I'm worried about water freezing during the winter months v/s water overheating due to non-use.
Thank you.
Hello, I'm planning to go on vacation for a few weeks and would like know if it is better to switch off the home water heater or keep it on when I'm away
What does your heating engineer say?
You have to wonder sometimes.
Is this just for heating water so you can wash the dishes etc? Why do you think that it would overheat? These normally have a thermostat and in addition an overheat safety device. If you leave it off, why would there be any possibility of freezing?
If it's for heating the whole abode then again, these normally have a thermostat. For winter months you should at least have the thermostat on low if there's any threat of pipes freezing.
I did not check with heating engineer. I don't have one.
Thanks for your reply.
The problem is that the heater is just for the shower and kitchen sink. it does not have a manual thermostat were I can adjust the temperature.
All I can see is a dial with the current temperature of the water and it is around 80 degrees in the morning, but it goes down to 60 degrees at night.
I doubt any energy saving would be worth the hassle of returning to a flat/house without hot water. Also remember that some bacteria love that environment. Legionnaires disease is an example.
I'm a Heating Engineer and my advice is: take the water heater with you...
Can we see a photo of the water heater?
Being serious - find the instruction manual for that particular model on the web and see what it says about what settings should be applied to the water heater when on vacation in the winter months.
Sounds like a small heater, just empty out the water?
Thank you all for your suggestions.
After considering all the replies, I feel it is better to leave it on while on vacation.
If it's just for hot water then of course you can turn it off - it will just cool down to the ambient temperature of your property which is governed by the main heating.
Also, what sort of property are you in? If you're in a flat, then unless everyone else in your building goes away at the same time you could probably safely turn off all the heating not just the hot water.
Without you switching it off? Why do you think that behaviour would change while you're on holiday? Why do you think the place will drop to freezing temperatures? Do you have no heating?
If it's run off a plug in a regular socket then you could get a smart socket and control it remotely or just get a timer socket.
80C is pretty hot and I would suppose the upper limit. I suspect it's on some kind of timer already if the temperature doesn't recover during the day.
I live in a flat with 6 apartments. The heater is just for hot water and not for the radiator.
I will do as you suggested and turn it off since the water in the heater will just cool down and not freeze.
Thank you.
Yes, I feel 80C is pretty high too.
Sometimes out of the blue the water heats up to 90C in the evening even after taking a long shower in the morning!!!
It seems to have a mind of its own
I never switch off the boiler in our holiday home, even if we don't stay there for several weeks. I prefer to have an electricity bill that is slightly higher to having to wait for half a day until the water is warm.
Doesn't sound very efficient, but at least it's better than some eco heaters that kill you with legionella to save some energy and are empty after one shower.
Google the model and see if you can find instructions.
There should be a safety valve which will let water out if it gets much more than 90C and should this fail the heater can explode and cause serious damage, if not loss of life.
This is precisely why I am concerned to leave it on when I will be away. With zero water consumption I was worried something like what you mentioned might happen.
80C is dangerously high, water coming out of the tap at that temperature will burn very quickly before you can react.
The recommended temperature is a little over 60C, in order to balance heat sterilisation with usage safety.
Some safety organisations are pushing for 49C which is safe from scalding, but there's not much support since it just introduces problems with bacterial contamination.
I would not accept water at 80C, I would get it fixed / adjusted.
If I was away "for a few weeks" I'd turn it off, the water heater can be the biggest single use of electricity by some way in an apartment, especially if yours is heating to 80°C all the time. You won't return rich but it should save a few francs and some Co2 maybe too. If a neighbour has a key you could ask them to pop round and flick on the heating the day before you get back.
Check with your landlord about the 80°C setting, inside the heating element there should be a thermostat dial and often you can set it to 60-65°C which will still be very hot, but not as costly for your bill.
AfaIk they are by law set on "Nachtstrom", they only heat during night time.
I've currently still got electric water heaters in each of our apartments, which I try to remember to switch off whenever they're not in use for more than a day or two. It's clear from the amount of heat they radiate into the surrounding area, which is enough to keep a bathroom warm with no other heating on even in sub-zero external temperatures, that they must be using a significant amount of electricity to keep the water hot, and schoolboy physics can show that it takes less power to let all of the heat dissipate then re-heat the water than to continually keep it at the high temperature these boilers are set to.
Sounds like ours are similar to the OP's, on a special circuit that goes off at certain times, although mine also have a manual override in the switch-box, and may keep a lower temperature at night than during the day (I've never checked that). They're all quite old, although one was replaced last year with a slightly newer one, they each have a temperature display but no way of changing any settings except switching on and off at the main box.