Plumbing Information

A hot water cylinder is called direct or indirect depending on how it is heated.

What is an Indirect Hot Water Cylinder?

The most common type of hot water cylinder is called indirect. It is heated by the boiler.
The hot water that comes from the boiler always stays inside its own pipes
and never gets into the water that comes out of a tap. This hot boiler water
contains corrosion inhibitors and is poisonous. The boiler water passes through a
heating coil inside the cylinder but the boiler water does not mix with the
water in the cylinder. This way of heating a hot water cylinder is called indirect.
The immersion heater is only used in an emergency if the boiler stops working.

What is a Direct Hot Water Cylinder?

Some hot water cylinders are only heated by electric immersion heaters.
These cylinders usually have two immersion heaters,
one near the top and one near the bottom.
This way of heating a hot water cylinder is called direct.

Direct hot water cylinders are more expensive to run
because the immersion heaters use a lot of electricity.

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