In both the UK and Spain, electric water boilers (also known as water heaters or cylinders) should be set to a temperature between 60°C and 65°C to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria like Legionella, which can cause Legionnaires' disease. Goggle search AI...

Electric water heaters already installed should be set at 60°C to limit the risk of Legionella contamination. Gas or oil water heaters already installed should be set at 49°C, because the risk of scalding is greater with these devices.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2094925/

So the default 'eco' setting on a new water boiler isn't a good choice as it's only 55°C if I'm not mistaken?

Eco settings are just bits of string, all different length.

The most eco way to heat water is to leave the boiler on permanently.
It takes way less power to keep the tank at a set level than to only turn it on a couple of hours before you need it.

Changing the subject slightly.
It amazes me that very few houses seem to have solar water heaters here.
They are everywhere in the Caribbean and parts of the US. This is the best water heater going, I spent time in a factory in Denmark and even with the low outside temps there. The solar heater could get the water to at least 40c even when the outside temp was zero. They then ran this through a gas heater to bring it up to its required temp.

When we finally move, that is the first thing I will get installed.

.

Wanted to update everyone that took the time to offer up advice on our shower problems :

It turns out that our boiler has TWO tanks and the plumber (dumb ass!) set it to one tank so that we were only using 50% of the water for showers. There is a programme on it which it turns out is almost invisible to the naked eye as the boiler is right next to the window and the programme controls come up digitally in faint outline at the side of the temperature control. It took us two hours to figure out why we couldn't see any programme controls after contacting the boiler company, when in fact it was already set at "one human" a faint outline on the right of the temperature control, a silvery outline of a head and shoulders and to change to two tanks you had to press the "mode" button softly on the front to change it, and then set the temperature you want. There are other options you can choose like "Smart" mode which seems to adapt to your heating habits and you can as I say have it on one tank to save energy The plumber said he thought he probably set it on one tank to save energy !🙄 I wouldn't have minded that so much as the fact that we brought him back when we were having problems with the shower and he charged us to increase the thermostatic valve inside the shower bar which made virtually no difference to the length of the showers we were getting and now we know why !! It was the boiler company sending us the manual and explaining what to do that sorted it in the end.

We haven't yet checked to see how long the hot water lasts now but I will get back to update everyone when we have tried it.

Thanks in the meantime to everyone that took the time to give advice !😉

Good to hear you are getting somewhere and hopefully issue resolved .

Hopefully, since we found how to turn on the "Two Person" programme, hubby has had a successful shower and deliberately stayed in longer just to see if the hot water lasted and it did ! I will let you know how I get on 😁 Does make me wonder how much energy is saved by using the "One Person" programme but I suppose you can always switch between the two when you are not wanting the boiler for showers.🤔

I never knew there was such things, main thing it works as it should

It does at the moment 🤞

Sometimes "Smart" devices are just plain "Stupid".

You could be right. I asked the company who made the boiler how much money you saved on the energy using the "one Person" tank instead of two and he said "NONE" ! So why have one to start with if you are not saving money using the "One Person", One Tank option?

So, because it's more complicated and more expensive, it must be better. This is not always true. In 23 years, we have gone through about 5 units (the house needs two). They don't last long, as corrosion and calcium build-up kill them. We need two as the house is long, so the pipe runs are long, and we have two bathrooms 50m apart. Even then, we tend to run the hot tap in the sink for 15 seconds or so to get the hot water flowing before getting in the shower.

Running the heater 24/7 is NOT more efficient than using a timer - a simple understanding of physics will tell you that. I have tested our system using a power meter, and 24/7 is far less efficient, especially if you have a peak/off-peak supply. When we built our house 23 years ago, we looked at a solar heated system, but with only two of us using the shower, it was not cost-effective. Now we are on solar electricity, it's free anyway.

We are just waiting for our solar panel to be replaced. We bought a new house, 12 yrs old ! Go figure 🙄 So when we looked at the solar panel, it was beyond repair, luckily the previous owner has decided to cough up for a new one since she told us that it was working when we bought it and she has 3 other properties adjoining us she wants to sell !😁 So we are hoping that that will save us quite a bit of money in summer when we can cut off the electric boiler and switch to solar heating.

The plumber did not give you the instruction manual - pretty much everything in the world comes with one...
Glad you got it sorted though without extra costs...

Thanks, I think our plumber had an aversion to user manuals, he failed to give us back the one for our ceiling fans too which have timers and we haven't a clue how they work!🙄