G
Gingerbread Man
A friend has recently moved into a house which has no central heating and a combination cylinder for the hot water. They have gas, so a gas boiler is on the cards. They currently have no water tanks in their loft and I ideally wanted to keep it that way.
My plan was for a system boiler and unvented cylinder setup. The boiler being sited in the kitchen and the cylinder slap bang above the boiler in an airing cupboard upstairs where the current combination cylinder sits.
Today I went around and repaired a leak on their incoming water mains. Their incoming main from outside is in lead with an ID of roughly 1/2". Anyhow, their pressure (measured at roughly Saturday 4pm) was 3 bar static at the outside tap. The flow rate was 18L/min. This is on a spur from the stopcock of maybe 8 meters of 15mm. In the midst of chatting and faffing around, I forgot to measure the pressure with an outlet open.
Right, so unvented cylinders want around 25L/min. I'm at a quandary as to what to do...
It's a 3 bedroom house, (1 being used as a study) with a couple living in it. Upstairs they have a bathroom and are thinking of adding a separate shower cubicle, but either way there will be a shower one way or another, over the bath or stand alone.
Downstairs they have a wetroom WC. We were planning to rip out the current electric shower down there and make it a bit nicer in there. But that won't be done for a year or so.
He had a quote of £600 to install a new water main from the boundary stopcock in 25mm MDPE, and then the water board would upgrade their (assumed lead) bit for free. He plans to do this upgrade for the advantage of a better water flow and to remove the lead aspect. But as it currently is, he would rather spend the £600 currently on an unvented cylinder and get that gig going to solve the below issue....
Currently they have no decent usable shower, so constantly use the bath. The bath taps are unbalanced supplies, so trying to use a shower attachment results in the cold overpowering the hot and it being a feeble attempt. This then leads to a jug being used to wash their hair, which they're sick to wits end of!
So how to play it?
1. Install the unvented cylinder for them running a 22mm feed right up to the cylinder as planned. Install a shower for them so they can be at peace and have an easier life. Anything will be heaps better than their current setup and will work, especially as they've currently only the one shower on the go.
Then let him upgrade the mains in due course where they can tag onto my ready and waiting 22mm water feed so they can have the full experience with better litres per minute.
2. Insist that they upgrade the water main first. He does know it'll need doing, so it'll be done for option 1 either way. Then retest and rethink the options.
3. He mentioned maybe having a combination boiler. I explained the bad route of this due to the (on paper) 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom household. So this isn't really an option.
4. Look at putting low pressure tanks in the loft and having a low pressure system and shower pumps. The cost of pumps will be similar to upgrading the main, but they bring noise with their use. I also hoped to not have to put anything into the loft.
Over to you guys.
My plan was for a system boiler and unvented cylinder setup. The boiler being sited in the kitchen and the cylinder slap bang above the boiler in an airing cupboard upstairs where the current combination cylinder sits.
Today I went around and repaired a leak on their incoming water mains. Their incoming main from outside is in lead with an ID of roughly 1/2". Anyhow, their pressure (measured at roughly Saturday 4pm) was 3 bar static at the outside tap. The flow rate was 18L/min. This is on a spur from the stopcock of maybe 8 meters of 15mm. In the midst of chatting and faffing around, I forgot to measure the pressure with an outlet open.
Right, so unvented cylinders want around 25L/min. I'm at a quandary as to what to do...
It's a 3 bedroom house, (1 being used as a study) with a couple living in it. Upstairs they have a bathroom and are thinking of adding a separate shower cubicle, but either way there will be a shower one way or another, over the bath or stand alone.
Downstairs they have a wetroom WC. We were planning to rip out the current electric shower down there and make it a bit nicer in there. But that won't be done for a year or so.
He had a quote of £600 to install a new water main from the boundary stopcock in 25mm MDPE, and then the water board would upgrade their (assumed lead) bit for free. He plans to do this upgrade for the advantage of a better water flow and to remove the lead aspect. But as it currently is, he would rather spend the £600 currently on an unvented cylinder and get that gig going to solve the below issue....
Currently they have no decent usable shower, so constantly use the bath. The bath taps are unbalanced supplies, so trying to use a shower attachment results in the cold overpowering the hot and it being a feeble attempt. This then leads to a jug being used to wash their hair, which they're sick to wits end of!
So how to play it?
1. Install the unvented cylinder for them running a 22mm feed right up to the cylinder as planned. Install a shower for them so they can be at peace and have an easier life. Anything will be heaps better than their current setup and will work, especially as they've currently only the one shower on the go.
Then let him upgrade the mains in due course where they can tag onto my ready and waiting 22mm water feed so they can have the full experience with better litres per minute.
2. Insist that they upgrade the water main first. He does know it'll need doing, so it'll be done for option 1 either way. Then retest and rethink the options.
3. He mentioned maybe having a combination boiler. I explained the bad route of this due to the (on paper) 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom household. So this isn't really an option.
4. Look at putting low pressure tanks in the loft and having a low pressure system and shower pumps. The cost of pumps will be similar to upgrading the main, but they bring noise with their use. I also hoped to not have to put anything into the loft.
Over to you guys.
