StillSmart

For the power circuit thing, most UK domestic supplies have "cooker" circuits, which are generally 30 amp, which as I understand it would be fine for a 5.5kw element.

Whether you'd need anything special for the actual connection, I don't know. Some electric heaters, when used on a "normal" 3 pin plug, long term, show some blackening/burning on the live pin socket indicating some arcing/burning.

In any case, if the boiler can take 2 elements, you can just use both to get the heat up nice and quickly, then reduce to one through a power controller to maintain the temperature..... surely ?

I'm no Sparks but AFAIK you can't run two 2Kw elements on the same 13Amp domestic circuit because they'd be trying to draw 16Amps. You'd have to run each one on a different circuit AFAIK

AM

aidanmac wrote:I'm no Sparks but AFAIK you can't run two 2Kw elements on the same 13Amp domestic circuit because they'd be trying to draw 16Amps. You'd have to run each one on a different circuit AFAIK

AM

You're probably right Aidan. Which is why I was alluding to also the use of "cooker" spurs. They're usually on a 30 amp dedicated one, but don't usually have a plug socket as they're intended for hard wiring an electric cooker too.

There's likely gonna be some technicalities to be worked out like this, but I'm of the view that it's not insurpassable.......

If you connect to a fused spur then you are limited to a (usually) 13Amp limit.
Most UK domestic installations use 30Amp,Ring Mains,thus upping the Available power on each ring to more than 6Kw Most domestic modern power circuit breakers are actually 32 Amp.
Of course you would have to allow for any other appliances,on the same circuit being in use when you fired up a large electric boiler with two elements,or you may get nuisance tripping.
A 30 or 32 Amp cooker spur would work if hard wired.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:If you connect to a fused spur then you are limited to a (usually) 13Amp limit.
Most UK domestic installations use 30Amp,Ring Mains,thus upping the Available power on each ring to more than 6Kw Most domestic modern power circuit breakers are actually 32 Amp.
Of course you would have to allow for any other appliances,on the same circuit being in use when you fired up a large electric boiler with two elements,or you may get nuisance tripping.
A 30 or 32 Amp cooker spur would work if hard wired.

Robert.

Ha ha! I knew if I pointed my limited electrical knowledge here (my stuff is more electronic based) that someone with more than just my vaguest clue would chime in