Hot and Cold Water Systems, Assignment Guidance?

[Chippie86]

Hi everyone, new to the site and was wondering if anyone could help me in anyway with a question on my assignment.

We have been asked to:

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the direct and indirect systems used in hot and cold water supplies and suggest situations where each might be appropriate.

I've completed the first part of the question (advantages and disadvantages), but I'm not really sure about the second part where it says " and suggest situations where each might be appropriate."

If anyone could offer any help or guidance, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

[PlumbingBud]

Chippie - are you doing a course at the moment? If so, I would recommend the Heinmann JTL level 2 book on plumbing, which covers the NVQ and tech cert course content. This should give you all the info you require.

It would take a long post to help, because you have to think about cold water as direct or indirect and then hot water as direct or indirect, and go into hot water cylinders, combi boilers, etc.

 

[jase158]

I think there is an easy answer to this, cant remeember but like above check JTL plumbing book.

I think the answer is pressure,cold Indirect where there is a need to have constant water, schools, nursing homes, i.e. direct where there is low pressure, villages/ long distance from water works i.e.
Hot indirect common practise, Hot direct-no longer used.

Don't quote me on this, just seem to remember it being something easy.

further more, just think, about advantages and disadvantages and think where you might use each.

 

[fuzzy]

in direct when storage is needed
direct when not but high pressure would be an advanteg

modern day most are direct partly due to combis
large buildings, older building with low pressure and hospitals all need stored

 

[Chippie86]

Hi guys (PlumbingBud, Jase158 and Fuzzy)

Thanks for the responses.

@PlumbingBud: I am currently attending a course at the moment, I'm undertaking a BTEC L3 Diploma in Construction, but I'm origionally a carpenter so plumbing is a new area for me really. Thanks for info and the tip on the book, I will definitely check that out as it sounds like it could be very useful.

@Jase158 & Fuzzy: Thanks for the information, it seems that I may have been drifting into the right area after what you said, althought I was also looking at space issues that some buildings may present e.g. flats and apartments. Would this something worth taking into consideration?

Cheers

 

[kay-jay]

example - in london there are very few direct cold water systems. the high urban density means that pressure drops low when millions of people all shower in mornings, fill kettles, flush bogs etc, so indirect cold supplies from a cwsc is commonplace

 

[samh]

Get the JTL book mate, its really good. Just remember that direct and indirect is to do with how the water is heated when dealing with hot water and how it is supplied to the cold water outlets when dealing with the cold water.
As others have said its quite a long piece of work you need to do. I've actually been doing hot water at college the past few weeks after I completed the cold water section so have had to do similar work so if you want message me and I'll see if I can help

 

[Chippie86]

Thanks for the example kay-jay.

Hi samh thanks for the reply, if you have any info that may be helpful that would be great. Normally I can access all the construction books through moodle but its been playing up lately, which is a bugger, because they have the Building Services Handbook by Roger Greeno which seems quiet good.

Would you more than likely find cold direct in a lot of low-rise flats due to them not all them having space to accomodate a cold water storage cistern? Just a thought.

 

[kay-jay]

Thanks for the example kay-jay.



Would you more than likely find cold direct in a lot of low-rise flats due to them not all them having space to accomodate a cold water storage cistern? Just a thought.

not necessarily! it would depend on available pressure. sometimes there is a break tank and pump system in place with each flat having a stop tap just like a direct system but all fed from the break tank rather than the mains

 

[Chippie86]

@kay-jay thanks for getting back, yea I can see what your saying thanks for the information its been a big help, like I say plumbing a new area for me, but I'm finding it really interesting.

I've been researching intensivly the past couple of days and it seems that direct cold water supplies are only ever really found in older properties. One of the reasons for this apparently is because water was quite often only ever supplied to one tap in whole home during the olden days, which was usually the kitchen.

 

[kay-jay]

@kay-jay thanks for getting back, yea I can see what your saying thanks for the information its been a big help, like I say plumbing a new area for me, but I'm finding it really interesting.

I've been researching intensivly the past couple of days and it seems that direct cold water supplies are only ever really found in older properties. One of the reasons for this apparently is because water was quite often only ever supplied to one tap in whole home during the olden days, which was usually the kitchen.

thats still the case! direct or indirect cold always has a mains fed kitchen tap! then from there you can either feed all other outlests from mains or install a cwsc in loft and feed indirect.

don't read too much into the question, they are just trying to guage your understanding of when it is beneficial to install a cwsc (if low pressure or if a customer complains that cold is only a dribble in peak usage times) and the cons of such a system (extra initial install cost, extra parts to fail, possibility of burst pipes in loft during winter)