Taps and pressure

[mdvp]

Hi there,

I am shopping around for a new bathroom at the moment, and have noted that a lot of taps require specific pressures to operate.

I have an unpressured system, and I think that both hot and cold feed from the water tank in the loft - my guess is that I have about 0.2 bar pressure in the bathroom.

What will happen if I fit mixer taps (basin and bath filler) that are rated min 0.5 bar?

 

[Leon]

They wouldn't work very well^^
You can get taps that operate at 0.2 bar though.
To measure pressure is pretty simple but you can also calculate it;
you get 1 bar of pressure for every ten meters of head, so just divide the height in meters from the header tank to the outlet by 10 and that is the pressure in bar (so for 0.2 that would be 2 meters, to get 0.5 you would need 5m).

 

[WHPES]

Assuming you are fitting a shower, you either get a mixer suitable for gravity, or you get a high perssure mixer and a pump (which IMO is the better option).

If like you say both hot and cold is fed from the tank in the loft, you run the hot and cold feeds to the bathroom taps via the pump, you can go for higher perssure taps.

Are you sure that the cold comes from the tank also? It usually comes from the rising main.

Before you do anything you need to have a look at your loft tank and give it a right good clean out and sterilise it. It should at least have a closely fitting lid. Under the Water Regs, potable storage systems have detailed specifications for hygiene.