Electric Water Heater Data Sheets - Electrical Deals Direct.
Choosing an electric water heater can be a confusing job, particularly when trying to compare heaters from 2 different manufacturers. This is because although most of the information is in the specification sheets for each of the heaters, if they are from different manufacturers then they are almost certainly in a different format, or features are measured in different ways.
To help overcome this, and so make choosing an electric water heater a straightforward process, Electric Deals Direct are producing a set of Data Sheets on electric water heaters.
In the same style as the very popular Hand Dryer Data Sheets, these are clearly laid out and each contain the most asked-for information on a wide range of different water heaters. Because they are of a standard format across all the main manufacturers, they are also simple to compare and so make your buying decision even easier.
All the information is displayed in a simple graphical form, as follows:
Suitability.
The number of basins, showers and baths a water can cope with is one of the most important aspects of its use, and so this graphic clearly displays how many of each of these can be used.
Capacity
None of this is straightforward to calculate, since there are so many variables involved, which is why we created the ‘Suitabilility’ measure.
Warranty
Not all warranties are the same, as some are on-site, whereas for others they may only include the supply of the appropriate parts. If your water heater is in constant use, for example in a business, then being without it if it fails can be a major headache and so getting the best warranty possible is usually a good investment.
In a simple to understand form, we also display the height, width and depth of the actual unit. Note that there may be other allowance required (for example for access) so please check the specifications carefully if space is tight. And for certain water heaters, there may be a separate expansion vessel which will also take up some space.
Power Output
The maximum power in kW of all the elements – this is useful to check whether you can run this heater from the normal ring main, or whether you would need a separate cable with higher capacity, from your fuseboard.
The Reheat or ‘recovery’ time for a water heater is calculated as the time taken to increase the temperature of the water by 50 degrees. The ambient temperature of water in the UK is around 12 degrees (a little colder in winter and a little warmer in summer, although it actually varies by only a couple of degrees), so this is the time taken to reheat the whole tank up to over 60 degrees.
ErP Rating
The Energy Related Products Directive for electric water heaters is set according to strict measurement criteria. Of course, a higher rating is better than a lower rating, but beware of reading too much into this rating, because things are not as simple as they might appear, For example, all electric water heaters, according to the rules, must have a multiplier applied to them to take account of the CO2 generation of the electricity which takes into account the inefficiencies of fossil fuel usage in the generation of electricity. As many homes in the UK run on only renewable electricity (whether that is generated at home or through a renewable supplier), this can make these ratings seem far worse than they are.
Here are a few quick links to just some of our Electric Water Heater datasheets:
OSX 210 by OSO - HeatRae Sadia Megaflo Eco 210i - Hyco Powerflow Smart 80L - Santon AquaHeat 15L AH15