don't heat hot water instantly but do work with immersion

There is this brilliant new boiler that acts like a battery and charges up at the cheap rate overnight and eeks out the heat during the day like a storage heater almost
https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/tepeo-zero-emission-boiler

They are working on a combi version

Also immersion works great with solar as you can get diverters to heat the hot water with the excess, even in October so much excess and in the summer would cover all your hot water usage

 

[fundy]

Whilst ridiculous it currently is the situation we are in come 2025 though isn't it

Heat pumps ATM don't heat hot water instantly but do work with immersion

There is this brilliant new boiler that acts like a battery and charges up at the cheap rate overnight and eeks out the heat during the day like a storage heater almost
https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/tepeo-zero-emission-boiler

They are working on a combi version

Also immersion works great with solar as you can get diverters to heat the hot water with the excess, even in October so much excess and in the summer would cover all your hot water usage

new build is 2025 not replacement gas boilers (unlike oil currently)

 

[PJ87]

new build is 2025 not replacement gas boilers (unlike oil currently)

Stand corrected, didn't realise it was only new homes. Their fine for heat pumps. Good insulation and plenty of space for them to be fitted in etc.

Defo stick with combi then. I'd love to ditch it for a heat pump but can't think of a solution for the water.

 

[Fade and Die]

Whilst ridiculous it currently is the situation we are in come 2025 though isn't it

Heat pumps ATM don't heat hot water instantly but do work with immersion

There is this brilliant new boiler that acts like a battery and charges up at the cheap rate overnight and eeks out the heat during the day like a storage heater almost
https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/tepeo-zero-emission-boiler

They are working on a combi version

Also immersion works great with solar as you can get diverters to heat the hot water with the excess, even in October so much excess and in the summer would cover all your hot water usage

The abolition of gas boilers is not going to happen. Heat pumps cannot heat most of the houses in Britain. They are just not good enough. New build possibly but every time I look into them I am always shocked by the amount of electricity they use.

Heating anything with electricity has always been too expensive. The price of gas is artificially high at the moment, when things return to normal gas will always be the best way to heat a home.

Having said that, my log burner goes in in 3 weeks time. Then I’m gonna be burning stuff till Easter! ?

 

[PJ87]

The abolition of gas boilers is not going to happen. Heat pumps cannot heat most of the houses in Britain. They are just not good enough. New build possibly but every time I look into them I am always shocked by the amount of electricity they use.

Heating anything with electricity has always been too expensive. The price of gas is artificially high at the moment, when things return to normal gas will always be the best way to heat a home.

Having said that, my log burner goes in in 3 weeks time. Then I’m gonna be burning stuff till Easter! ?

The price of electric is artificially high because it's coupled to the cost of gas. If uncoupled and charged of where it actually comes from it would be a fraction of the cost.

Heat pumps are fantastic tech and work in the middle of the Antarctic, we just need to improve our insulation.

Another tech will come out and improve soon I'm sure.

Combi are great but the fact is boilers are worse than driving around in battered out diesels and we all have them. So we do need to find something.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

What you are looking to do, we did a few years ago. Immersion heater removed, bathroom extended into Immersion cupboard to allow for bigger shower. Combi boiler does the trick. Happy days.

Immersion heaters are madness bits of kit.

 

[clubchamp98]

Whilst ridiculous it currently is the situation we are in come 2025 though isn't it

Heat pumps ATM don't heat hot water instantly but do work with immersion

There is this brilliant new boiler that acts like a battery and charges up at the cheap rate overnight and eeks out the heat during the day like a storage heater almost
https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/tepeo-zero-emission-boiler

They are working on a combi version

Also immersion works great with solar as you can get diverters to heat the hot water with the excess, even in October so much excess and in the summer would cover all your hot water usage

With the amount of U turns going on I can see a lot of the green agenda targets being revisited.
We are just not ready for some of the changes and I think gas boilers will be one of the first to be put back.

 

[PJ87]

With the amount of U turns going on I can see a lot of the green agenda targets being revisited.
We are just not ready for some of the changes and I think gas boilers will be one of the first to be put back.

Even without a U-turn if I could get a tank in my house I'd love it. When you got 4 girls living in the house , when the 3 hit teenagers, it would be great if we could run two showers side by side lol

There are hybrid options out there that i don't mind the sound of. So get induction hob. Heat pump for the central heating but keep combi just for water ..

Only problem is you pay the standing charge for gas just for hot water

 

[clubchamp98]

Even without a U-turn if I could get a tank in my house I'd love it. When you got 4 girls living in the house , when the 3 hit teenagers, it would be great if we could run two showers side by side lol

There are hybrid options out there that i don't mind the sound of. So get induction hob. Heat pump for the central heating but keep combi just for water ..

Only problem is you pay the standing charge for gas just for hot water

You have my sympathy.
I built another shower room and only had one girl.
But my son was just as bad if not worse.

 

[Fade and Die]

Even without a U-turn if I could get a tank in my house I'd love it. When you got 4 girls living in the house , when the 3 hit teenagers, it would be great if we could run two showers side by side lol

There are hybrid options out there that i don't mind the sound of. So get induction hob. Heat pump for the central heating but keep combi just for water ..

Only problem is you pay the standing charge for gas just for hot water

2 showers is easy if you are not totally reliant on one form of energy, we have a thermostatic mixer off the combi and a 9Kw eleccy one. (2 x 9Kw actually, and in the summer we can easily run all 3 simultaneously, makes getting ready to go out a lot quicker!?)

 

[jim8flog]

The questions comes are

Do you ever have a bath? Is the combi boiler up to filling a bath within a reasonable period of time. Are you a fitting shower run off the the hot water from the boiler, if yes is the boiler capable of supplying the flow rate needed for a shower.

The tank would normally be filled form cold water tank in the loft to give added pressure and will have a 22mm feed to a bath whereas a boiler will only have a 15mm feed and will also have to come up upstairs. The hot water system in the boiler may well not be pumped and just rely on water pressure to feed the taps.

I ditched mine when fitting a combi boiler but I never use the bath and have electric showers.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I don't see how you can have a combi boiler and an immersion tank on the same hot connection. Sounds to me like the hot cylinder with immersion may be just soley for a bath. When my combi went in, all the gubbins for the indirect system were removed and the hot water connections were reconfigured.