Hot water Cylinder help.

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#1320374 9-Jun-2015 15:33

If the reducing valve isn't doing it's thing then water leaks out the relief valve, or the relief valve can fail open pouring all your hot water out the drain.

sep11guy

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#1320390 9-Jun-2015 15:46

Jase2985: see my edit above

i dunno if i missed this but he said "washer" for reducing walve was worn out, which he repaired. if that helps?

Aredwood

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#1320410 9-Jun-2015 16:15

lxsw20: If the reducing valve isn't doing it's thing then water leaks out the relief valve, or the relief valve can fail open pouring all your hot water out the drain.

This.

I have replaced countless reducing valves. And rewasherd heaps more. And replaced lots of relief valves as well.

Often the reducing valve will fail and the hot water coming out of the relief valve will cause it to fail as well. Otherwise people often have poorly installed mixer taps. Which allow high pressure cold water to backflow into the hot pipes. If someone turns the mixer on with the handle in the middle. This kills relief valves. And if you have the pipe through the roof you get an instant fountain.

darylblake

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#1320460 9-Jun-2015 17:00

I had this problem. I got a power bill of $550 bucks. In 1 hit. It was absolutely ridiculous considering my usual power bill in the winter is about $220.

Had a look under the house and found that it was leaking.

My HWC was from 1965. Original one from when my house was built. So I got my mate in who is a plumber and he replaced it for me, the new cylinder is insulated as standard. And I wrapped the pipes. I also took the opportunity to get mains pressure. (which didnt really help with my power bill, but my showers are high pressure and amazing).

Good luck.

Jase2985

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#1320465 9-Jun-2015 17:04

we probably had the same issue, never investigated just went for the upgrade to mains pressure, soo much better, and with the new bathroom its perfect.

lxsw20

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#1320466 9-Jun-2015 17:07

I'm still on header tank hot water, it's painful, but not as painful as trying to get a plumber to turn up and give me a quote to upgrade to a 7.6M head or put in a booster pump.

richms

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#1320760 9-Jun-2015 22:52

Jase2985: where was it leaking to?

i cant see how a reducing valve could be the cause

Doesn't fully shut off, keeps a trickle of cold water into the cylinder, so a constant trickle of hot water leaves the top and onto the roof.

Mains pressure ones have the expansion valve from the bottom so that it pushes out cold water as it heats, which makes far more sense. The top only has the safety valve that should never open unless stuff goes horribly wrong.

The constant flow thru the cylander is probably why the faulty thermostat never caused it to get hot enough to boil.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#1320811 10-Jun-2015 07:33

Mains pressure was a huge upgrade for us too.

sep11guy

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#1320854 10-Jun-2015 08:59

Update 2 :

Just a small minor update on monitoring / performance after the plumber has been in .

I have recorded that night idle time meter reading values, and can report than consumption has been 4kwh night time roughly b/w 11pm - 6am . which has been consistently been 9kwh last week.

which is a saving of 55% at this moment on stand by time as of now. even this its a positive start., now that i have been constantly monitoring this over week, and given that i know that when hot water is off at mains i get 0-1kwh over night , 4kwh usage still feels tad bit on the high side.

reasonably it should hover around the 2kwh mark, but then i suppose age is a factor as well.

I ll continue montioring for next 2-4 days and report back ,

thanks a lot for your help,

mclean

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#1320946 10-Jun-2015 10:13

I don't think you have said, but if your water heating is controlled (by the power company) and you have evening showers then what you are reading over night may be more than standing losses - it may be heating. The fact that the water is much cooler in the morning after you isolate the power suggests that this might be the case.

sep11guy

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#1320950 10-Jun-2015 10:20

mclean: I don't think you have said, but if your water heating is controlled (by the power company) and you have evening showers then what you are reading over night may be more than standing losses - it may be heating. The fact that the water is much cooler in the morning after you isolate the power suggests that this might be the case.

i dont know anything out of the oridinary if my heating is controlled in any shape or manner , but i cant imagine how this could be possible, cuz what i do know is 1 x power line goes into my home , so how does a power company control it, i have no clue.

last evening no showers as such but did use warm water for general cleaning chores like dishes etc. so i suppose hot water is being worked at that time, but i cannot still quite understand why does it have to consume 4kwh on standby , when its not supplying anything , i.e not being in use.

may be if i can get some similar stand by readings from users here, i can then understand that if it is normal operating process - in which case, i guess i cant do much , and will have to run with it

trig42

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#1320952 10-Jun-2015 10:25

sep11guy:
mclean: I don't think you have said, but if your water heating is controlled (by the power company) and you have evening showers then what you are reading over night may be more than standing losses - it may be heating. The fact that the water is much cooler in the morning after you isolate the power suggests that this might be the case.

i dont know anything out of the oridinary if my heating is controlled in any shape or manner , but i cant imagine how this could be possible, cuz what i do know is 1 x power line goes into my home , so how does a power company control it, i have no clue.

last evening no showers as such but did use warm water for general cleaning chores like dishes etc. so i suppose hot water is being worked at that time, but i cannot still quite understand why does it have to consume 4kwh on standby , when its not supplying anything , i.e not being in use.

may be if i can get some similar stand by readings from users here, i can then understand that if it is normal operating process - in which case, i guess i cant do much , and will have to run with it

Quite possible they are controlling your hot water.

Look at Ripple Control here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_management

Ours was on night heating only inout last house (got a cheaper rate overnight, had a large enough newish cylinder).

rmt38

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#1321958 10-Jun-2015 11:05

sep11guy: may be if i can get some similar stand by readings from users here, i can then understand that if it is normal operating process - in which case, i guess i cant do much , and will have to run with it

1965 cylinder, non-insulated in a leaky closet directly by a leaky back door, per-day usage of around 3.5kw with two person short shower usage, and normal hot water usage for dishes. The hot water is on a separate meter, so this is exact usage.

Maybe get up on the roof and rub some chalk or other similar powder around the pipe where the excess hot water is sent out, see if you're still getting leakage. It sounds a little high to me, if you're not showering. But as others have pointed out, no showers last night and ripple control may mean heating for earlier showers falls within the period.

sep11guy

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#1321960 10-Jun-2015 11:09

rmt38: sep11guy: may be if i can get some similar stand by readings from users here, i can then understand that if it is normal operating process - in which case, i guess i cant do much , and will have to run with it
1965 cylinder, non-insulated in a leaky closet directly by a leaky back door, per-day usage of around 3.5kw with two person shower usage, and normal hot water usage for dishes.

Maybe get up on the roof and rub some chalk or other similar powder around the pipe where the excess hot water is sent out, see if you're still getting leakage. It sounds a little high to me, if you're not showering.

Thanks RMT for feedback.

so as per your usage , you consume daily of 3.5kwh, and my usage is 4kwh standby overnight. So if i were to extrapolate my reading, i would get 4x3 (night, day and evening) =12kwh purely standby consumtion when nothing is being used. so I am using 3 times more than you do. which sounds a bit too high, and I am just living a normal nothing fancy 3 bed home.

if you dont mind , can you pls advice whats your total power consumption over month (xxx kwh ) and your power bill. also how big the home is if possible , thanks :)

timmmay

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#1321964 10-Jun-2015 11:14

I checked my usage - including one oil heater to keep a room from getting too cold I used around 4 units of power between when we go to bed and when the heat pump comes on before we get up. Average usage in a day is 35 - 50 units.

As an aside, on Flick it tells me I've saved 30% compared with what I'd have been on with my last power company. That's better than the average Flick customer saving of 25%, and will get better when I load shift the most of the hot water heating to 3am.

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