What is the ideal temperature for hot water?

[yorkshirelass]

I have a new gas combi boiler that the installer plumber set to heat the water for washing etc at 60 degrees. I am trying to cut down my bills and wondered if it would be better to set the themostat to 50 degrees . It seems wasteful to have to add cold water to make it bearable; at the moment, the water is boiling hot.

[sara3]

it's personal preference but you're right, if you always need to add cold it's too hot for you plus you don't want anyone to scald themselves.

experiment until you've got it right.

[woofgang]

If the boiler also does your central heating, then you may want to turn it up in the winter, also we tend to have cooler showers, baths etc in the summer. We adjust ours according to the season, also we have turned it down again since getting a cold fill washing machine and dishwasher.

[buildersmate]

It won't do any harm to experiment, though as WG says, this will probably only work in the summer (when you aren't using the CH - because rads need about 60 degrees through them).
The logic of why it might save you money is different from what you think, though. It isn't actually wasteful to add cold to the hot in the sink - because you are using less volume of hot water then if the water supplied was merely 'warm'. The logic in the saving is actually that less heat escapes from the boiler heat exchanger into the room if the temeperature differential is less.

[I.Don No]

have a little look through the instruction book as our combi boiler allows you to set a temperature for the hot water and a different one for the radiators if you want, although 60 is about right for the radiators when you put the heating on but if you have to add cold water to the domestic hot water then you have it set too high.

[AlBags]

Yes .. Some TOTR Combis have adjustable radiator heating temp and domestic water temp controls (like some Valiant)
Max efficiency for radiators is by running water temp at hottest setting, oddly enough. Water temp is personal preference.

[madmaggot]

I think 50 is the minumum temp for killing water borne bacteria.

[jomifl]

Many commercial premises have their water temperature set at 60C to prevent the legionaires disease bacterium growing in the water system as they would be liable for any claims made against them by people infect on their premises. The hottest water temperature bearable by the hand is 50C but this is not hot enough to kill the legionella bacterium. The choice is yours but bear in mind that your water supply is chlorinated and in a domestic application it is unlikely that legionella would be a problem if you do not have anybody in the house with a weak immune system.

[yorkshirelass]

Thanks to everyone who responded, difficult to find a "best answer" as they were all helpful. Thanks to you all.

[johnny.5]

put it as high as posible as heating water using gas is cheaper then using electricity

[buildersmate]

Jomifl only is telling half of the story. It is true that the water storage device is kept at 60 degrees to kill potential Legionella bateria, but that doesn't mean that water emerges from the tap at 60. An inline thermostatically-controlled mixing device is used in the supply pipes to reduce the temperature. Like one of these:
http://www.rwc.co.uk/prod-CAT1.html#prod16
You can rig these things up for domestic use and it would be another way to solve your problem.