What temp should I set my hot water to?

Hi guys,

Recently replaced our hot water heater. The old one didn't have any controls on it - you just plugged it in and away it'd go. The replacement is much more 'green' according to the description and has a number of settings one of which is the temperature. It can be set at a range anything from 50 degrees to 75 degrees.

I'm all for conserving energy so I had set it to the lowest (50 degrees) however, looking on some UK sites, they suggest that you should set the temp at 60 - 65 degrees otherwise legionnella can form and this can be dangerous to health (legionnaire's disease).

So my question is... If it isn't safe to have the hot water temp set at 50 degrees, why is there the ability to do this with no warnings or anything in the user guide for the boiler? Perhaps in Spain, setting a boiler at a lower temp isn't a problem?

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

Thanks.

I would have thought 50 degs is fine for summer. You might need it a bit hotter in the winter months. The hot water won't be sitting static in the tank in most houses. It will be filling and emptying throughout the day.

Bee

50 degrees???
You'll be like a poached egg.

Ours is set at 32 in the winter and 25 in the summer. Although we don't use it through the summer

The thermostat setting is only to control the maximum temperature the water can reach in the boiler itself, to prevent accidental scalding the temperature of the water from the taps should be automatically regulated by a 'valvula mezcladoda' which will be preset to 50c.

I believe current regulations require the fitting of such a regulator but even so sensibly you should fit one particularly if there are likely to be young children in the property.

There is no set answer to the question of what temperature to set the boiler to, factors involved include size of boiler, number of people in the house and frequency/duration of use e.g. 2 minute showers or 10 minute!

50c is way too low though, 60 or 70 will be more satisfactory.

The older types of electric water boilers also have adjustable temperature thermostats; it’s just a case of knowing where to look for them. Hand wash temperature is 45º, on a vacuum tube solar panel the safety mixer valve is set at 60º, so I would also set electric boilers at 60º.

The water temperature at the boiler compared to what you get at the taps will depend on the pipe material (plastic/copper) and insulation as well as the length of the run. In any case it is a matter of personal preference. Check the instructions. I fitted a new boiler and it says that whatever temperature you set, every so often it automatically heats to 60 deg to prevent legionella. On most modern taps the temperature can be limited by moving the cartridge inside.

Mine has a auto heat function which activates when it's deemed that there could be a risk of legionella. As such, I've just set mine to a maximum of 50'c which is the lowest setting. Anything but cool/cold showers isn't welcome with this heat. Will put it back in the winter when it gets cold.

Mines on for 1hr at high in summer lasts all day, heats water up thats it, i thought legionella was a airborne disease that lives in water and heating the water up to a high temp kills it?
Have I got it wrong.

pedrosloggett wrote:The water temperature at the boiler compared to what you get at the taps will depend on the pipe material (plastic/copper) and insulation as well as the length of the run. In any case it is a matter of personal preference. Check the instructions. I fitted a new boiler and it says that whatever temperature you set, every so often it automatically heats to 60 deg to prevent legionella. On most modern taps the temperature can be limited by moving the cartridge 4inside.

Weres the cartridge inside the tap? That's new to me?

We had a new gas boiler fitted last year to replace the old combi boiler , we never used the central heating so thought it pointless paying a premium for a combi when a normal was so much cheaper, and have just had nearly all the old radiators removed as we have had new laminate flooring
Anyway we have always has a problem with the on suite shower , the one i use
The water takes ages to get hot and when it eventually is it only stays hot for a minute or so, goes cold ,then i have to continue running the water for another minute or so to get hot again to finish my shower
My wife uses the main bathroom shower and hers stays hot all the time
Even when i had the new boiler fitted this continues to happen , so it wasnt the old boiler causing the problem,
I think it is the distance of the boiler from the showers, the main bathroom is closer to the boiler and the en suite further away , which kind of makes sense of the problem
I tried adjusting the temperature on the boiler but it made no difference
Its not a big problem but just inconvenient for me