As part of our WHAM advice project (Warmer homes, advice and money), we’ve worked with housing provider Caridon to create a collection of resources for everyone living in Imperial Apartments in Bristol.

These resources are designed to help you get the most out of your heating systems and better understand your energy usage. This will help you keep your home warm and reduce your energy bills.

Quick links

Use these links to jump to the part of the page you want:

Heating | Hot water heating | Meters and tariffs | FAQs

Heating

All apartments are fitted with a G-Control ECOMBI SSH night storage heater, shown in the picture below.

Instruction sheets

See below for a simple instruction sheet for how to use your heater, as well as the full user guide.

• Simplified instructions (PDF)
• Full user guide (PDF)

Video tutorials

This video tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for using your night storage heater. It includes information on:

• How to turn the heater on and off
• How to set the day and time
• How to set the temperature
• How to set the daily heating schedule
• How to set charge times

You can find Arabic and Somali-language versions of the video here:

• Arabic video
• Somali video

Hot water heating

If you live in a studio flat, you will have an Aquila instantaneous hot water system. If you live in a 1-2 bedroom apartment, you will have a hot water cylinder. Some information on both systems can be found below.

Aquila instantaneous hot water system

The picture below shows the Aquila instantaneous hot water system that is fitted in all the studio flats.

See below for the user manual, which includes some troubleshooting tips:

• User manual (PDF)

Since these units don’t store any water, they don’t need to be heated to 60°C. Lowering the temperature will help you save on your energy bills.

The temperature of the instantaneous hot water system is easy to lower: run the tap in the sink so that the temperature appears on the display, then press and hold “m”. You will now be able to adjust the temperature up and down using the arrows. 45-47°C is a good temperature to set it at.

The below video shows you how to lower the temperature.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w6_tSDdLJuc

Hot water cylinder

The picture below shows the hot water cylinder (Elson Zircon) that is fitted in all the 1-2 bedroom apartments.

The hot water cylinders have a timer attached to the wall near them. This is a digital water timer (Timeguard NTT03/04/07/08) that you can use to control what times your water is heated up. You can set it to heat your water on a schedule, e.g. from midnight to 7am. This video shows how to do so.

The picture below shows the Timeguard digital water timer.

Meters and tariffs

Meters

All of the flats have their own electricity meter, and these can be credit or pre-payment. Some are smart meters and some are traditional meters.

The picture below shows an example of one of the meters.

Do we have any other info on meters? What do tenants need to know/do regarding the meters?

Tariffs

Some flats are on a standard tariff and some are on Economy 7.

Economy 7 is an electricity tariff in which the cost of the electricity you use is different, depending on the time of day. The hours of cheap electricity (off-peak) are normally from midnight until 7am in winter, and from 1am to 8am in summer, though this can vary between suppliers. 

If you are on an Economy 7 tariff, you should be charging your storage heater and heating your water (if you have a hot water cylinder) during the off-peak times. This will help you save money on your energy bills.

Find out more about the Economy 7 tariff.

Do we have any other info on tariffs? How would tenants know which tariff they were on? Would we advise they switch to Economy 7, and how would they switch if they wanted to?

FAQs

Below you’ll find answers to some frequently asked questions.