On 24/12/2016 11:08, DerbyBorn wrote:
dennis@home wrote in news:585e54ca$0$1285$b1db1813
:

On 24/12/2016 10:07, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are immersion heaters as efficient as they could be? Could the tubular
element be improved upon - or doesn't it matter?

They convert 100% of the electricity to heat.
What efficiency would you like to improve?

I sort of knew all that - but could the dissapation be improved - I imagine
there is incredibly hot water next to the element - and the element itself
will be very hot. Spreading the 3kW over a larger area - could this result
in the element running cooler and the heat distributing better.

No. The only way you can improve on an immersion heater is by decreasing
the amount of water that is heated to exactly match demand with a flash
boiler. Once you have to store hot water losses mount up.

It is easy to turn electricity into heat with close to 100% efficiency -
it is going the other way that is difficult.

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Regards,
Martin Brown