In message , at 11:33:31 on Wed, 25 Nov
2015, Robin remarked:

I can well believe that water industry professionals dislike the
widespread abandonment of hot water tanks, but in a country
where new homes (and rooms within homes) become ever smaller,
hot water tanks take up too much space.

The problem is probably not water but electricity.

We are all supposed to stop using gas over the next 30 years or so. So
an awful lot of gas combi boilers have to be replaced by electric
systems. But the sun is often not shining when people want lots of hot
water (eg winter mornings and evenings) so if the wind isn't blowing it
can't be done with renewables. Well-insulated hot water tanks might
allow the water to be heated in advance.

I've got what I regard as a perfectly normal hot water tank, albeit a
fairly modern design rather than copper plus a badly fitting quilt. It
keeps the water hot enough not to notice the boiler's been accidentally
switched off for a over a day.

But of course the green lobby and the Ministers who jumped on their
bandwagon never factored in the massive cost of fitting large tanks in
millions of homes. (Nor the "night storage heaters" to fill the gap
left by loss of gas central heating.)

We can, of course, use our immersion heaters for the bathwater; but
going electric for space heating is a bigger challenge. Not least
because the national and local distribution networks are unlikely to be
up to it - they are predicted not to be able to cope with more than a
token number of charge-at-home electric cars either.
--
Roland Perry