# Hot Water Conundrum



## MrSpadge (Jun 7, 2015)

Hi guys. 

Thought I'd get some 2nd and 3rd opinions on a little conundrum before contacting landlords/electricians. Couldn't get hold of the neighbours either, before you ask! 

The day before flying to Blighty for the new year, our backup hot water heater packed up. We have a thermosyphon solar powered system (no electrics or pump) on the roof, and electric switch(s) for the winter months a couple of floors down in the apartment. I say switch(s) because I'm not sure how many or what combination they actually should be used in. I'm attaching a picture illustrating the electric switch layout.

Our landlord left a binder detailing various useful bits of information pertaining to the apartment, but the hot water backup doesn't seem to add up. The binder says P8 for bathroom and P7 for en suite (no mention of kitchen). But these never worked. After experimentation, I found that P8 and P5 would heat the water for the whole apartment after about 20-30mins.

But it's now kapuut. Not sure what the configuration of the backup system is – there were no visible wires running to the tank on the roof to power an immersion heater, and if there's any backup tank in the apartment, I've not located it. My suspicion is that the switches may perform an “on demand” heating of the water to the taps, but as mentioned above, this didn't seem to be the case.

Anyway, it's a Pafilia development apartment, all fuses are still working on both the fused spurs and main box, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be interested to hear.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

It all looks and sounds very confusing to me. 
We have one switch for the immersion heater which heats all the water in the house.
When we first came here we had a Pafilia apartment and that also had just one immersion heater switch.


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

We've only got the one switch for the immersion heater for the whole house too. Try the fuse box, where the individual circuits should be individually marked. If so, then pull out the immersion heater one to identify which switch's neon light goes out in order to identify it correctly.


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

Our system sounds the same as yours with no pumps etc to cause problems. It is possible that your heating element in the hot tank has blown which I understand is fairly common due to the element overheating when scaled up which is caused by the very hard water.

You should have some sort of connection/switch box on the hot tank where this can be confirmed.

Pete


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## MrSpadge (Jun 7, 2015)

Thanks for the feedback guys - turns out 5 and 6 don't do anything (Spurs installed for potential heated towel rails which we don't have). 7 is for a pump (which we also don't have ) and 8 is for the immersion which was knackered. New one fitted today and hot water back on the go. Yay!


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